Tag: Sebastian Wahl

Sebastian Wahl’s gearing up for his exhibition Kaleidoscope Eyes opening this Saturday February 5th, 2011 from 6-10pm. We got to interview him about his work and inspirations. Enjoy.

Gallery Hijinks: As a teenager you took a graffiti trip to New York from your hometown in Sweden and then decided that The Big Apple was your home. What was the draw to NY?

Sebastian Wahl: I was 16 years old and all that I cared about at that time was graffiti, so initially it was graffiti that drew me to NYC. Once there I realized how amazing the urban maze is. What I saw and experienced there in 7 days was just the tip of an iceberg, I wanted more.

GH: In your biography, you say that it was at your father’s advertising agency that acquainted you with collage and the exacto knife. Please explain how your upbringing has impacted your work today.

SW: I would say that my upbringing impacted my work in a very positive way. I think both of my parents realized that I was a dreamer and encouraged me to try to harness this in some kind of creative way.

GH: To me, this new collection of resin collage is a bit of departure from your previous works because they are design based and seem to have a Pop Art element to them. What was the inspiration to creating these works?

SW: You are right. This series has more of a pop art feel to it than my past work. My goal was to play with the negative space and try to keep everything very clean. There are still a lot of images in each piece but leaving the background white and using repeated imagery gives this body of work more of a pop feel which I think makes it easier to digest and more accessible to the viewer.

The inspiration for the kaleidoscope series came from being a fan of kaleidoscopes. As you know I love making Mandalas and these collages felt like a natural route for me to take. Plus, I love repetition and I rarely play around with it, so this was my chance.

GH: What does Kaleidoscope Eyes mean to you?

SW: It’s a line from the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Kaleidoscope eyes to me is a reference to hallucinating. As for using it as the title for the show, I have to give credit to my wife-she suggested using it.

GH: Your work always seems to have a psychedelic element to it. Have you ever been inspired by drugs you’ve taken, or am I jumping to conclusions?

SW: Psychedelics have absolutely been a source of inspiration for me. I will give you an example, the first time I ever did LSD I ended up at a friends house and she had a poster on the wall. It was a big mandala that I spent a large part of that evening melting in and out. The following day I decided to go back to my friends place and trace her poster. The tracing I did of that mandala became the outline that I used for my first mandala collage. It was also the second large-scale collage that I had made at that point. That experience alone and what came out of it is a big part of why I still do what I do today.

GH: What is your process in making the resin collages and how long does it take? Do you use multiple prints of the same image? Give us the lowdown.

SW: My process has naturally evolved and changed over the years. In the beginning, I tried to stay clear of the copy machine and only use images cut directly out of magazines. Eventually I realized that magazine print fades much faster than a color copy does, so the canon color copy machine and I became friends. At this stage I would keep my collection of images in categorized boxes. I worked like this for many years until a couple of years ago when I stared to scan my images and build a library in my computer I have since started the endless process of cutting them out in the computer using a Wacom Tablet. The decision to do this came when I started to use the resin in my process. Since I now layer the images in between layers of clear resin, it made sense to initiate the collage in Photo Shop. In Photoshop, I layer the images too.. so in this way I now know between what layers of resin each image is going to land. I use Photo Shop to create the original collage. Then I print out each individual image, cut it out by hand, glue it down, paint it with clear medium to protect it, and then pour resin over it. The resin hardens over night so I can get back to work on the following layer the next day. Depending of the size and intricacy of the piece it can take anywhere from a month to four months to complete one collage.

GH: Where or how do you acquire your images? Do you collect images and then fit them together, or do you start with the idea and then search for those specific pieces to fit the puzzle?

SW: I look for images everywhere constantly. This is one of the most important parts of what I do. I can’t go out and buy paint so I have to always be on a search for new material to keep things fresh. Since I now scan everything I will source images from books magazines or just about anywhere I find them.

I usually start with an idea in the form of an outline of sorts and then I look for images to fill those spaces. An image might find its place in one of my collages because of color or shape or a number of other reasons.

GH: What’s your favorite band or artist to listen to while you work?

SW: I love to listen to music when I work. I usually like to listen to playlists that are really long this way I don’t have to stop what I am doing to figure out what to play next. Sometimes it’s a mix of different artists and sometimes I pick one artist and listen to every album that band or artist ever did. But my taste in music is all over the place. I LOVE Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan. But I also listen to a lot of electronicia. I am a huge fan of Bassnectar.

GH: Lastly, who are some of your favorite artists and why?

SW: Let me give you a shorted version, otherwise we would be here all day.

Of the artists that are alive today I would say Alex Grey’s work is inspirational for a number of reasons. I think that he is amazing at capturing your imagination. I love his attention to detail and the subjects that he chooses to depict are usually packed with symbolism and spirit, all of which I love.

Another living artist that blows my mind is Fred Tomaselli. Tomaselli inspires me on many levels. We share a love for the same medium. It was after seeing a show by him at the James Cohan Gallery in NYC, 2006 that I was inspired to use resin in my process. Beside the fact that his work is transcendental and beautiful, he is also very successful. That gives me hope as a fellow collage artist, I look up to him.

I also love the work of Matthew Barney. In the midst of all that Vaseline, he still manages to be so incredibly prolific. His body of work is beyond my comprehension. Everything he does seems so weird yet so beautiful. He turns my imagination up to eleven.

Of all the great dead artists out there, two come to mind right away. Salvador Dali and Mati Klarwein. Dali painted the most visionary and beautiful surrealist paintings that anyone has ever seen. His paintings leave you with a feeling of amazement, and on top of that the man himself was art. He could have been a character in one of Matthew Barney’s movies. I am forever grateful for the never-ending fountain of inspiration he left us all.

Mati Klarwein. If I were a painter, I would paint in the style of Mati. To me his paintings are like collages. This is not the only reason why I am drawn to his work. Much like Alex Grey, he has a way of transporting me. His attention to detail never fails to amaze me. His subject matter is mystical and shamanic. It holds all the qualities of a true visionary.