cc xx juan antonio olivares
cc: what gets you going about tromp l'oeil?jo: I'm not entirely sure why I'm fascinated by trompe l'oeils. I guess that's why visual tricks are fun. I like that "Aha!" moment of realizing that what you think you are seeing is really something else. It's a traceable genre in art since Parrhasius' painting of a curtain in a competition with Zeuxis in 5th century Athens. I think the first trompe l'oeil I saw (or didn't see) was this huge boulder in our yard that my dad found on the street and was actually made of styrofoam.
cc: yves saint laurent?
jo: I generally love YSL's collections--such a great balance of timelessness, elegance, and ahead-of-the-curve subtlety. Yves Saint Laurent led such an exciting life (and was also an avid collector of art).
cc: blackberry messenger?
jo: BBM is so instant that it makes me feel like I'm right next to someone even when they're in another country. (I have really bad separation anxiety)
cc: tools?
jo: Tools reference every possible thing that they can make. Atleast to me they do. I think they're really beautiful objects. There's so much craft in tools themselves. So I've made them subjects in my photographs.
cc: poppers?
jo: Poppers make me considerably less rational. They're an occasionally much needed break. Sometimes I like not thinking too deeply and feeling more ;)
cc: richard serra?
jo: His sculptures can potentially kill you. They have such incredible presence. And they are just made of steel, a material that is everywhere, present even in the buildings where the sculptures are exhibited, it's just hidden behind the walls. I love how their forms invite you to engage with them.
cc: daylight?
jo: There's nothing like feeling sunlight hit your skin. It feels so primal. I'm really into morning light too, it feels intrinsically romantic.
cc: cuban sandwich?
jo:
cc: basketball shorts?
jo: I started wearing basketball shorts kind of as a joke because I'm really bad at the sport. But I like the way the material moves. It's like an everyman's silk.
cc: kinkos?
jo: Kinko's (now known as Fedex Office) is such a ubiquitous establishment in the world, specifically because it's tied to Fedex, a company whose goal is to link the world and collapse a sense of distance between people. I make work in Kinkos because they have offices everywhere (weirdly there's only one in London) and I want to bypass a sense of 'skill' or 'technique' in what I make--essentially anyone could be making what I am making.
