Our friend Alana Armstrong recently checked out the fantastic Semi-Permanent conference in Australia where she met up with long-time Overspray pal and Australian painter Anthony Lister, who we featured in issue 5, Character Kings.
The two-day Semi-Permanent conference and off-site side events, organized by Design Is Kinky, brings together a diverse group of art-based professionals willing to enlighten a big, eager audience. Touring this week with stops in Perth, Brisbane and Auckland, New Zealand, Lister presented his talk on the morning of April 5th in Sydney.
AA: If you could have your audience take away one thing from your talk, what would it be?
AL: It would be that there is hope for these people on this little island who feel like they're little people on a little island. I guess America is just a big, beautiful place full of opportunity and you just have to get out and get within it.
And I hope people are going to feel compelled to take my advice that money is only good for eating and traveling.
I’m off to Milan tomorrow for a show and then to LA for a show at New Image on the 26th of April and I’m pretty stoked about that and I hope that I get to eat a lot of good food along the way.
AA: Was there a time when you made a decision to be a painter above all else?
AL: I always knew it’s what I wanted to do but if I could register a point where I thought it was actually possible, it was probably when I didn’t go to work one day for pizza delivery when I was in university and my kid was like two months old and I was like, “You know, that’s the last time I’m ever going to hate work again.” I had a bunch of jobs ahead of me, things that I had to do. Back then I would get emails and phone calls for things that today, I would pass on but at that time, I was really excited and it just got better. It’s just been a real fun, big journey.
AA: Were there any really poignant moments along the way that have informed yourself or your work?
AL: Yeah, there have but none of them have been so certain that I can take them for granted. I’m always so sure that this could all be over so I treat every moment like it’s supremely important and like it’s my last.
I’m only as good as my last decision and I’m only as good as my last production.
AA: Do you embark on any collaboration with other artists as part of your practice?
AL: I do but not for my personal practice. I do it more for community type projects. I like to interact with other people who are doing what I do and if making work together comes up, it’s sweet when it happens. An artist that I enjoy talking about making art and the process with is Ben Frost. He’s an experienced artist that I went to uni with.
That’s a big part of my practice.
AA: Can you tell me about your relationship with Ben Frost and your work with Stupid Krap?
AL: Ben and I have known each other for many years and I’ve always admired his work so much. When we were at uni, he was like the ‘god painter’. This was before I even knew about Ron English.
So, a couple years ago, just before I moved to the states, he was talking to me about starting up a print company which I thought was a great idea and other friends were doing it like Faile Collective in New York. Galleries, for the longest time have been in the peripheral of an artist’s practice; they earn money without really being a part of an artist’s practice.
The thing that I love about Super Krap is that it’s built by artists, for artists and its making good work.
Another thing that I love about it is that they pay attention to who they give their work to. In London, people are just buying and selling shit up, it’s going crazy. So, I like that they’re sensitive to that issue.
AA: Can you tell me about the piece that you did for last night’s Super Krap show, Kids Today?
AL: The first series of three was like a Spiderman and Robin and a Bat Girl and I just really love those pieces, they’re a part of my contemporary mythology, how we see heroes. Coming out of my criminal paintings, I thought about what the polar opposite was of these criminals and in the real world it would be the police and in the mythological world that I like, it was super heroes. So then I started playing with anonymity and asking, ‘Who has power here?’ And then graffiti came to me and I was like, ‘Wow, all of these graffiti artists are like super heroes. No one knows who they are but everyone knows who they are.’
And then I did this, Ani as Robin, smoking kind of a Juno-type teenage girl having a cigarette while she’s still dressed as a superhero. Also, the idea of being a sidekick or an understudy; how much does an understudy get? How much is their worth? How much do they even care?
I enjoy and work really hard at what I do. I feel that I have a responsibility for every mark I make and I feel that if I can keep that up, maybe I can keep painting forever.
Links:
Design Is Kinky: www.designiskinky.net
Semi-Permanent: www.semipermanent.com
Stupid Krap: www.stupidkrap.com
Anthony Lister: www.anthonylister.com
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