Name: Xavier Landry
Age: 29 years
Place of Birth: Montreal Quebec (Canada)
Contacts and Links:
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http://galerie.bangbangblog.com/xavier-landry/
http://putachiasse.deviantart.com/
Black Cat: What is your earliest memory of creating art? How is born this passion?
Xavier Landry: I don't remember the very fist time I created something I could call "art". I remember that I like drawing since ever. My father is a graphic designer so I always had access to a lot of pencils, pen and a handful of all kind of mediums. There's a couple of drawings that I still have. I did insignificant portraits and things like clowns and sugar shack scenes but one of the most interesting, and I think it is one of the oldest drawing I did ( around the age of 5), represents a war scene with Jeeps and tanks, a lot of machine guns and angels being gunned down. At the age of 8 I received an acrylic painting kit from my uncle who was a painter himself. At this time I was painting landscapes and surreal characters.
B.C.: Tell to the readers about your art, the mediums that you work with and how you like to work…
X.L.: Fi rst of all I use acrylic on canvas. I think my techniques are based on that. I've tried oil but I have no patience for it. The average size is 36 X 30 inches with or without frame depending on my budget. I work almost in the entrance door. It's Ok in the summer time. The light is good an d I can throw cigarette butts and many kind of junk outside so it's pretty cool. The workers of the factory next door probably think me and my roommate are two fucking freaks cause we drink pastis in the middle of the street and do ultra Christian bar-B-Q in a religious pumpkin. Yeah there's the archery incident too. It's weird neighbourhood. It is downtown but there's giant racoons, foxes skunks... and crackheads. Anyway, I have a very useful set up with a medium grade easel, high ceiling and a lot of acrylic colors and brushes. I just sit there, surrounded by art and bizarre collectibles.
B.C.: What particular message (if any) are you trying to convey with these images, or are they no more than a reflection of the subject matter?
X.L.: The images that I create are often inspired by current events and/or by what I could call « social sickness ». I mix up themes in an interpretation delirium and the result tells a story. The magic is that themes seem to stick well together and keep a truly serious meaning through dark humour and stupid looking characters (although I use well known faces, I also appear on many pieces. I can mock myself.). Sometimes it is more or less critic but always tells something. Sometimes the meaning is a total mystery and belongs to the viewer.
B.C.: Which comes first for you-the concept or the image?
X.L.: Most of the time the con cept comes first. I write ideas and I sort them. Then comes the « mystic » part ( I’m really not a mystic person. I don’t believe in any kind of god and I like clown porn.). I lay on my bed with my eyes closed and I wait for the images to come. It’s like sketching in my head. I rarely do sketches on paper. When it’s set up, I draw it as it should be on the canvas. One day I was carelessly watching a movie starring Val Kilmer and I saw in my head a drunk native American performing Skidoo jumps in a sand pit in summer. So I did it.
B.C.: How has your art contributed to society? Do you think it's important that art gives something to society?
X.L.: Yes it is. At least if it has no subject matter it should give a feeling. If not it’s only decorative and should be related as what I call « arts and craft ». My work gives another way to see things. It’s sad but there’s a fucking lot of people who don’t know things cause they just don’t look at it. Give them a strong exaggerated image, even through paranoia, and they will be obliged look. I heard so many times « Oh my God! What does it mean? It’s well done but I don’t want it on my wall! ». All right, now I hope you will be unable to sleep asking yourself why this boy holding a dildo looked so bored?
B.C.: Do you ever forget or deliberately ignore why you make art? If so, briefly describe the last time you realized you had forgotten or were ignoring why you make art. What did it take for you to return to your core motivation?
X.L.: It’s not really about the reason why I do art cause these reasons are primary. Hopefully at this point I don’t prostitute my art. What happens sometime is a slow slide in the cheesy too easy pure joke illustration. It’s Ok, it forces me to wake up and kick my ass.
B.C.: Do you like criticism/feedback or do you like to figure it out all by yourself?
X.L.: Feedback and critics is important to evolve and develop both ideas and techniques. When I was at school, the students gave only positive feedback. When they didn’t like someone’s work they just shut their mouths. So everyone knew they didn’t like it but didn’t knew why. That suck. When the most courageous students gave negative comments on an art piece, the artist often took it as a personal attack. If you don’t want to ear what I think about it don’t show it to me. Fuck off!
B.C.: Honestly, to what extent does your future work shift or evolve depending on societal expectations and public perceptions of you? To what extent are other people's opinions a factor in creating your work?
X.L.: Get money out of my art. That’s the best thing that could happen. I sold fifteen great paintings the first year I had shows. But now it’s dead since a while. I will not change my style. I like to disturb. Even If I was painting flowers I couldn’t make enough money to make it my job and do gore things on the side. There will always be some collectors and fans who will encourage me. Cheers to them.
B.C.: What are your biggest doubts (assuming you have any), about your artwork?
X.L.: I have no doubt. Let see what will happen. If I have no doubt I have fears. The worst is that my work catch fire.
B.C.: How do I feel the statement “if everything is permissible, then nothing is valid” pertains to contemporary art?
X.L.: Nowadays artists try to invent some new types of art. That’s correct, it push them do go further and try to be original BUT, the problem here in Montreal is that almost all art teachers are old syndicated artists issued from the « Refus Global » (a manifest that rejects traditional values and stillness of Quebec’s society. Written in 1948 by Paul-Emile Borduas and signed by various artists). Quebec needed it at that time. It’s been 62 years now that they try to kick out traditional artistic practices and academic teaching. Many people at university don’t know how to draw or they draw as children. I ‘m not sure if the teacher himself knows. They don’t even teach it and they should cause it’s basic. They teach the movement your arm should do when you draw with the gigantic elephant bristles brush. What remains on the sheet is not important. When you’re too clean and precise they tell you that you’re at the wrong place, that you do illustration not art. Since 1948. That is stillness. So, now art can be anything. Watch out you can walk on it. People without artistic formation think that art means nothing and is complicated so they don’t go into galleries. Since 1948. It must change.
B.C.: In art, what is the difference between nudity and pornography?
X.L.: Pornography is sexual activity involving a human being. If you want pornography don’t buy art. Buy a magazine. It’s cheaper. And if you see pornography in abstract art then you are obsessed.
B.C.: Name one well-known contemporary artist whose work you don't like but whom you still respect?
X.L.: I don’t like the work of many and I respect them as they didn’t do anything to me. Try JO-ANNE BALCAEN.
B.C.: How much time do spend marketing yourself as an artist: sending out slides and gallery submissions, going to openings, talking to gallery owners, sending out your portfolio? How does this compare to how much time you spend creating you work?
X.L.: I spend much more time painting than marketing. Most of the galleries that could be interested in my work are outside Montreal so I send portfolios and wait. Also, they seem to be interested in already famous artists. Some gallery owners seem very interested when I talk to them but don’t call back. Others ask for « softer stuff ». I don’t know where art is going but anyway, I have fun doing this..
B.C.: Thanks for your time Xavier and good luck!
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