ERIC ELMS JUXTAPOZ.COM (^) | 77
Do you have anything new on the horizon?
I have a few books planned. I’m trying to put out some type
of new publication every one or two months this year. A
book based on my Stair paintings and one with these Xerox
paintings are definitely in the works.
Your newest body of work involves some interesting
materials and processes. What are you most excited about
with this series, and do you see potential for it to evolve?
There is an interesting crossroads happening with these
new paintings. The process and materials really represent
my past while the imagery is very present and future. What
excited me most was working with the materials to make
those two things meld into one. Through a different project,
I came across yardage of canvas that was impregnated with
black rubber dots. I was immediately drawn to it because
it reminded me of Ben-Day and halftone patterns and the
energy in photocopies and zines. The process of learning
how to work with these new materials really intrigued me. I
had to fight with them to make what was in my head. I wasn’t
learning existing techniques; I was creating processes to
work with these new materials. Through a series of layered
heat processes, I am almost manually applying the Xerox
process onto the canvas. That process informs the imagery
in these paintings but not in a random way. I am pulling
from a huge archive of imagery from my art and design past
and deconstructing that. These collages turn into the final
layered canvases. A lot of my series of work have a very
deliberate end point as far as execution. These paintings
contain imagery and a studio process that is still evolving.
I really like the Xerox quality they have. Do you have any
definitive plans for showing them, or is it too early in the game?
I have shown iterations of them while I was working through
developing the processes to get to this point. None have
been shown with this completed process. Right now I'm
working on a full new body of these and have plans for them
to evolve in the future. I don’t think it’s too early in the game,
but I don’t have anything definitive lined up.
Having such a lengthy history as a designer, do you think
it’s more of a challenge to be accepted and taken seriously
when making work for galleries? People are prone to want
to categorize and label, especially seeing something in
another light, if they feel they’ve known it for a long time.
That does exist to some extent, but there is a long history
above
Various zines
Publications by
AndPress
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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