CHARLIE ISOE: WILL BE HOME LATE – LEAVE THE LIGHT ON
Q & A’s – Charlie Isoe
Would you please describe yourself and your style for us briefly?
My name is Christopher Charlie Isoe, I was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1981. I grew up in between Perth and Vancouver, Canada. I’m a painter and an artist.
How did you get into art?
Its something I’ve always done as far as I can remember. My earliest memories are of oil pastel drawings on coloured paper at the age of four or so. One of the oldest drawings is of a head being cut off with scissors, with insects running towards the ensuing blood. I’ve still got it somewhere in a shed in Western Australia. Hah, I can’t remember what that was all about. I remember jumping out the second story apartment window in Vancouver with my best friend, Amro, and going into this huge parking complex. We would have been about 11 or 12, and drawing on the raw concrete walls with permanent markers. Amro used to draw things like DJ’s scratching records, and talk about BeatStreet, and other things I had never heard of. I used to just draw messed up faces I think.
Would you declare yourself a streetartist?
I would say that I am an Artist.
Are there any artists or tendencies in art history that inspire you? Do you have role models/paragons in art?
There are a lot of Australian artists I would say I’m inspired by, I learnt about them at a young age, and they still inspire me today. Brett Whiteley particularly… for me, a rock star and father figure who paved the way for a lot of young Australian artists I think. I’m in awe of a lot of things he did and said. There have been some possibly unfavourable remarks about his lifestyle, but nothing can take away from his accomplishments, and that’s the way I see it. Sidney Nolan for his Ned Kelly works, Albert Tucker- I enjoy his harsh, often grotesque depictions, and John Brack for his brilliant observations of Australian life at the time.
Stylistically, also, the Austrian Expressionists… Schiele, of course had a wonderful quality of line. Kokoshka just tore it up…. and it was brilliant. Richard Gerstl… was he Austrian? A beautiful treatment of faces…. those guys keep me up at night… I mean, how can we compare ourselves to those guys? Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach, and R.B. Kitaj have also been hugely influential to me. Skateboarding as a kid. Not only the graphics on the boards, but the lifestyle, and the places where we would skate.
I’m definitely influenced by my contemporaries and my friends – I think they know who they are. In particular Patrick Doherty – a talented and wild kid, Trevor 6025, Dabue, Crong, The Rad Kids, William ‚Grohl’ Harden, Troy Lovegates, David Choe, Anthony Lister and Antony Micallef, and so many others that I know, or know of. Although they’re not artists, my Mother and Father, in all their highs and lows have such an impact on my artistic practice…. my family heritage in Fremantle and all my sisters, who I’d die for…. our childhood, and all the stories of my granddad Charles, and Uncle Jim, and the all the boat builders in my family from the first Australian generation, they were really driven, tough people, and nothing came easy for them.
You don’t work like the ‚typical’ street artist with cans or stencils but more
in style of classical/academic painting. Does the street give you adequate time for your elaborated pieces?
Painting outside isn’t generally the same thing as painting canvas. I’m not sure what the ‚typical street artist’ does, but I wouldn’t identify myself as that. I generally use spray paint, house paint and oil bars outside… which is actually very similar to what I paint canvas with, though I don’t think you can compare painting outside to painting canvas. I mean most of the stuff I do outdoors amongst the general public is dirty, instinctual trashing…. that age old ‚I was here’ – it’s like a dog pissing on something, or perhaps a naive representation of a face, it often doesn’t go far beyond that. Just that is a huge pleasure in itself. The more elaborate works on walls that I do are usually in quieter, lost, forgotten, abandoned and less travelled places, and I paint them just for myself, and those few people who are living or exploring there.
What were the first reactions on your artworks like?
Good. I think Mum put them up on the fridge, and I was really proud of that.
Is it annoying when your art works are being painted over or crossed?
If you are going to paint something in public, how can you be really upset if someone else paints over it? They have just as much right to do so as I did… I don’t own it and neither do they…. if someone wants to spit on my work, cross it, cap it, draw a moustache on it or whatever, it demonstrates some level of engagement if nothing else…
If its the council painting things grey, it can be sad at times- when layers and layers, documenting years of dialogue, disappear… though that’s to be expected. I guess it’s just a clean canvas again.
What do you think, in which direction will the street- and urban art market develop?
I don’t know.
Do you see a commercialisation within the street art scene?
Yes. Everything seems to be commercial these days. All underground movements are eventually colonised by the mainstream. This happens in so many facets of life, what was once ‚other’ is absorbed, and exploited for the exotisized ‚otherness’ that it once stood for. So it’s used to sell you some fucking soft drink or whatever you want. Ultimately things are naturalised and impotent. It’s inevitable.
As far as Vandalism goes, it’s been around since ancient times. Bored kids smashing the place up for kicks, that’s not going anywhere. It’ll be here long after we’re dead. So anything ‚cool’ or ‚underground’ is inevitably gonna be adopted by mainstream culture, be a trend, and die, if that’s what we’re talking about, but human instinct is still there, and kids are still gonna smash stuff up, and its still going to be fun.
Besides painting how do you express your creativity?
In everything, a lot of it goes into painting, of course, but everything in my life: just being alive, conversation, being with the people i know and love, writing, travelling, sculpture, photographs, I don’t necessarily differentiate between these aspects of my life…
Since when are you in Berlin and what were/ are the main reasons for you to live here?
I’ve been in Berlin on and off for about 2 years…. actually maybe longer, I’m not sure, I’ve been in Europe for years. I’m hopeless with time, I don’t even wear a watch. I live here because it’s interesting. It’s a old city with a lot of history. I like the people here, and the people that are drawn to Berlin for the same reasons. There is a lot of art going on, and it’s cheap to live.
Is it your first solo exhibition in Europe?
Yes.