Jason Forrest: I just stumbled upon your work by happenstance, and it really blew me away! I spent about 20 mins. looking at your work, and I felt like I cold have tried to unravel it for an hour longer! Bravo on the show, It's really great. Why don't you get me up to date on your art background? Feel free to incorporate your interest in music, but don't feel like it's a mandate.
Roger Anderson: I have to rush to a dinner but I'll get back to u soon. What I can say shortly is that as a consumer my interest in music heavily kind of out scoop my interest in art. And wow thx for the supporting word about my stuff
Is your work Satanic?
Hmmm...can a "work" be Satanic? If so, I'm not sure I'm evil enough for them to become that.
What does Satanism mean to you and how do you feel the idea of Satanism fits into the other subjects (i.e., Winnie the pooh) that are approached in your work.
Personally I don't Heil anyone, but when I was a kid there was never any good explanation told & for some of the weird things happening around you. Later growing up with heavy metal & I could feel great comfort with bands like Sabbath and Maiden. They kind of put into word the complexity of Evil. Satanism in its purest form is in my eyes very rare but nevertheless just part of the world we live in. But I guess there is far more Evil things made in the name of God. Winnie fits as the "easygosomeone" who tries to fathom "goingbads" in his surroundings.
In your show you've had a carpet made to represent the opening of hell on the gallery floor, how does this act in relation to "the complexity of Evil", and what does this mean in relation to your other objects/watercolors?
That's a huge question. Sure the carpet is representing the opening of hell, but it has very kind of soft teddy bearish feeling too. At the same time it's like your nice carpet gone bad, dragging you into it, bad carpet wanting you to trip on purpose or something. I guess the other work use a somewhat similar approach.
It also seems to me that you're attuned to a very delicate, almost feminine sensibility in regard to the watercolors. Could you elaborate on what these pieces mean to you and what they imply about teenage youth gone wrong?
I take that feminine thing as a great complement. The watercolors are of the shitty flora that people usually just try to get rid of, the weed you find along highways and so on. They are not like growing really "natural" but in shapes of making pentagrams and stuff. So are the kids in them. I grew up as a purewhitetrashneversenthefatemothercomitingsuiciderinthesupurbfreakshow and I used to sit and sing for them as a young kid. I think I feel a kinship with them still. Hate can be very creative. Please have patience with my miss use of the English Language. And hey what happened to the good old yes and no questions? "God is Great, Satan is Super"
Fucking hell, man, "Hate can be very creative" is a creepy statement (though true)! Can you elaborate a little more on the plant watercolors? I think it's obvious that the plants spell out words and symbols, but it's looks like visual back-masking. What is the reason for co-opting the natural? Also, what prompted the combination of such unusual visual styles (I.e.: sweet little Piglet, glue sniffing, and Victorian plant studies)? Maybe I'll work up some Yes No's toward the end of this puppy. Like a quiz! I'm not really sure about the question but...
Growing up in small Sweden means "nature" is superclose. So is it in the story books for kids. We grew up with the old books of Selma Lagerlöf, Astrid Lindgren and so on with neat illustrations. Of cours there was dark sides in them, but i don´t think dark enough. I guess I redraw them The objects are also dealing to with the hole growing up thing. Like a weirdo kid building the model of a smashed heavy metal van. Then using the cardboard box that the model was shipped in, and the glue for the model to make the sniffing bum piglet. I know one guy who, as a kid was a maniac model maker (who wasn't) he and some friends started a model makers club, which as they grew older turned into the local glue sniffing club. Lets face it all those little model making kids were pretty high.
I just have a few more art questions, then we can chat about some music, etc. Can you tell me about your deliberate usage of unusual materials, as well as your interest in portraying different pieces in different media? It seems like your work has a pattern of matching up different ideas in different forms to make something wholly new (and sinister).
hi jason you are killing me. There is a kind of inbuilt poetry in all materials. I mean most people have similar experiences of material at least their properties are pretty obvious. That makes it just a to good tool not to work with. You have an idea and you just have to find the material that stresses that point, or you just start fiddle with a material to see its limitations and go with the flow.
That's very funny about the model makers turned glue sniffers. I grew up in a small southern town in the US where the only guy I ever saw huff paint was a construction worker on the job. Most of the kids were good and innocent at least that's what I thought at the time. Turns out there were your usual group of teenage pregnancies and a suicide.
Naughty evil construction worker
Speaking of which, A very good friends father recently committed suicide and we've been thinking about the issue quite a lot. From what I've seen on your other website, it looks like suicide is a recurrent issue in your work, I'd be curious to hear what you had to say about the idea, and what you think this means culturally.
I guess you refer to the noose I made out of a rope made from toilet paper. It is not so much about suicide as off the duality of human ability to achieve almost impossible things and its shortcomings. Like the noose could work, or it could be a pretty ridiculous attempt. My mother is a notoriousongoingneversucceedingsuicidal and I grew up calling the ambulance. She was for a while living with a man who was much older. He got a stroke and ended up partly lame in a wheel chair. My mother freaked out and disappeared boozing. Returning after a week she tried to open the door to the flat it was stuck. With the help of the police they found out that the man had, from the wheel chair hung himself from the inside door handle. So sad you laugh.
Not long ago I talked to girl that for a year ago had been taken to a psychiatrist by the police. They found her standing outside the reeling on a bridge. She told the doctor that she was just drunk and happy and wanted to see what it felt like. He said that was what most suicides was about, what if she slipped and died. Would it be thought of as an accident or suicide?
I guess it would be a happy accident....So Let's roll with the short answers:
1. What were the last 5 records/Cd's you bought: Sleep (Jerusalem), Brant Bjork ( last one), Necrofobic (3 album I think), Scissorfight (last one), Entombed (last one)
2. What's on your stereo RIGHT NOW: Before I left. The first album with Iron Maiden
3. First concert attended: First big one, Dead Kennedys
4. Reason for attending art school: I haven't got a clue, just went with the flow.
5. Most hated teacher: They were not worth the effort.
6. Favorite visual artist(s): Mark Swansson
7. Most hated visual artist(s): People who make art about art.
8. Nickname, personal slogan, or insult: Ehhh...Kill a Babyboomer?
9. Any quick thoughts on the state of experimental music: Pretty cool stuff being done.
10. Any last comments, regards, or shout-outs: Smoooke...
Works to right, in order from top:
New Damage Installation, 2001 (Get off my Wave, 2001 You loose, I win, 2001 Welcome to Hell, 2001)
You loose, I win, 2001 (Ghoat fur, 3x50x50x50 cm)
Down on Your Knees, 1999 (Glazed images, porcelain toilet)
Down on Your Knees [detail], 1999 (Glazed images, porcelain toilet)
Bad Born, 1999 (water colour 30x21 cm)
Under the fucking Sun, 1999 (water colour 30x21 cm)
I always knew the Devil was my Mother, 1999 (Noose, toilet paper size variable)
Camp Rackstadt, 1999 (watercolour, 30x21cm)
Here's his gallery in Sweeden:
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