Letterheads 2010

Born 1982, Yusk is an Sao Paulo artist with roots in graffiti, who along side contemporaries such as Dante Horoiwa are leading the way of a new Brazilian art movement.

Typified by a style which transcends walls, canvases, streets and galleries while abandoning the preconceived notions that plague popular street art else where in the world, with a focus is on expressive scenes, spiritual message, rich and deep colors and a compositional style which is inspired by Art Nouveau.

We’re proud to have Yusk in LTRHDS with his interpretation of the letter “Y”.

yusk.blogspot.com

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You’ve written about living a life surrounded by “traps”. What do you mean by this? Do you find that modern life inhibits creativity?

No I don’t. When I say ‘traps’ I refer to everything that was produced to inhibit me from my true me.

I believe the modern world does not inhibit creativity, actually the range for creativeness is wider now, but what is being lost is the ‘why’ to create.

We have been manipulated where to point to, what to choose and what to create. And I just feel I’m caught in that shit, and I don’t know how to escape this yet. I hope someday I’ll find a way out though.

I feel this massive creative energy in the world today, like never before, but it’s completely powerless since it’s being motivated by the wrong reasons.

Actually it’s not powerless, but all these creations are feeding the wrong battery. That’s what I think.

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Do you feel that it is possible to be truly free?

If you mean truly free from the traps I’m surrounded by, no I don’t believe it’s possible.

What I’m trying to do is be able to survive them, to bring up who I really am despite all I have around me… all that makes me wish for things I don’t need to have, or that I don’t need to be.

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There is an almost medieval Christian quality to some of your paintings. What is your attitude to religion and how does it inform your life and work?

I do believe in something bigger but I’m too stupid to understand what it is. Some things have happened in my life that could not possibly be a complete coincidence.

I really believe there is some energy that links us to the world and to the rest of the animals, something that communicates. I can surely say I don’t believe in the Catholic teachings. I do search to paint this energy in my paintings, and that’s probably why you see this medieval Christian thing, for me it’s a compliment… Thanks!

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A lot of contemporary artists seek to commercialize their talents by branching out into the graphic design world. You have abandoned design completely to focus purely on painting. What made you come to this decision?

I got tired of it. I don’t want to create stuff expecting people to like it. I don’t want money to have an influence on the reason why I create. I don’t want my work to be judged by stupid bosses/people who are completely dominated by the crazy ideas publicity have about creativity.

I want my instinct back, and I’m trying to find it. I think I lost it to fashion or sold it for some cash in the past, hehe.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not smart or strong enough to live without money, unfortunately I still need it. Yesterday I did a small job on an ad to get some cash (something about $200 US for that day) and I remember being seated in this waiting room in this mansion where they were shooting some film.
The ‘happy families’ acting in the ad were having a conversation that sounded more like an ego-battle to see whose children are better and who had the most Disney trips and the latest PSP version, and who is on the best ads and at the same time saying bad things about each other’s tastes in clothing and… blah.

Did what I had to do, got my cash and ran the fuck away from that place, back to painting.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under _Y. Yuske Imai. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.