GLAMCULT / 2015 / ISSUE 3 / #111 / EU

United Kingdom / FREE 2015—Issue 3 #111

“All love’s legal.”

Glamcult Independent Style Paper

Issue 3 #111 Update

Visual Essays

Cult 6 Albums 9 Platform

Anne Wenzel

Why should I be bound...

Anywhere you go...

Breakfast in...

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Interviews

34 40 48

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Maluca Mala 12 Eckhaus Latta 14 Pussykrew 18 James Kelly 22 The Garden 26 Tei Shi 28 Jam City 32

Stockists 54

Colophon Editor-in-Chief Joline Platje joline@glamcult.com Creative Director Rogier Vlaming rogier@glamcultstudio.com Fashion Editor Leendert Sonnevelt leendert@glamcultstudio.com Copy Editor Megan Roberts Editorial Intern Emma van Meyeren emma@glamcult.com Sales & Marketing Filippo Battaglia filippo@glamcult.com

Sales sales@glamcult.com Art Director Marline Bakker marline@glamcultstudio.com Graphic Design Glamcult Studio: Karen van de Kraats Rutger de Vries Yuki Kappes Graphic Design Intern Sara Elazami Contributors: Daniël Heijl Emily Vernon Fay Breeman Iris Wenander Jean-François Adjabahoué Kelsey Lee Jones Matthijs van Burg Pinar&Viola

Sander van Dalsum Sarah Johanna Eskens Sophie Bargmann

Photographers: Andre Herrero C. Hatshepsut Ester Grass Vergara Julien Bernard Katharina Poblotzki Lasse Dearman Maarten Nauw Peggy Kuiper Raisa Kingma Yaël Temminck Quotes All love’s legal.

—Planningtorock Why should I be bound to thee, O my lovely Myrtle-tree?

—William Blake

Anywhere you go, desire is desire.

—Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach Breakfast in bed for four hundred thousand.

—Wavy Gravy Cover Photography: Peggy Kuiper Styling: April Jumelet Hair and make-up: Ellen Romeijn Model: Jaco van den Hoven—Republic Dress James Kelly

Publisher Rogier Vlaming / Glamcult Studio P.O. Box 14535, 1001 LA Amsterdam, The Netherlands T +31 (0)20 419 41 32 rogier@glamcultstudio.com www.glamcultstudio.com Distribution distribution@glamcult.com © All rights reserved. Nothing from this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher and other copyright holders. The publisher cannot be held responsible for damage done by incorrect provision of information in the magazine. The views expressed in the magazine are those of our contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of Glamcult or its staff.

ISSN: 1874 1932

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www.replay.it

Cult

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Series shot for Exit Magazine (A/W14)

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Becoming Wilderness II, 2012-2013, courtesy of Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Berlin

S/S15 collection, photography: Liam Murphy

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Danielle Romeril

Janneke van der Hagen

Inka & Niclas 4

Takkie, 2014

Untitled (Diary), 2009, courtesy of Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich

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Daan den Houter

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Dublin-born designer Danielle Romeril founded her eponymous label in 2013, shortly after completing a master’s in fashion design from London’s Royal College of Art. She was subsequently awarded NEWGEN sponsorship by the British Fashion Council for the label and supported by Topshop for both A/W14 and S/S15. Through a focus on extraordinary fabric combinations and surface details, Romeril upholds a novel approach to contemporary design. Memories of a wild Wicklow camping trip provided the inspiration for her new season: she dreamed up an imaginary gang of girls who managed to survive self-sufficiently to live out an amazing summer in the deep south of Ireland. A collection that is tenacious and ready for the rough while maintaining a feminine essence, the features include 3D pockets and hand-painted camo in silk and organza, lace and georgette. Romeril has even created dresses with built-in backpacks—perfect attire for the modern, self-sufficient woman. By Kelsey Lee Jones www.danielleromeril.com

Lina Scheynius 2

Mother Nature’s mystical powers are what consume Finnish/Swedish photography duo Inka & Niclas. Through close photographic research, they examine and deconstruct natural phenomena such as daybreak or the Northern Lights.

In one of these experiments, Inka and Niclas investigated the sunset and isolated each of its colours. Using a hand-held flash and photo filters, they later projected these colours on to natural landscapes—gigantic boulders, to be exact—in an attempt to restore the magic they’d borrowed.

This ritualistic approach is key to their work and the photographic process is often equally as important as the result.

In the series Becoming Wilderness, they constructed their own unseen creatures and by placing them in breathtaking landscapes created an eerie sense of presence. Through this rite, it’s like the creatures are set free, almost coming alive, truly becoming wild. By Iris Wenander www.inkaandniclas.com

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The myriad colours and inspirations found in fashion editorials are always great sources of exaltation for us, and this time it’s the Dutch photographer Janneke van der Hagen who’s got us hooked. Van der Hagen has mastered the art of crafting instinctive photography—clean lines, graphic shapes and an acute sense of pristine compos­ ition have won over renowned publications such as Novembre Magazine, POP and Wallpaper. The Janneke van der Hagen touch is always gold, regardless of the styling and the creative direction. By resorting to a renewed set of techniques that capture spontaneous beauty and by endowing her visual compositions with an artistic undertone, she gives life to uplifting pictures on glossy paper (or online media). Van der Hagen is part of a generation of contempor­ ary photographers that we adore, because they thrive on ingenuity and inventiveness—two qualities that can never be set aside when it comes to aesthetic notions. By Jean-François Adjabahoué www.jannekevanderhagen.co.uk

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Parodying himself and the art world, Daan den Houter keeps on reinventing his practice, swapping disciplines likes haircuts. Thus far this has led to him taking up the role of painter, photographer, skate-park designer, wigmaker and professional BBQ-er. The Rotterdambased bon vivant is fascinated by how our subconscious works and investigates the way we make sense of the world around us. The purpose of art, according to Den Houter is “Finding truth without logic.” Den Houter functions at full throttle when uniting conflicting subjects in a single work, creating pieces that contradict themselves. To let you in on his humorous— and sometimes cynical—thought processes: Den Houter has so far signed his own signature (Signed Signature), cheered up parks with the raised picnic table wittedly called High Tea Table and ridiculed every artist’s wish to leave a legacy with Canvas Repaint —a painting that is being repainted by a different artist every six weeks.

His last photo series, Takkie (Dutch for “twiggy”), was taken in outdoor heaven the Ardennes and consists of serene forest sceneries distorted by wood that was only planted there by Den Houter himself. Go fetch! www.daandenhouter.com

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Lina Scheynius’s pictures aren’t just your run-of-the-mill selfies; they’re selfies with a mission! As a former model, Scheynius has been in front of the lens since she was a teenager and has all the horror stories that go with being a young Swedish girl in the modelling world.

At a certain point, Scheynius decided it was time to shift the gaze on her own body from others to herself. Without a filter, she started to take intimate pictures of her life and the people in it.

She shot her many travels, lovers and lovers lost; one of her pictures even shows her lying in a sun-filled room wearing glistening, semen-stained panties. Although it may not be the most original thing to photograph your life like a diary these days, Scheynius does succeed in telling her own story her way—erasing the male gaze and pushing boundaries. You go girl! By Iris Wenander www.linascheynius.com

Cult

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Jim Mangan, Untitled taken from the series Bastard Child, 2013

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S/S15 collection, Kindred Survival, photography: James Pearson-Howes

The Kiss, 2003

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Terra Incognita

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Sophie Mörner

Liam Hodges

Red Light Radio, photography: Martin Alberts

Not Red But Green, 2014

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Per Kristian Nygård

Online Radio Festival 6

What do beautiful landscapes, untouched beauty and adventurous discovery mean in the 21st century? Kunst Im Tunnel presents a new exhibition based on one of the most traditional and timeless visual genres: the landscape. Terra Incognita (Latin for “unknown land”) offers a contemporary perception of nature, inviting a selection of visual artists including Jocelyn Catterson, Jim Mangan and Alex Grein.

The latter creates a graphic visualisation of nature-inspired scenery, while Daniël Gustav Cramer prefers a minimalist approach, combining both natural and man-made materials in spatial design. The exhibition offers an engaging combination of photography, video and 3D installations, and is aiming to raise questions regarding nature’s elemental force and how it is still relevant in our digital and often artificially designed age. Think you’re too contemporary for this one? Let Mother Nature surprise you.

By Daniel Heijl Until 16 June Kunst Im Tunnel, Düsseldorf www.kunst-im-tunnel.de

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What do boy scouts and fashion have in common? More than we thought, it turns out. Brit designer Liam Hodges’ S/S15 Kindred Survival collection took inspir­ ation from the spirit of the woods—and the community-minded whippersnappers who find their natural habitat there.

Taking his signature oversized baseball tees and cropped jumpers, Hodges has restyled them to evoke the playfulness of a young boy exploring the woods— while simultaneously (and miraculously) giving the collection a darker and more grown-up vibe. The patch-covered pieces might call to mind a boy scout’s uniform, but the palette (black, red, khaki) strips away the innocence of the boyscout aesthetic while leaving its playfulness untouched. Add a flag and a safari hat as accessories and the dark-yetplayful picture is complete. Using marching beats and didactic messaging as his soundtrack (“more than machinery, we need humanity / more than cleverness, we need kindness / without these qualities life will be violent”), Hodges evokes something like a protest march in the forest, his models striding forth with child-like innocence into a grown-up world. By Emma van Meyeren

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We know Sophie Mörner as the founder of our favourite girl empire Capricious Magazine and Capricious 88 Gallery, which promote Glamcult darlings like Cajsa von Zeipel and Petra Collins. But little did we know that Mörner herself is a photographer, taking profoundly personal portraits of women close to her. Mörner’s women are powerful and wild; they’re restless and horny, fragile and loving, genuine and sincere.

This female utopia is the driving force behind her work and her candid photographs come as close as anything possibly can to capturing the complexity of female identity. The secondary love of Mörner’s life is horses, and in her new series, Bond, the two come together.

Women and stunning equestrian creatures are bound together by rope, perhaps symbolizing the bond between human and animal. Or how, as a horsecrazy girl, you’re easily restricted by stereotypes. Whatever the case, Mörner’s images are striking, and challenging the portrayal of women never goes out of fashion. By Iris Wenander

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Architecture isn’t neutral, and the planning of urban space is of course a manner of control. With his latest work Not Red But Green (2014), Norwegian artist Per Kristian Nygård has revolted against this organized architectural environment, creating a voluptuous, grassy landscape inside NoPlace gallery in Oslo, grown from seeds that were planted during a hot Norwegian summer. The moist room offered the perfect growing environment for the sculpture. In this case the installation artist wanted to make something that doesn’t make sense and that is confusing, an object that doesn’t fit into notions of profitability and efficiency. In one of his earliest works his audience took a run at this objective when Nygård created a metal sculpture, heftily titled A Social Sculpture for a Social Democracy (2007). It was installed outdoors at the Norwegian Sculpture Biennial, where visitors used it as a bike rack. Power to the people.

By Sarah Johanna Eskens www.perkristiannygaard.com

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In recent years, online radio stations such as NTS, Boiler Room and Berlin Community Radio have been educating their listeners with a fine selection of underground music. It’s a medium that bestows undiscovered gems and new-found favourites upon its audience on a daily basis, and never asks for anything in return. At Glamcult, we think this independent form of curatorship is worth celebrating, and The Rest is Noise agrees. Shedding light on these pioneers for 30 hours straight, the Amsterdam collective will simultaneously broadcast online radio and live music from the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ during the Online Radio Festival. Inviting the aforementioned stations—as well as Amsterdam’s own Red Light Radio, dublab and Stroom—the festival will make for an eccentric journey into the depths of the broadcasters’ minds.

Artists such as Dean Blunt, Laurel Halo, James Pants, Craig Leon and Hiele will play live by night, while panellists will share visions and knowledge during the day. All of this is to be witnessed in real life—or, of course, to be heard on the radio. By Sander van Dalsum

www.sophiemorner.com 1 and 2 May, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam

www.liamhodges.co.uk

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Gc Update

Cult

By Kelsey Lee Jones

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The Flat Side of the Knife, MoMA PS1, 2014

Samara Golden

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Trying to explain “consciousness” is like howling at the moon. We all know what consciousness is—we directly experience it—but to really fathom it is something of a Sisyphusian task.

In her current show, The Flat Side of the Knife (an immersive installation encompassing the entirety of New York’s MoMA PS1), American artist Samara Golden does an inspiring job of visually interpreting consc iousness and the inner workings of the psyche on mul­ tiple levels. In a grandiose display she demonstrates both the complexity of consciousness and its aura of mystery.

At MoMA PS1 Golden has worked on three levels. The highest, which displays a peach bed, acts as a form of “reality”, she explains. On the second level, the reflection of a green surgical bed is a metaphor for the state between life and death, and what Golden de­ scribes as “a suspended consciousness”. The luminous white room at the bottommost level (which is actually just a clever reflection from the ceiling above, creating the illusion of depth

where none exists) signifies something of a safe place in one’s mind; it could be death, a meditative state or a vision of eternity. “Consciousness is something that is always changing,” says Golden.

“It’s about different ways of experiencing the world. The three layers that I’ve used I thought of as being a stratification of consciousness.”

The meta-concept for the piece is what Golden calls the “Sixth Dimension”, perhaps borrowed from phenomena in spirituality or science. Golden is fascin­ ated by the idea of almost transporting oneself through thought and breaking down dimensions that are made up of both a new reality and convocation of remnants from the past. She also pronounces a belief in an almost psychic aspect of the work: “It’s something accidental or supernatural—beyond what can be explained.”

Thankfully, some things can be explained. “This side of the knife is an alternative use of an otherwise dangerous object,” says Golden of the exhibition title. “It’s the other side,

the opposite and the complement. It takes away emphasis from the sharp edge. It has another use.” With previous installation titles tending towards the violent, this current work seeks to counteract that, exposing a new softness to Golden’s oeuvre—and for the artist, another level of meaning: “For this show I wanted the title be a way of thinking that was parallel to the logic of the piece, but different.”

The installation’s physicality is a beautiful visual distortion, mimicking chambers of the mind and spaces in reality; we see staircases, upside-down rooms and inanimate objects all constructed from shimmering silvers and golds that create muted reflections.

It is something like a modern-day, threedimensional interpretation of MC Escher’s Relativity. Throughout, Golden makes use of her signature mirroring effect.

“I like the fact you can make a place that doesn’t exist in the real world,” she explains. “You can use them to expand and make new architecture. I like think­ ing that space that is created in the

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mirror is impossible to access and yet very real.”

In a sense, what we experience is a glimpse into the mind of Samara Golden: “Everything in my work means something to me,” she says. “It’s all very specific and personal. I think the only way that it can be powerful to someone else is if it’s first powerful to me.” The objects in her installations act as symbols.

So, the guitar signifies the idea of aspir­ ation (Golden wanted to be a musician but was never really good enough); the stuffed animals were inspired by a time when she was very sick in hospital, a near-death experience where she had hallucinations of animals that looked like they were made of electrical static.

While Golden’s first encounters with the art world left her somewhat cold, she confesses, creating art was a different matter: “I didn’t really feel connected, looking at art. My connection was in making things.” She remembers studying a book of Ron Cobb’s ’70s political cartoons as a kid. “I was obsessed with his drawing style,” she says.

“I also spent a ton of time looking at photography books by Time Life— I think it was the volumes from 1970-’75… but really, I’m inspired by everything.

From tiny purple flowers on a mountain top to dirty bars, to lace dollies, to campfires, to swimming pools in the sun…” She could go on, it seems: “I’m inspired by people who find a way to do what they love in their life, and do it with integrity—people who question things, people who want to talk about ideas, people who are both critical and open and giving. People who are looking for more than just money and fame.” Following Glamcult’s chat with Golden, we can’t help thinking she falls into that category herself… www.samaragolden.com www.momaps1.org The Flat Side of the Knife is now on display at MoMA PS1 until 7 September.

Albums Courtney Barnett

Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

East India Youth

Gabi

Howling

Rats on Rafts

Culture Of Volume

Sympathy

Sacred Ground

Tape Hiss

XL Recordings

Software Recording Company

Monkeytown Records & Counter Records

Kurious Recordings & Subroutine Records

He might have lost the Mercury Prize to Royal Blood—why oh why?—but that doesn’t keep East India Youth from coming back BIG. In fact, William Doyle’s second record actually contains a strong sense of optimism. Dark optimism, that is. Culture Of Volume elaborates on debut Total Strife Forever musically, but it’s as if the 24-year-old musician breathes bright colours into his formerly much darker electronic compositions.

Flirting with various genres, East India Youth takes melodrama to an almost ironic level. Remember that tear-jerking scene from Free Willy where the big cuddly whale jumps to freedom, the music grows bigger and bigger and the sunset gets impossibly beautiful?

That’s East India Youth anno 2015—but credible, with a refined knowledge of when not to climax. Or when to climax too often. More pop, more vocals, more catharsis, more grandeur. Sorry, that should be Grandeur.

By Leendert Sonnevelt

If all things celestial and divine were defined by a sound, Gabi would be the holy vessel. Leading an ambience of violins, horns and electronics, Gabrielle Herbst’s voice is an angelic instrument that immediately tears apart any comfort zone you may have found to restfully reside in. Experimentalist Daniel Lopatin’s record label is renowned as a home for unconventional artists, releasing a steady array of avant-garde works as well as pure pop music. Sympathy is, however, the first opera-inspired album to grace its catalogue. Embodying modern-classical compositions and *just* enough unexpected angles, Sympathy demonstrates Herbst’s music­ al training and creative insights. The shattered, albeit peaceful voice presiding over opener Koo Koo doesn’t quite make the record a night at the opera, but the tear-jerking Fleece subtly steers things in that direction. This characteristic mixture takes mere moments to have you floating on thin air.

By Sander van Dalsum

After their joint success back in 2012, it doesn’t come as a bolt from the blue that these two gentlemen teamed up for a full-length album. Still, Frank Wiedemann (one half of festival-favourite Âme ) and Ry X in the same sentence —let alone the same studio—has our attention. Howling, named after the Boiler Room success initiated by labelmate Dixon, somewhat illogically brings together underground (electronic) folk with techno’s four-to-the-floor. Yet Sacred Ground, written and recorded in divergent spaces from Miami to South Germany, tells natural tales. And so we end up thoroughly enjoying a musical product both governed by the deep sensibilities of Monkeytown and Inner­ visions, and the subdued experimental hypnosis of Ry X. Howling is probably best described by one of its own lyrics: I want to be subconscious. We’re not so sure whether Sacred Ground refers to Berghain or the depths of our soul, but why should they be mutually exclusive?

By Leendert Sonnevelt

The city of Rotterdam is booming.

Prestigious buildings shape the skyline, newspapers call it the place to see/ be and it’s European City of the Year 2015. The mainstream media may have just cottoned on to the Rotterdam Renaissance, but the city’s roaring underground (music) scene has been flourishing for years. And Rats on Rafts are the uncrowned kings of it. Echoing Eighties post-punk, obstinacy and persistent DIY ethos, their sophomore album Tape Hiss was recorded, produced and mastered by the band themselves, who also released it on their own label.

Powder Monkey is punk as if it was written in 1980; Poison Face shows no mercy, scaring the shit out of listeners. The transition to Seaside Tape Hiss is marvellously melodious—as is Zebradelic, thanks to some additional keys. Closing track 1-6-8 is a killer and leaves you shattered. Rats on Rafts are brilliantly ruthless. By Matthijs van Burg

Suuns and Jerusalem In My Heart

Will Butler

Say Lou Lou

Milk! Records

Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is the dazzling debut of 2014’s indie darling from Down Under, Courtney Barnett. The title was borrowed from Winnie-the-Pooh creator AA Milne, but also mirrors Barnett’s vision of life.

Down to earth and bright, Bartnett’s lyrics put everything in (personal) perspective, sounding like she’s directly talking to you, as a mate. The Melbournite opens up about her insecurity in Debbie Downer (“Don’t stop listening, I’m not finished yet”), failed flirtations in Aqua Profunda! (“I hold my breath longer than I normally do, I was getting dizzy”) and making “difficult” decisions in Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party (“I wanna go out but I wanna stay home”). Barnett not only sings, she also plays groovy guitar riffs with jangly nonchalance. Articulate and witty lyrics plus psych-rock melodies and downbeat indie-pop? Bonza!

By Matthijs van Burg

Todd Rundgren, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and Emil Nikolaisen

Suicideyear

Runddans

Japan

Suuns and Jerusalem In My Heart

Policy

Lucid Dreaming

Smalltown Supersound

Software Recording Co.

Secret City Records

Merge Records

Á Deux

What happens when an influential songwriter/record producer, an obscure rock-whiz kid and a nu-disco pioneer are sending you back to the future? Lo and behold: Runddans.

The outcome of the team-up between classic rock icon Todd Rundgren and two Norwegians: producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm (aka Lindstrøm) and Emil Nikolaisen of alternative rock group Serena-Maneesh, you’d be forgiven for questioning the logic behind Runddans.

Well, bear with us. Rundgren’s nearly 50-year career stands out for producing and merging divergent musical styles and experimenting with electronics.

Lindstrøm and Nikolaisen are studiobased musicians with a love for laptops, synthesizers and producing electronic music. The interwebs and the first ever remix by Rundgren of a Lindstrøm track sealed the deal. Runddans is some sort of musical time travelling, which takes you back and forward to an age where classic rock, space disco, ambient and modern electronic music integrate into one interesting but agreeably strange and esoteric track of 39 minutes. By Matthijs van Burg

Forget the insanely crowded Tokyo with arcade videogame players everywhere and daring Japanese street fashion. Baton Rouge-based producer James Prudhomme takes you on a journey through traditional Japanese culture, combining calm and natural instrumentals with heavy use of electronic percussion. Listening to Japan brings an oddly comforting feeling of exploration and discovery, which occasionally even reminds of starring in your own oriental fantasy/ adventure game—in the best possible way. The meticulous use of dark 808 patterns gives the record a healthy dose of mystery, which adds to the general Western unfamiliarity towards Japan and its rich history. Suicideyear’s debut LP contains a modern blend of hypnotic and empowering electronics, making it good for both heavy relaxing and heavy dancing. Oh, and to all the Britney fans out there: the album also delivers the obligatory karaoke finale…

By Daniël Heijl

Never judge a book by its cover, right?

True! But how could we not pick up and play this record when it hit our digital doorstep? The coming together of Suuns and Jerusalem In My Heart—both IRL and on their whizzy album art—results, as expected, in a droney expedition.

Back in November 2012 Suuns and fellow Montreal citizen Radwan Ghazi Moumneh spent seven days in the studio together, followed by two collaborative shows in 2013. Due to their own busy projects and touring lives, however, the musical products never officially came out. In 2014 the tracks were finally overdubbed and reworked, now ready to be released. “It’s not a Suuns record; it’s not a Jerusalem In My Heart record,” Suuns frontman Ben Shemie explains.

“It’s really a product of five musicians that had spent a lot of time on tour listening to music together.” Heavy analogue synths and Arabic vocals meet fractured rock guitars on seven soundscapes with for us Westerners undecipherable titles like amoutul7tirakan and 3attam Babey. Take a trip!

By Leendert Sonnevelt

Take My Side, the opener on this less than 30-minute debut, sounds like Arcade Fire’s charismatic frontman doing a garage version of one of his epic hits. Oh, wait—not Win, but Will Butler: Policy is the solo album of the cute and energetic younger brother who, alongside synths, (bass) guitar and percussion, masters panpipes, trombone, Omnichord and musical saw, and has been playing in the band for the last ten years as well. It might be a little lame to emphasize the influence of one of the most authentic bands of last decade, but playing and touring with the crazy Arcade Fire for the last ten years has undeniably helped shape Will’s own musical output. Will plays his rock’n’roll a little less experimentally than we might have hoped for, but according to the singer it’s “just American music”. We miss the slightly hysterical polyphonic backing vocals we’ve grown so familiar with during this spiky half hour, but welcome the familiar melancholic Butler chords, the jubilant vibe, the dry keys, the catchy trumpets and the overall Talking Heads-esque sound. By Joline Platje

Elektra and Miranda Kilbey might be Australian/Swedish hybrids, growing up both north and south of the equator, but they still come with a 100% Scandi-pop guarantee. As a matter of fact, Say Lou Lou even look like the female half of a very well-known Swedish Eurovision fourpiece, but without the colour-coord­ inated metallic flared pants (for which we are grateful). This twin-sister act brings us sad songs for the dance floor, like a depressed Icona Pop, or a lush Annie. Perhaps not surprisingly, love is the main theme of debut Lucid Dreaming, and the perspective is very female indeed. Men get a consistent dressingdown: they are hard to understand (Beloved), need to be treated with a lot of patience (Julian) and generally find love rather difficult (Hard for a Man).

It’s perhaps not the undertone you’d expect from a dreamy feminine pop duo, but there you go. And guys, don’t worry: sometimes girls just like to whine.

By Fay Breeman

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Gc Update

rendered ink forest—is why it speaks to people. “I got so many responses from people from different cultures that recognized the same doubtful feeling of aversion and affection.

I succeeded in my work if I can pass that question to the viewer.”

Wenzel works serially, exploring a specific theme in depth over the course of many years. “I collect images that interest me, but it’s only after a while that I’m driven to a single specific news subject. It happens very intuitively,” she explains. This runs parallel to Wenzel’s social conscience: as an artist, she takes the responsibility of her critical voice incredibly seriously.

“My function is to get news out of its context to show people what’s really happening in the world. Everyday we’re over-whelmed by transient news of war, death and terror and mostly we don’t realize the severity and consequences. With art you can make news abstract and visual, and in this way not only reach the mind but also the heart.”

Contradicting their dark, confrontational aspect, Wenzel’s sculptures are also incredibly beautiful.

They provoke and then cause the viewer’s gaze to linger. “Because I

communicate visually, I first have to draw people’s attention to tell them my story. I use aesthetics as a decoy,” she says. In order to open people’s eyes, Wenzel often uses familiar signs and symbols of war and heroism, injecting the hackneyed tropes with a deep sense of melancholy. Such as in her series Bright Solitude, which features, among other things, a slumped black chandelier inspired by those that once hung in the great Titanic ballroom.

These sculptures seem extraordinarily light in relation to their volume: the weight of their physicality seems cancelled out by their baroque delicacy.

This fallen chandelier— symbolizing the relativity and transience of wealth— more than any of Wenzel’s works brings together the big themes of her oeuvre: beauty fights with decay, figuration with abstraction and power with destruction.

z.t. (zwart meisje), 2003

Anne Wenzel’s Rotterdam studio is filled with ceramic sculptures, books and torn-out newspaper articles. “As an artist, I absorb information very visually,” she says. Wenzel is drawn to a very particular kind of image: images of disasters. “The thing that interests me about disasters is how we deal with them as people, the fact that it is more than a spectacular image.” It’s a fascination that was born out of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Wenzel found a terrible beauty in the images of this particular disaster landscape.

This conflict between the horror of destruction and the beauty of nature arrested her attention.

Human nature also entered the equation. “I noticed a collective response: people love to watch disasters,” she says. “Why are we so fascinated by misery? Why do we feel sensation for catastrophes?” Exploring this well-known concept of “rubbernecking”, Wenzel created the sculptural installation Silent Landscape, for which she won various prestigious ceramic awards. The artist herself suggests the abstract, universal nature of the work—burnt-looking ceramic trees stand in a glassy pool against a backdrop of an apparently hastily

“This was my first monumentally sized sculpture, made in 2003. The black girl illustrates my transition from peaceful, lovely work to my current dark oeuvre,” Wenzel explains. The fairy-like ideal of a little girl in a wood with a deer is drawn to the dark side as the artist questions whether such little girls are ever as sweet as they look.

“I love to work with black because it complements the darkness in my subjects,” Wenzel continues. “But it also has an abstract function: an all-black installation can be viewed as a form, per se—as a whole. It creates infinity and depth in figures. I think it’s beautiful how the black figures almost dissolve in the darkness.”

www.annewenzel.nl Art Cologne, 16 until 19 April, 2015 www.artcologne.de

Damaged Goods, 2013

By Sophie Bargmann

Anne Wenzel German-born artist Anne Wenzel makes monumental sculptures and ceramic installations, taking as her inspiration natural disasters, politics and war. Her deathly beautiful works —like modern vanitas sculptures— somehow evoke beauty from the horrors of disaster, war and decay.

A terrible beauty is born.

For the series Damaged Goods Wenzel addressed war heroism: “The two faces of war intrigue me. On the one hand we celebrate war heroes in the form of classical busts; on the other hand there’s the actual face of war: the horror and destruction.” Wenzel created an image archive of sculptural depictions of war heroes, in the process discovering the root of her interest: not the image of war itself, but the fact of people doing this to one another. “I wanted to translate this act into my work; the process, not the result.”

She does this by first creating a perfectly formed sculpture then deconstructing it with the same care used to create it—not only depicting but also telling the true story of war.

During the worst of the recession and consequent austerity measures, the art sector was placed under a great deal of pressure. “During that period artists were criticized as useless and lazy.

I really felt attacked, and this had a negative effect on my work. I was working day and night being a financially independent artist. So then I was like: Fuck you! I’m going to make an oversized, unsellable artwork, ha-ha!” The sculpture Splendid Surrender (2012) was the result, marking a new period in Wenzel’s career: this was her first all-white sculpture. “This half-dead eagle between flags symbolizes the end of politics, it stands for freedom. Because of the heaviness of this subject I decided to use white. Ironically, this work sold immediately.”

Splendid surrender, 2012

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Gc Platform

Interviews

12

Maluca Mala: “Yup. We live in an age of multi-genres.”

14

Eckhaus Latta: “Once something is coined, defined or canonized, it’s dead.”

18

If there would be a possibility to upload yourself online, Pussykrew

would definitely

give it a try.

22

James Kelly: “Stormy colours turn me on.”

26

The Garden: “Anything weird that’s going to come at us, let it come at us.”

32

Jam City: “The smallest acts contain a lot of power.”

28

Tei Shi’s lyrics usually tell something more than her songs are giving away.

12

By Emily Vernon Photography: Katharina Poblotzki

Maluca Mala Maluca Mala—literally “Crazy Bad” in Spanish—has shimmied together a kingdom from an aggregate heap of New York culture and Dominican resilience. A humanist at heart, the first-generation New Yorker disregards stereotypes and collaborates with friends whenever possible to evolve her already multi-genre, multi-inspired style. For Maluca Mala, life is an island rave—and Glamcult can’t help but accept the invitation.

We defy anyone to listen to Maluca Mala’s El Tigeraso, Lola (Ging Danga) or her most recent single, Trigger, without feeling their inhibitions seep away.

Running the gamut from electronic dance to merengue violento, Mala’s music effortlessly fuses New York subcultures with her Dominican roots. Her eclectic sound has been labelled experimental tropical punk, ghetto tech and hip-house —none of which quite captures the essence of her music or her personality: “We live in an age of multi-genres,” she shrugs. Genres aside, Mala’s in good company, often mentioned in the same breath as fellow multifaceted female artists M.I.A and Santigold.

Maluca Mala, née Natalie Ann Yepez, grew up listening to an all-encompassing mixtape, a compilation including salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia and mambo from her island heritage woven with the ’90s hip hop, drum’n’bass, club music, punk, house and techno she discovered as a curious New York youth.

The dichotomy continues: while the influence of legendary Dominican musicians such as Las Chicas Del Can can be clearly heard (and seen in the styling of her first music video), future collaborators include Future Brown, Brodinski, Diplo and Swedish pop princess Robyn, Mala’s beloved mentor.

A Dominican backbone—equal parts resilience and enduring optimism —is the basis of Mala’s work, life, style and attitude. “As a kid, I didn’t like the feeling of being excluded,” she begins.

“There’s different groups and you may not always fit in.” Mala recognized this isolation in the endeavours of other Dominican creatives like writer Junot Díaz,

whose novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao draws from his experience of adapting to a New Jersey lifestyle after moving from the Dominican Republic.

“Trying to balance between the two cultures was sometimes kind of tricky,” Mala admits. “I really identify with that in Díaz’s story.” Like many others whose family heritage and place of residence are at odds, Mala found that both became engrained in her over time—to the extent that questions regarding her distinguishing “Dominican-ness” seemed “weird”. It’s not that clear cut, she says.

As a Dominican New Yorker, drawing from and giving back to her home city informs everything Mala does; even “adult” personal ads have found their way into her storytelling. Living above the East Village newspaper the Village Voice after moving from the Bronx and Washington Heights exposed Mala to the paper’s explicit listings: “I thought, Who are these girls? They must have a story. This is not really who they are.”

Keen to explore those identities, for the video for Lola (Ging Danga), Mala invited high-profile lesbian model Jenny Shimizu and dual-gendered performer Mykki Blanco, in addition to escorts, a transgender woman and two gay men, to star.

“You wouldn’t know who the escort is; you wouldn’t know who the transgender is,” she points out. Mala’s sense of inclusiveness recognizes everyone as an individual instead of a stereotype— because “that’s how the world should be,” she declares. Personal style becomes a tool to reveal the genuine persona.

Ever since her father offered to buy her a pair of Doc Martens—before they became popular with rappers—fashion

has been a part of Mala’s vernacular.

With her current taste in designers ranging from thought-provoking brands like Eckhaus Latta, Hood By Air, Marques’Almeida and Luar Zepol to staples such as Balmain and Givenchy, Mala’s sartorial range reflects her music’s eclecticism. Though doing a collection herself is never out of the question— “Sure, if H&M wants to do a line, why not?”—Mala’s found other ways throughout the years to shake up the fashion community.

With a microphone in hand, GoPro strapped to her head and a wit that charmed everyone she came across, Mala interviewed a range of well-known designers for VFiles’ online video series, Xtreme Fashion Week. A unique, NYCbred online fashion community, VFiles needed contributors, and editorial directors David Toro and Solomon Chase looked to charismatic friends like Mala.

This would not be her only memorable appearance in the fashion world, however. Her most recent single, Trigger, landed Mala a gig at the Chromat S/S15 Formula 15 After Party, alongside the legendary Ghe20 G0th1k.

Venus X, the mastermind behind Ghe20 G0th1k—a cultish underground dance spectacular, now also a fashion movement, that attracts everyone from punks to fashionistas—is a fellow Dominican and friend of Mala’s. “As New York kids we’re always trying to support one another,” she says. “Whether it’s going to shows or doing music or performing or the folks who did my remixes, these are all kids that started together.”

For Trigger, Maluca worked with friends and producers Rizzla, Brodinski

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and Mess Kid, a group she feels “gets it” and “understands what it’s like to live in two cultures.” Out of the group, Mess Kid, the Detroit-raised, Latvian-born DJ and producer sought out by designers Alexander Wang, Balenciaga and DKNY for their events, created the most unexpected sound for Mala. “It was very different from the other remixes, which were more of a Spanish tempo,” she explains. “His was down tempo, really trippy and minimal.” Mala’s approach to Trigger marks a new evolution in her music, fuelled by the right collaborations.

“It’s all happening just like I said it would” Mala recently posted on Twitter.

Whether by writing down goals or creating vision boards, she feels if you “declare those things—and of course you have to go hard at it too—it will eventually start to happen.” And for Mala, it’s all coming together—and full circle. In addition to promoting Trigger, her next project will take her back to the Dominican Republic. “When I said everything is happening, this is one of the things that inspired that tweet,” she explains. She will join Art in Motion for their Batey 106 project, conducting a music workshop for the youth of a specific Dominican community. “What can we do to give them the tools to really live a fully expressed life?” she wonders. Sending over a multitalented musician and self-described humanist is definitely a good start. www.malucamala.com

Gc Interview

14

By Pinar&Viola Edit by Leendert Sonnevelt Photography: Andre Herrero

All clothing: Eckhaus Latta S/S15

Blurring the boundaries of fashion and art, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta are quickly becoming two of the industry’s most radical and socially aware innovators. Glamcult was pleased to introduce the American designers to equally radical art duo Pinar&Viola for an interchange of recognition and compassion.

“We kind of flourish in chaos.”

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Gc Interview

Eckhaus Latta P&V: We heard that you met through a pair of white sweatpants covered with Zoe’s menstrual blood.

Z: We used to talk about that pretty often, it’s true!

M: Yes, we love that story.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been so public about intimacy, though…

P&V: It’s quite intense. But that’s also visible in your work. You don’t seem to be uptight fashion designers.

M: We like clothing to have a weathered quality—it shouldn’t be pristine, you know? This big white jumper I’m wearing is going to get so dirty and I love that.

Z: Some of our favourite garments were found in trash piles. There’s this funny word often used for denim, especially in the States: distressed. To play with that is exciting.

P&V: Are you also interested in recycling from an idealistic viewpoint?

Z: Not really. Our reuse of found textiles stems from resourcefulness. It was much more affordable, we knew where to find them.

P&V: And you like the aesthetics of it.

M: Yes, here and there, but I think it always had to do with (the lack of) financial resources. We’ve never considered ourselves an eco brand.

Z: Not that we’re opposed to it.

M: I think it’s also the hunt! The search for the right material is really fun.

That feeling of going to a dusty warehouse and sifting through endless fabric…

P&V: But in your work we find much more than thrift-store scouring.

Z: Yes, we don’t go to thrift stores to find ideas. We’re definitely looking through graveyards of fabrics but the thrift-store kind of nostalgic design ideas are never a part of the way we work.

M: There’s never a referencing to pre-existing garments. We develop all our own silhouettes and patterns, although they do have a weird nostalgic quality.

P&V: The materials being familiar but the shape futuristic…

Z: Right—or the other way around!

P&V: Can you please tell us about the—amazing—doublestacked sneakers?

Z: We made those with a furniture designer who had been developing a single pair. We saw them and loved them! Together we sourced a lot more sneakers and made new pairs. Some of them are baby shoes, some are old Nike Air Jordans and others are shitty running shoes.

P&V: A shoe in a shoe is kind of violent and fetishistic. They’ve turned yellow and the sweat is

almost visible.

Z: Definitely. We rusted them too.

M: And there was distressing.

will be worn with the same amount of care, labour, encouragement and failure that we put into them. It’s very personal.

P&V: Do you design with a specific person in mind?

M: No, we don’t. I think inevitably there are people that inspire you in life, people you interact with. But we’ve never had a muse; it’s never been part of our practice.

Z: In some ways I feel like we’re each other’s muses. Not in a way where I lie awake at night and think of Mike.

But more like we’re responding to each other’s sensibilities constantly. We try to avoid the typical way a lot of people design with a customer in mind. Once the clothes are made, we appreciate it when individuals incorporate them into their own vocabulary. We don’t design for consumerist reasons.

P&V: That’s much closer to who you are.

M: Yes. We hope that when people are drawn to our clothing—whether that’s a 70-year-old woman or a 17year-old guy—they’re like, “This feels right for me,” and not, “I want to be an Eckhaus Latta person.”

Z: A head-to-toe Eckhaus Latta look has never been our goal.

M: That’s not how we envision the clothing. Of course we present it that way, but I think it’s also nice to mix things up. So you can mix it with a threedollar pair of pants you found at the thrift store. It allows a more individual approach, rather than totalitarian.

P&V: How do you survive in this tough world of fashion, where you have to think commercially?

Z: We’re still learning a lot. In the same way that we’re learning how to sew, we’re learning how to operate a business. The same goes for inspiration: when something is defined, it loses wonder.

Eckhaus Latta is becoming a space where we’re learning more and more every day about how we want to make products.

P&V: So you don’t compare yourself to others?

Z: We try not to. Of course we have wonderful peers and amazing conversations with people that design, and we have experience in designing for other people.

M: Brands, their structure and aesthetics, have been influential. But we’ve never looked at a label and felt, We want to be like that.

Z: Once something is coined, defined or canonized, it’s dead. Then someone has a definition for it to assume… and where do you go from there?

P&V: Heavy question! Is there an ideology that you want to spread?

Z: No, not a specific one that could be put down in a sentence. Every garment we make is an emotional process for both of us. It comes out of a very intense friendship. We hope the garments

P&V: And you like to keep things open?

M: Yes, I think that our work progresses like a diary; I always feel like in the end there’s a really emotional amalgamation of things.

Z: So beautiful that you say that!

M: Thank you. Fashion is such a linear process, but there’s also a lot of circling around and sitting on ideas, giving up and moving forward. I feel like our ideas have never been clear concepts; it’s more like they’re floating through our realities.

Z: We entered a system where we show every six months, but that doesn’t mean every six months it’s a clear-cut concept. That’s such a horrible waste of ideas. Maybe it makes sense to sell things quicker, but other than that it doesn’t make sense at all.

P&V: So what’s your definition of success?

Z: I wouldn’t like this if we weren’t engaged in a critical dialogue. Another reason why we went into the fashion industry is how collaborative it is, how it unites strangers all over the world to talk about and decipher cultural problems.

It’s really nice to be engaged in that conversation. And it’s a utility: everyone wears clothes.

P&V: In our experience, what binds everything together is happiness.

Z: Yes, but what makes you happy changes. It’s always little moments, though. Sometimes it’s when you’re working on something and you think: “Fuck, when is this going to be right?”

Then you hit that sweet spot and you’re like, “Cool!” That’s the best feeling in the world, something very intimate!

P&V: Isn’t it amazing to share that with someone?

Z: I live in Los Angeles and Mike lives in New York, so we don’t see each other every day. Sometimes one of us will be developing something for two months and won’t show the other person.

We piss each other off! At other times I’ll be making something and feel like, “Mike’s going to love this.” We talk to and see each other a lot.

P&V: There’s something in your work that is very New York and also something very LA. Z: Yes, I think so. People always ask what part is New York and what part is LA. Nothing was ever made solely in one city, though. We discuss everything.

P&V: Will the distance between you remain?

Z: It actually just started! Previously we were both living in New York. We were moving around a lot and we started moving production to Los Angeles, so it made more sense for me to be there.

16

I’m originally from California and like the change of scenery. You always have to be adaptable—that’s another definition of success.

P&V: Doesn’t it feel chaotic?

Z: I think we kind of flourish in that.

We don’t like chaos for the sake of chaos, but I think there’s something about floating parts and us connecting the dots between them.

P&V: You’ve described the S/S15 collection as your sexiest work so far. What’s the future of sex, according to you?

Z: Whenever we’re defining a silhouette, there’s something like an accidental sexiness. It’s not about being overt—in the same way the stinky shoe could possibly be a fetish. We’re never trying to establish some sort of defin­ ition of how someone wants to feel sexy; that’s too specific. There’s no shame in the future of sex.

M: I don’t really think about things like sex. Maybe our generation has a lot more intuitive awareness towards fluidity of sex and gender. Terms are a lot more open and less defined; I think that translates into the clothes. Yes, we have a male and female fitting model, we cut things for men and for women— but we style things back and forth. There are many things we consider unisex; we have a constantly swinging pendulum.

P&V: You’ve worked with a lot of artists and filmmakers, including Matthew Barney, Dev Hynes, Bjarne Melgaard and Alexa Karolinski. What would be your dream collab?

M: I don’t think we have an answer to that. All of our collaborations have been very organic.

Z: They have never been like the brand needs a cultural crowd and the artist needs financial support. They all came from our community, the fun and what feels right. We take on collaboration when we’re excited about it.

P&V: May we ask about your fears?

M: Yeah, my biggest fear would be the end of this. But also the thought of how things shift, how a practice and two individual lives are very malleable.

My biggest fear would be not being able to do what I want to do creatively.

Z: Yes, or being put in a pigeonhole where some person is telling us that we have to make the majority of our collection for X, Y or Z. That happens a lot in the fashion industry.

P&V: You’re too aware for that.

Z: Thank you.

M: I’m also afraid of this ending in an abstract sense, of losing control.

Z: Or losing the wonder. If this was turned into assembly-line production to dress the world… Yet I think compromise is not a problem.

M: Compromise is interesting. We

Eckhaus Latta often come across things where there’s no direct line between initial intention and end result. At times that’s frightening, but often it’s also the best part.

P&V: Our presence in each other’s lives really helps when we need to close our eyes and jump off a cliff.

Z: Yes, all this between us requires so much trust; it’s such an important part of this dialogue. It enables us to not live in the same city and to question each other a ton. Sometimes you feel like, “I do this for me.” But then you think again and it’s actually for both of us.

P&V: Do you fight sometimes?

M: Of course! It would be totally psychotic to never have a fight.

Especially when you have high pressure and multiple factors spiralling around you. When you butt heads you can also take a breath, talk to each other and move on. It doesn’t become spiteful.

P&V: Do you have a joker card for when you can’t get over something?

Z: We usually go outside and say, “We need to be nice to each other.”

P&V: You say that?

Z: Yeah, we work with 18 other people. We’re both really stubborn.

When we’re in this heat and want to strangle each other, we can’t do that.

But usually the grudge isn’t held.

M: It’s never held! We know each other so well, inside and out. At times you want to temporarily turn up the heat a little.

Z: We both grew up with brothers; we know exactly how to have that kind of warfare. Sometimes we allow ourselves to, and sometimes in private moments we really go there. Or we take a break from each other—but that’s rare.

P&V: Do you also hang out aside from work?

M: Definitely, when you start your own practice it always surrounds you, no matter what you’re doing. It’s always lingering. We’re not only in the studio together; we totally hang out a lot.

Z: And separately. For instance, Mike will be clubbing in New York and I’ll be night swimming.

P&V: Night swimming?

Z: You know, swimming in the ocean at night. We’re really different people, we have fun in different ways.

But we have fun in similar ways too. It’s nice to be together. www.eckhauslatta.com

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Gc Interview

18

Pussykrew for Archival Aesthetics, Tech Aesthetics Meditations, 032c Magazine, 2014

By Joline Platje

Although the work of multidisciplinary art duo Pussykrew might look post-apocalyptical or even dystopian, Ewelina Aleksandrowicz and Andrzej Wojtas (known by their respective monikers Tikul and Mi$ Gogo) actually embrace life. “Without nostalgia—without even being emotional—we’re looking to the future. We try to deconstruct reality, we modify the existing environment only to find a sensual balance between violence and beauty.”

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Gc Interview

Biome ::, site-specific installation, Replay Boardroom Gallery, 2015

Pussykrew

Working in the field of new media, Pussykrew’s interdisciplinary practices range from multimedia installations and sculptures to DIY electronics, video shorts and audiovisual performances. Since their first collab, Tikul and Mi$ Gogo have only rarely worked on projects without each other. “If it happens, it’s very rare,” Aleksandrowicz confides.

Wojtas explains: “For us, it just makes sense to create things together.” That process of creation is without defined roles, he says: “To be honest, we don’t think about it that much—whatever works at that moment.” Aleksandrowicz concurs: “Neither of us is domineering: we tend to switch a lot, depending on the project.” What’s more important is that Tikul and Mi$ Gogo love to do all the work themselves to create their visual journeys—work that would normally be done by a team of around ten.

Having flirted with several disciplines—Aleksandrowicz studied fashion design and arts before moving onto digital media; Wojtas was mainly interested in video editing—the two at present don’t favour a single medium to explore their views on the world. “I never would’ve thought 3D printing would become a part of my repertoire to express myself,” Wojtas laughs. “The freedom we’re enjoying with this collective is very interesting; everything is accessible,” says Aleksandrowicz.

First with hacked VHS players, now with both “traditional” and custom tools, Pussykrew challenge their viewers through an exploration of post-human identity, urban landscapes and their transformations. “We try to deconstruct the reality—or rather, the shapes —that

are familiar to everyone,” they explain.

“People often react emotionally when they first encounter our work: it looks rather post-apocalyptic and dystopian, yet still they’re touched by the beauty of it.

Although in general you could call us ‘depressed’, I honestly don’t believe we’re pessimistic. Without nostalgia— without even being emotional—we’re looking to the future. We’re not fighting it. We consider ourselves creative practitioners, researchers: the process is more important than the outcome.

We modify the existing environment only to find a sensual balance between violence and beauty. We like to think that we bend reality. Our work just helps you to digest and move on.”

Aleksandrowicz and Wojtas, both born in different parts of Poland, never met each other in their home country. Their first encounter was in Dublin some ten years ago, through one of their many mutual friends. At that time the couple, who were not yet “together”, both lived there. They first became close friends and then it took them “a really long time” to actually start collaborating on projects. But in spite of their long and fruitful collaboration, Pussykrew—now both co-workers and lovers—don’t have a ritual when starting new projects. Indeed, they can hardly keep up with the velocity and volume of their projects, showing and working together with members of the in-crowd avant-garde art and music scene— think: Perera Elsewhere, HTRK and Leila.

They’ve exhibited their innovative installations, sculptures, videos and live visuals at various digital-arts festivals and art spaces all over the world, from

Iran to Taipei. Aleksandrowicz: “I don’t think many people could handle our way of working: all the projects we make are created in extreme conditions. We work day and night.” Apparently, time is a luxury for this couple. Or, as Wojtas likes to put it: “We’re overcommitted—I think you could call that our ritual!” Aleksandrowicz hastily adds: “We’re very active and we’re exhibiting a lot. Every year it seems like there’s more things piling up. So, to some of our friends we’re workaholics.

But you know, when the project is interesting we prefer to do it, much more than going on a holiday.”

One of Pussykrew’s latest exhibitions, Biome ::, is now on display at the newly opened Replay Boardroom Gallery, an exhibition space founded

by Replay in the actual boardroom of their Amsterdam office to provide upcoming art talent with a platform to present their work to the public. Pussykrew transformed the monumental dining room, built in 1910, into a laboratory for aesthetic investigation, exploring postinternet artistic values in dialogue with the ornate interior of the exhibition space. It showcases 3D-printed sculptures, printed silk flags and a video installation made out of three vertical screens showing different video animations. “We see Biome:: as an independent ecosystem, inspired by the urban jungle as our contemporary environment. By working closely with the architecture and history of the space, we developed a vital representation of the room, which disrupts the notion of past and present,” they say. By creating an immersive and playful tropical environment, they balance on the border between repre-

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senting fantasy and reality, just like in all of their work.

Tikul and Mi$ Gogo not only work a lot, they’ve also moved between many (European) cities: after Dublin, Newcastle and Berlin, Brussels followed.

They still reside in the latter—at least until they move to Shanghai for a residency at the prestigious Swatch Art Peace Hotel this coming summer. “By now, we’ve moved so many times, it’s not that difficult any more. If we stay in one place too long, we get bored. And since we don’t own a lot of things, except for some equipment, a few 3D printers and cables, we just go. After two years of staying in the same city, it feels like we’ve done anything that could be done. We then need new interactions,” Aleksandrowicz admits. But as much as they love to move around within it, both Pussykrew members would love to exchange the real world for the virtual.

Aleksandrowicz laughs: “Sometimes I wish I could actually upload myself on the internet. I’m waiting for that to become a possibility. I think the real world gets too painful sometimes. Obviously, we’re quite okay with the shifting borders between the virtual and material. It gets blurrier by the day, that’s nothing new.

Everyone knows that!” Wojtas adds: “It’s funny, because when I was younger it all felt like that film with Pierce Brosnan The Lawnmower Man. But now, that’s all becoming real.” “We’re quite curious to know what’s out there: if we could inject ourselves online we would definitely try it. But what kind of issues would we encounter in that world? Anything that connects the body with technology: it is the self we’re talking about,”

Pussykrew for Panther Modern, Room 7 exhibition, 2015

Pussykrew

different movements. “Because we see the body as something undefined, our work touches so many different environments: our videos are loved by queer communities, because of the liquid sexuality they express, but our 3D sculptures are praised by both industry professionals and post-internet kids because of the aesthetics. We focus on internet aesthetics, pop culture, corpor­ ate discourse, daily life and global issues. So, we don’t fully belong to a singular group. What we have in common with our audience is a strong emotional connection with all the things that are happening around us. Right now!” www.niochnioszki.net www.replayboardroomgallery.com Biome :: is now on display at the Replay Boardroom Gallery until 15 May. Open for public every Friday from 10am to 4pm (Herengracht 280, Amsterdam).

Jungle Affairs, triptych, prints, 2015

Aleksandrowicz ponders.

Pussykrew’s fascination with virtually generated environments motivates them to play with the contrast between deconstructed digital images and sterile cinematic poetry using the traditional language of a painting. Not that the two are huge fans of the classical fine arts. “To be honest, I really have a problem with the medium of painting.

I’m very critical towards that kind of art. I have favourite video artists and fashion designers, but I don’t remember when was the last time I saw a beautiful painting,” Aleksandrowicz laughs. Wojtas concurs: “We love the idea of people hanging our installations on the walls of their houses, framed nicely. Given the slow pace of most of our video works, you could say we more or less make digital paintings. The aesthetics are pretty epic and meditative: sometimes people don’t even see them moving!”

Both Pussykrew’s video animations and 3D printed sculptures are blurring the borders between the physical and the digital realms. Filtered through carnal data mesh, liquid apocalyptic dysphoria and 3D fantasy shuffle, they play with issues of materiality, creating new synthetic-organic forms, which are constantly in the process of mutation. Wojtas states: “To us, there’s no distinction between the real world and the rendered. It’s very natural, very fluid.” The two work between borders and identities, Aleksandrowicz says: “We’re all cyborgs, we’re all connected through electronic devices. We don’t like to work with fixed ideas. The models we portray transcend space and gender.” That might explain why their work is embraced by so many

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Gc Interview

Sandals Strellson

By Leendert Sonnevelt Photography: Peggy Kuiper

Styling: April Jumelet Hair and make-up: Ellen Romeijn Model: Jaco van den Hoven—Republic All clothing: James Kelly S/S15

Take a second to imagine the portraiture of David Armstrong and Mark Morrisroe magic­ ally translated into clothes. Is it a grainy, boyish line of menswear that you see? H&M Design Award nominee and Fashion Scout winner James Kelly actually managed to incorporate “the photographed male” into a romantic and highly detailed womenswear collection, depicting the relationship between a man and a woman. Glamcult dove into Kelly’s emotional narrative and shot his collection—on a boy.

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Gc Interview

James Kelly From Minju Kim to Eddy Anemian to Ximon Lee, we’ve always had a soft spot for the well-selected winners of the H&M Design Award. That being said, this year it was a runner-up that caught our attention with an extravagant and distorted MA collection. Its creator, James Kelly, graduated in 2014 from London’s Royal College of Art, a school he describes as “a bastion of an institution”, where he most of all learnt to be honest with himself. But also to “work with other people, because joint effort is not detrimental.” And lastly “to love what you do—because if you don’t love it, then you really shouldn’t be doing it.” How and when exactly Kelly got into fashion, he can’t really say: “It was more like slowly being introduced to the industry,” he recalls.

“One thing I remember is seeing a look from Dior’s A/W06 couture collection in the newspaper—the gothic bondage section—and thinking: What the hell is that? I love it! That sticks in my head.”

Storytelling forms the foundation of Kelly’s practice, a characteristic that mani­ festly finds its predecessor in the work of John Galliano and Olivier Theyskens.

“I love their sense of romance and modernity,” the designer confirms. “They evoke beautiful and provocative emotions with beautiful and provocative clothes. They inspire me to keep reaching. There are many icons that also influence me: Pina Bausch, Virginia Woolf and Tilda Swinton are always with me.”

Some sources claim I Wanted You, Kelly’s graduation collection, is about photographic imagery of garments caught in a storm. Others say it’s about emotion. The creator himself finds truth in both statements. “The story is really about a girl who has a flashback of her ex-lover while wearing his jacket. This flashback creates an emotional storm in her head, which becomes physical and distorts the coat that she wears— blurring it, moving it, making it fall off.”

We can’t help but wonder: What exactly does her vision entail? Kelly ponders aloud: “Probably him lying naked in her bed. Or a summer’s day spent in his car, driving around the English countryside. But most likely the former—that’s what I would see. It’s the more intimate scenario.”

Throughout its narrative, I Wanted You was inspired by the work of photo­g ­ raphers such as Mark Morrisroe and David Armstrong. “I’ve always been intrigued by the relationship between a man and a woman,” Kerry elucidates.

“I love the contradictions and similarities between the two. I’ve also always had an interest—obsession, almost—with the photographed male. That’s why these photographers were so prevalent in my research. In a way I wanted to evoke that with womenswear, so it would become a natural relationship. I wanted to capture what they captured, but in a girl. Albeit completely different, as it was more the provocative aspects of their work that influenced me: the youth, the quality of the photographs, the graininess, the texture and the

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context. I design with emotion, with my feelings, so that’s always present in whatever I do. And storms… Well, stormy colours just turn me on.” One photo that Kelly holds especially dear is a selfportrait of a smiling Morrisroe, his bare body and face simultaneously illuminated and shadowed. “He was such a beautiful man. The one with him smiling always gets me.”

Both in terms of shapes and colour palette, I Wanted You clearly references the natural. But Kelly also found his way to Mother Nature in terms of materials, creating blown-up and crooked patchworks from resources such as alpaca hair and ostrich feathers. “I love the skins and hairs of animals,” he explains. “They have such a beautiful natural texture to work with. It’s not that I prefer them to other materials—I also love fresh wool or nylon—it’s just that they offer something unique; that particular feather or hair is distinctive to the animal. I’d have to say ostrich feathers are my favourite.

They’re just so light and delicate, they move perfectly. It was my first time using them and it won’t be my last.”

The near haute-couture proportions of Kelly’s work, as well as the timeintensive craftsmanship, make one wonder: What if the designer had won the H&M Design Award after all, and was now creating a ready-to-wear collection? “I don’t think it would be difficult for me,” he counters. “Take the feathers away and have a look at the compositions of the looks. What you can take away is a beautiful, oversized sports jacket or trench coat.” Fortunately, winning the Merit Award by Fashion Scout —one of the UK’s largest fashion showcases, frequented by the likes of Anna Wintour and Suzy Menkes—has enabled Kelly to design and present his first autumn/winter collection, as well as two more collections to come. “I’m very focused and I love what I’m doing,” the designer concludes, “so it’s great fun.”

Sucked into Kelly’s picturesque universe, Glamcult is ready for many more turbulent tales by a brutal romantic. “Yes, I am,” Kelly assents. “But I don’t get to show it myself, so it comes through in what I do.” www.jameskelly-uk.com

Trousers Delikatessen

25

Gc Interview

26

By Emily Vernon Photography: YaĂŤl Temminck

The Garden It’s likely not everyone will understand the world of twin brothers Fletcher and Wyatt Shears, aka The Garden. It’s a world broadcast through social media, riddled with cryptic messages and populated by imaginary characters. But despite their onstage antics—not to mention Fletcher’s cross-dressing past—the Shears boys are really just a pair of ordinary Orange County twenty-somethings, with allAmerican smiles.

“I feel like a relatively normal person,” Fletcher Shears admits to Glamcult, “with certain attributes that makes me interested in doing certain things that some people may find out of the ordinary.” Though the Shears twins do do ordinary­— like hacking into their friend’s mum’s Netflix account or reminiscing over growing up to surf CDs and scary stories­— their fabricated reality does not. And yet The Garden’s all-encompassing “vada vada” universe (think neo-punk with yelping vocals) eludes many people’s understanding. It’s a reality that thrives on curiosity and humour as much as it does on uncertainty and anticipation. Through storytelling and unforgettable performances, this conceptual, magic-making duo uses the imaginary to their advantage.

Though The Garden’s inventions surpass mere child’s play with an elaborate narrative and cultivated candour, their story starts with a children’s book series. Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with its creepy, controversial illustrations by Stephen Gammell, inspired much of the storytelling, lyrics and atmosphere of The Garden. “It’s always been a mystery to a lot people, like, why did they have those books in the elementary school system?” Wyatt remembers. It is just as well what they did: they are “one of the secret things” Wyatt identifies with most of The Garden’s lyrics.

“Those stories just give you a certain kind of tingle, like, ‘Ugh, that just sucks,’ but in a cool way,” he explains. Tales such as The Thing, Wyatt’s favourite, inspired him to pen his own renditions on looseleaf paper that were then safely stored in a notebook. “If I were to have to make my way into a haunted house or deal with an exorcism, I could never do that.

It’s too close-up and personal for me,” he admits. And so The Garden prefer fabricating their own images—even characters—over participating in an unearthly reality.

Eight Foot Tall Man, Apple, Aunt J, Paperclip and The Face are just some of the characters that populate the Schwartz brothers’ garden. This motley crew is the inspiration for lyrics and visual material, including the graphics for their new tour T-shirt. The stippled illustration of a nose, pair of eyes and a half-grin is The Face, the mascot behind The Garden’s yet-to-be-released single Everything Has a Face. These characters can live in The Garden’s universe for an extended period of time—up to a few years, in the case of Aunt J, who makes a guest appearance in the twins’ 2014 music video for Crystal Clear but who premiered two years before in Fletcher’s YouTube video Glimpse #12. Initially dressed in a trash bag and wearing a mask, the budget version did not satisfy The Garden’s image of Aunt J. The twins volleyed between “a sluggish kind of blob” and “not a head, but more of, like, a spirit” for their perfect vision. But their followers understood The Garden’s intent either way; dedicated fans sent messages like “Aunt J’s following me” when they figured out her intent.

The Garden will soon debut a new character to join Aunt J et al in The Garden: a jester. Referred to as “trickerish” during their performances, the twins are notorious for jumping around and doing somersaults on stage. “Sometimes we sort of feel like jesters,” Fletcher elabor­ ates, which led to The Garden furthering that idea in their music. Though this new mascot was primarily inspired by the twins’ desire to entertain the crowd, their bemusing online riddling provided another reason. Originally intended to delight their followers, their obscure messages—“finally buried”, “Support gravity, my people would”, “If you are walking down the road and you see a space worm in the distance trying to flag you down. Immediately turn around and escape his sight”—outwitted many. “I’m hoping maybe someday somebody

will scroll down our Twitter or Facebook or Instagram and realize what was actually going on,” Fletcher says. “I don’t think anybody paid attention or pays attention to that kind of stuff.”

Of their most recent shows, two proved to be that perfect synchronicity between artist intent and audience participation, say the twins. In Montreal, a “certain vibe” and “certain magic” created “a friendly war zone,” as Fletcher calls it. That particular night it all came together: “We had a great connection with the crowd; they had a great connection with us and it was, like, BOOM!” But arousing a crowd’s reaction doesn’t always come that easily, Wyatt concedes: “There’ve been times when we’ve totally lifted it up and it’s almost like you’re down on the scoreboard and then you get the points and end up winning the game—” “—like a comeback,” Fletcher finishes his brother’s sentence.

Those challenging nights make The Garden appreciate those shows where everything comes together all the more: “Everyone was very intrigued,” Fletcher says of their recent London performance, “and wondering what was going to happen next—as were we.”

Thriving on unpredictability, like a fan who savours instead of frets over a tied football game’s last minutes, performing live is always thrilling for The Garden: “Like I always say,” Wyatt admits, “anything weird that’s going to come at us, let it come at us. It’s fun to kind of deal with it.” The raw experience The Garden hopes to effect in their performances can never be completely under their influence, a truth they unquestionably accept. “If you control too much, you lose that magic,” Fletcher elaborates, and Wyatt quickly agrees.

The Garden also recognizes the need to relinquish their authority when participating in another artist’s vision or project. “The way we play music is our control, our ideas, our energy from our

27

creation,” Fletcher explains. However, when The Garden began modelling for Saint Laurent’s A/W13 runway and campaign, they found it was exactly the opposite. “You’re just a piece of their puzzle,” Fletcher remarks. The opportunity presented to the twins by Hedi Slimane, current creative director of the Parisian fashion house and music obsessive, offered an experience like no other.

Walking the runway in Paris, Wyatt says, “slaps you across the face and just kind of makes you feel cool”, with its electrified atmosphere and surreal setting.

The Garden did not garner the attention of Slimane or rally audiences in Montreal and London from merely reading scary stories as kids. Their father, who was in OC punk bands Final Conflict and Shattered Faith, played ’70s and ’80s punk music, and surf CDs on the pre-school run. Groups such as Earth, Wind & Fire, The Prodigy, Elo and Killing Joke all left their nostalgic mark—especially so in the case of the latter, Killing Joke. “It’s not a band I listen to every single day because I’ve listened to it so much already in my life,” Fletcher admits of the Notting Hill post-punk band’s pervading influence. Admired by both Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke produced distinct albums every time.

“That’s inspiring in a way, the fact that they can still keep their fan base and progress as a band, but have that same Killing Joke sound. That’s something I envy and hope to maybe someday accomplish,” Fletcher reveals. If The Garden play their cards right, and even imagine a couple of their own, the twins’ music, performances and, of course, universe will surely expand. www.thegardentwins.com

Gc Interview

28

By Emily Vernon Photography: Katharina Poblotzki

Tei Shi The part of Valerie Teicher known as Tei Shi channels the more submerged elements of the Colombian-born, NYC-based songstress’s personality. Though she herself might dismiss her alter ego as a “mental-health thing”, Tei Shi embodies a modern-day siren that draws listeners toward figurative, water-crashing rocks with her goosepimply, ethereal electro-pop. And Glamcult is only too happy to follow.

Before “becoming” Tei Shi, Valerie Teicher grew a backbone through self-reliance and the ability to adapt. Frequent family moves—and later, sporadic higher educational pursuits—saw her formative years divided between Argentina, Colombia, Vancouver, Montreal and Boston. Initially studying psychology in Montreal, Teicher dropped out to attend the Berklee College of Music—although her takeaways from the prestigious Boston institution were “probably not the things they tell you you’ll get out of it!” she confesses.

Despite that change of direction suggesting, perhaps, a conscious pursuit of a musical career, it wasn’t until three years into the programme that Teicher shared her work with the person who would become her biggest champion, her producer and, her boyfriend. Luca Buccellati immediately understood the potential of Teicher’s sweetly ethereal, dreamy ballads, committing his expertise to re-record and produce her songs.

Together they made her 2013 debut EP, Saudade.

A Portuguese and Galician term without an equivalent in English, “saudade” is a strong yearning for an absent someone or something, intensified by nostalgia or loneliness. It’s a title that couldn’t be more elegant or appropriate for a singer who, before moving from Boston to the creative catch-all of New York City, had never fully experienced a sense of belonging. “I didn’t really have a place that I felt settled in and I think that was what prompted me to move to New York,” she reveals to Glamcult. A move from Brooklyn to Chinatown took Teicher into what she calls her “own little world”, one purposefully separated from her friends and everyone else who’s flock­e d to the city’s most populous borough.

The relationship between Valerie Teicher and her alter ego Tei Shi is best illustrated with a simple equation: Valerie Teicher divided by her music equals Tei Shi. “Tei Shi is the music that I make and that is me,” she clarifies. “And that is who I am as a person on a day-to-day basis.”

Tei Shi, then, is literally a part of Teicher —even down to the name itself. Derived from a fragment of her last name and fashioned together from a brainstorming session and successive conversation with a friend, “Tei Shi” minimizes the discomforts of such intimate expression as is found in Teicher’s lyrics, allowing her “to take control of different sides” connected to her personality. “A mental health thing,” she concludes dismissively.

While it would be easy to file Tei Shi’s sound alongside Say Lou Lou and call it a day, she also joins female artists such as Feist, Björk and Lykki Li, who all strengthened their musical identities with their own genre, persona and name.

Each is an inspiration for Tei Shi, admir­ ed—as is the case with all her heroes— for their captivating complexity and unconventional beauty. But Tei Shi is also trying to earn a place next to talents, such as FKA twigs and the equally precocious Banks, by connecting with others through her creations. There’s no other way, she professes, to bring together the range of influential individuals in her life.

With her star truly ascending— and that progress set to go stratospheric with the release of her debut album later this year—it would be perfectly natural if Tei Shi was feeling the pressure. Instead, she says, the increasing scrutiny only makes her more motivated and gratified.

“I never feel like, ‘Oh my god I have all of this attention on me,’” she says, before adding the caveat: “Although I can see how it presents internal challenges to you as a person to start measuring your value

through how much people are talking about you.” Ever-increasing interest has not, it seems, shaken her sense of identity.

Her self-assuredness perhaps derives from a fascination with the entire experience of her work, not just the minor aspects. The gentle invitations extending from her gauzy sounds enclosed by an almost bedroom intimacy go beyond mere music, acquiring additional visual and sensory qualities. “The thing that will inspire me to write a song is not necessarily the music I listen to,” Tei Shi clarifies, “but more the experience I’m having.”

She cites examples like watching a film or attending a new art venue. As a nomadic individual who’s already experienced numerous lifestyles and their engrained peculiarities, experiences influence Tei Shi in indecipherable ways.

Take music as an example: though current projects from The Acid or Caribou stirred her interest, the music from her past weighs more on her current projects.

From growing up to the soundtrack of her parents’ classic rock and folk music to explorations in indie rock, indie pop, electronic and hip hop, this eclectic mix has all contributed to her sound. “The influences are a lot more involuntary and subconscious,” Tei Shi explains.

“I find that when I’m working on my own music, I stop listening to music,” she continues. Her “solitary process” customarily begins isolated in her room, building on a melodic or lyrical starting point, an idea picked from daily writing sessions on her phone or a review of old notes. Her lyrics acquire a lacy complexity throughout the process, with most of the writing occurring during recording session. “It’s all on the go, and that’s how it stays,” Tei Shi explains, where layering vocals and folding in concepts as they develop override an incubation period or need for frequent review. During these

29

phases, the vocals become the focus of attention. “If I have an idea for a baseline or a rhythm, I find it easier to just do it with my voice,” she admits—a necessity, since she does not play an instrument well enough to accompany her lyrics, and a particular feature, she speculates, that makes her music more focused on the voice. Heart Shaped Birthmark or Adder(F)All from debut EP Saudade exhibit the characteristic vocal layering taken to their extreme, almost into an accompanying chorus instead of elaborate instrumentals or bleeping synths.

The majority of Tei Shi’s music, she analyses, becomes either “mellow or pretty”, like the airy See Me, or “upbeat or fun”, apparent in her more commercial single Bassically. However, even the latter’s danceable characteristics cannot completely eclipse its vulnerable message. “Please don’t say / Please don’t say / Please don’t say / That I’m begging you for love,” she whispers over entrancing instrumentals. “The lyrics are usually something more then the song is giving away,” Tei Shi offers, “and sometimes there’s a darker side.” While her next EP will continue to unravel the relationship between her music’s mood and message, Tei Shi’s solitary process preserves the overall experience. “Yeah, it was mostly at home,” she admits to Glamcult of the recording sessions. It’s a choice that, be the songs upbeat, mellow, airy or danceable, will continue to engulf her listeners in an intimate place only Valerie Teicher can access through Tei Shi. www.teishimusic.com

Gc Interview

Made by you “It’s not the destination but the journey that counts.” Sure, that’s a bit of a clincher. But as we continuously introduce exciting new talent, we often run the risk of overlooking the expeditions that shape them.

Inspired by Converse’s Made by you campaign—which celebrates self-expression by showcasing the sneakers worn by some of the world’s most creative individuals—we decided to do both: capturing two of our favourite new artists and the inspirational journeys they embark on. Happy landing!

Photography: Yaël Temminck

Thera Clazing

“My work is about immense worlds where distance doesn’t exist, worlds that are very near and very far. It deals with endlessness and an ever-haunting transience —losing yourself and the chaos that remains.” It must be said: there are few young artists who describe their practice as eloquently as Thera Clazing, who graduated from the HKU University of the Arts in 2014. When Glamcult and Converse approached the 24-year-old artist about following the fascinating path of her Chucks, we were met by a very surprised reply. “Really? Have you seen my sneakers? They’re completely abused!” But it’s exactly the dust, the paint and the charcoal that makes Clazing’s sneakers— “I must confess that I bought them at a flea market”—into a reflection of her forlorn work. The artist graduated with an enorm­ ous lingering mural and has currently outdone herself with Shadows of a Downfall, a larger-than-life painting on the walls of Rotterdam’s Kunsthal. The skeleton-ridden landscape resembles a dream that Clazing experienced when she was just ten years old and met “the queen of chess” in a boundless white landscape. “I experienced the grandness of our being and the nothingness of me as an individual. I often get lost in this feeling, as if the earth disappears and I fall into an abyss. Or do I fly? The only grip I have is myself…” Despite her pensive work, Clazing is direct and down-to-earth. “I can’t stand artists

Advertorial

that complain about a lack of inspiration.

Inspiration isn’t something that comes to you; it’s the logical result of the steps you take. I believe in hard work, taking possession of your materials and sacrificing yourself for art’s sake.” Somewhat unexpectedly, the artist’s atelier is a minute room in Utrecht’s Kanalaneiland area— sketches everywhere, cold water only.

“I think this is the best neighbourhood,” she smiles. “It used to be problematic, but there are more and more creative people that live and work here now.”

One can only wonder: How do Clazing’s giant works come to life in such a small room? “I make circles!” she explains.

“You start on one wall and then go around and around and around.” Closer to the aura of her suspenseful creations is the Spreepark near Berlin, a desolate former amusement park that left a lasting impression on Thera and her Chucks. “I made a series of paintings about it. But I experience the same feeling when I see an empty Chinese restaurant and the blue glow of its aquarium. When I look out of my atelier window after a long night of hard work and the world is fast asleep.

Loneliness easily lets itself be captured, if you ask me.”

Shadows of a Downfall will be on display at Kunsthal Rotterdam until 24 May 2015. www.theraclazing.nl

Made by you

Karim Adduchi

Karim Adduchi strives after anything but perfection. In the same fashion as marking his sneakers with thick black stripes, the 27-year-old Moroccan artist adds vivid layers of paint to the unrealistic imagery he finds mostly in fashion magazines. Adduchi spent the larger part of his life in Barcelona but now studies at Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academie, where he dabbles between various disciplines. Although Glamcult got to know the artist through his escapist paintings, he is currently also working on his graduation collection as a fashion student.

Geography, place and heritage are an important part of Adduchi’s self-expression: “I will always carry the nostalgia of Morocco and Spain with me. I’m using the past to be able to share the present; my work communicates what language can’t communicate. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?” Following the artist and his Chucks on their daily journey through Amsterdam, Glamcult and Converse were led behind the colossal stage of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet. “It’s an intriguing space not so much because of the place itself, but because of the idea it represents. I like watching an opera, but what makes that opera happen is much more intriguing.”

Adduchi is an observer, always attentive to whatever happens around him. His reality is warm and emotional—unlike the large industrial spaces that inspire

him. “My fascination with those places started when I visited one in Spain at a very young age. We didn’t have them in Morocco, so I was in shock! They’ve become a nostalgic image in the context of my memory.” Adduchi’s awareness of his origin is visible in every aspect of his vocation. Much like the novels by the renowned black writers that grace the walls of his atelier—Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin, among others —his work breathes a lust for life. “When I paint over an existing image, I often find it so frozen and cynical. I want to make it alive with movement and emotion.” The artist’s desire to leave a mark seems insatiable. Just hours after taking on the city together, an updated image of Adduchi’s Chucks landed in our inbox.

The black stripes had radically disappeared and been replaced by a white, mosaic-like pattern. A genuine “Had a great day today!”, instantly reflected by abstract white faces on the side of his sneaker. “The point for me as an artist is to create a bridge between my art and the people that see it. If you see the artwork and feel related to it by memory, object, light or action… then in that moment everything makes sense.” www.karimadduchi.com

Watch these artists’ journey as we follow them on www.glamcult.com Advertorial

By: Emma van Meyeren Photography: C. Hatshepsut

Jam City “Love is resistance” reads the bright-red header of Jam City’s Facebook page. This March, the London producer (real name Jack Latham) released his sophomore LP. Dream A Garden, the follow-up to Classical Curves’ sparse, architectural club sounds, shows a new side of the Night Slugs signee: bordering on post-punk, it comes with a (political) statement and even has lyrics, sung by Latham himself. On closer inspection, however, this isn’t such a U-turn at all. As Latham explains: it’s rather an inversion than a total break.

Glamcult asked him a few questions about new directions and fighting the system—with love.

As a teenager, did you ever imagine you would create a work that has such a clear message as Dream A Garden?

No—ha-ha. But then in some ways, I still feel the same way I did when I was a teenager. I still find this world alienating, I still love playing guitar.

I guess I’m just figuring out how to say those things now.

“The act of loving, being loved and giving love is radical,” your Facebook statement says. How do you carry out this idea in your daily life?

Well, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

But I just try to make some time each day to make sure the people in my life that I source so much from know that I love them. This can be the smallest act.

It’s also important to remember to love yourself. Sometimes this might mean just taking 20 minutes to unplug from everything and go for a walk or look at the sky... The smallest acts contain a lot of power. Love transforms your life and

I wanted it to sound like a beautiful wild flower growing out of a building site.

takes you to unexpected places, so I try and open myself up to that, wherever you might find it.

Is your dream garden, besides being a place of resistance, also a place of solace?

Absolutely! I think to attain peace and tranquillity is a very powerful form of resistance to a system that prioritizes consuming and working above all else.

If you had intellectual and creative control over tomorrow’s newspaper front pages, what would we see?

Wow—good question. I’d probably hand it over to a team that could do a better job than me. We’d see people who aren’t normally seen on the front page, we’d hear voices that are normally silenced, and it would stay that way.

How did Classical Curves grow into Dream A Garden?

It kind of slid into it, twisted itself and thawed into something warmer.

Did Dream A Garden start with sounds or thoughts—or did they develop together?

They happened together. I mean, it’s all connected really. You might read something, see something and find yourself strumming a guitar. I guess in some ways the record is about opening yourself up to any form of inspiration; you can find the start of a song in anything, anywhere. Music was just the easiest way for me to express myself.

Your previous tracks were purely instrumental. Why did you decide to use lyrics for Dream A Garden?

I guess it’s just the quickest, easiest and most accurate way to express how you’re feeling. I was reading a lot of poems as well and getting really inspired

by Langston Hughes. I also love Matsuo Bashō ’ s haikus, they’re so beautiful and economical... they really made me want to use words in my music.

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You come from a club-music background. Is this evident in your new work, too?

I hope so! That’s in my musical DNA. I never studied music so I think I learnt how to write songs from going to clubs. The drums, the bass, the groove: it’s all still in there. Maybe even better this time.

Is Dream A Garden an answer or a question?

It’s both!

Do you believe the dreamed-of garden could become reality?

Absolutely. To start dreaming it is to make it a reality. Dreaming re-orders our whole environment, makes new possibilities out of our current reality.

Dreaming makes us less cynical. And it’s more fun.

Gc Interview

Visual Essays

34 Why should I be bound to thee, O my lovely Myrtle-tree?

40 Anywhere you go, desire is desire.

Photography:

Ester Grass Vergara

Photography: Julien Bernard

48 Breakfast in bed

for four hundred thousand.

Photography: Lasse Dearman

Left: Shirt Vetements, trousers Yohji Yamamoto, scarf stylist’s own

Right: Beige trousers Acne Studios, striped black trousers Diesel Black Gold, bandana stylist’s own

Left: Jacket Y/PROJECT, trousers Yohji Yamamoto, shoes Kris van Assche, bandana stylist’s own

Right: Jacket, jeans and shoes Gosha Rubchinskiy

Left: Sleeves Vetements, trousers and shoes Y/PROJECT

Right: Jacket and jeans Gosha Rubchinskiy

Photography: Julien Bernard Styling: Erik Raynal Hair: Jonathan Dadoun Make-up: Corinne Fouet—Airport Agency Model: Hadrien de Miollis—New Madison

Left: Dress Aziz Bekkaoui

Right: Top Dries Van Noten via Mytheresa, dress and trousers JW Anderson via Stylebop.com, sandals Teva

Left: Gilet Maison the Faux, top Carin Wester, trousers McQ Alexander McQueen

Right: Top and trousers Marques’ Almeida

Left: Dress Schueller de Waal

Left: Top Marni

Right: Top & Other Stories, jacket and trousers Christian Wijnants

Photography: Ester Grass Vergara—Unit CMA Styling: Lisa Anne Stuyfzand Hair and make-up: Kathinka Gernant for Chanel—UNSPOKEN Model: Nouk Torsing—Elite Model Management Assistants photography: Vincent Houtman and Fenna Koot Assistant styling: Julia Suyker

Left: Sweater Acne Studios, big dot brief Happy Socks Right: Jacket and jeans McQ Alexander McQueen, optic boxer Happy Socks

Follow Karla on Instagram @karlaholmback Follow Gustav on Instagram @muskelhund

Shirt Versace via Studio Travel, dots boxer brief Happy Socks Follow Alfred on Instagram @munkedreng

Cardigan model's own, shirt Levi's via Studio Travel, optic boxer Happy Socks Follow Gustav on Instagram @muskelhund

Tanktop Lacoste, multi brief Happy Socks Follow Cecilia on Instagram @cccclementine

Sweater Acne Studios, big dot brief Happy Socks Follow Karla on Instagram @karlaholmback

Shirt Acne Studios, dots boxer brief and athletic stripe sock Happy Socks Follow Alfred on Instagram @munkedreng

Top, skirt and shoes Acne Studios, block zebra sock Happy Socks Follow Cecilia on Instagram @cccclementine

Top Versace via Studio Travel, optic brief Happy Socks Follow Tessa on Instagram @tessahoder

Jacket Helmut Lang, big dot boxer Happy Socks Follow Frederik on Instagram @woloszynski

Photography: Lasse Dearman Styling: Oliver Fussing—Scoop Artists Hair and make-up: Mads Stig—Scoop Artists Models: Alfred Goll—Elite Models, Cecilia Sardou, Frederik Woloszynski—Elite Models, Gustav Berntsen—Elite Models, Karla Nor Holmback, Tessa Hoder—Scoop Models Special thanks to Happy Socks and Studio Travel Copenhagen www.happysocks.com

Erkka Nissinen

DE HALLEN HAARLEM

Solo Exhibition 14 March – 25 May 2015

www.dehallenhaarlem.nl

I want Glamcult

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Studio Travel www.studiotravel.tumblr.com

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Stylebop www.stylebop.com

Aziz Bekkaoui www.azizbekkaoui.com

James Kelly www.jameskelly-uk.com

Teva www.teva.com

Carin Wester www.carinwester.com

JW Anderson www.j-w-anderson.com

Versace www.versace.com

Chanel www.chanel.com

Kris Van Assche www.krisvanassche.com

Vetements www.vetementswebsite.com

Christian Wijnants www.christianwijnants.com

Lacoste www.lacoste.com

Y/PROJECT www.yproject.fr

Clarks www.clarks.com

Levi’s www.levi.com

Yohji Yamamoto www.yohjiyamamoto.co.jp

Converse www.converse.com

Liam Hodges www.liamhodges.com

Danielle Romeril www.danielleromeril.com

Maison the Faux www.maisonthefaux.com

Delikatessen www.delikatessen.jp

Marni www.marni.com

Designers Remix www.designersremix.com

Marques’ Almeida www.marquesalmeida.com

Diesel www.diesel.com

McQ Alexander McQueen www.alexandermcqueen.com

Diesel Black Gold www.dieselblackgold.com

Mytheresa www.mytheresa.com

Dries Van Noten www.driesvannoten.be

Schueller de Waal www.schuellerdewaal.com

Eckhaus Latta www.eckhauslatta.com

Sebastian Professional www.sebastianprofessional.com

Created by Nathan Clark, worn by true originals.

Experience the story of the Clarks Desert Boot on facebook.com/ClarksOriginals