User:Kul/Interview

Interview with the Anonymous Artist who is rather evil.

JKul: So for the purpose of this interview how should I call you?

Anonymous Artist: …hmmmn Can we just refrain of calling me anything. You are looking at me. It is an one-to-one thing here

JK: What kind of art are you doing and what is your main motivation behind the art-production?

AA: Ok , so the first think I would like to say is that I perform under various names and one of the advantages of this is that I don’t really feel particularly stacked to any specific medium. I am the autonomist artist which is that I usually select medium depending on the motivation of my work and its outreach and what I really want to directed it towards. Lately I am quite interested in, I suppose, young adults, and I am looking at what people consider being contemporary outlets of the popular music, rap, and hip-hop. So this is something I am playing around with a lot. I am actually secretly behind a great deal of artists, which also perform under various names and yet I am kind of shadow in the shadows, a puppet-master behind very famous people.

JK: Are you, then, collaborating with some already well-recognized and popular artists?

AA: I wouldn’t really call it “collaborating” because they don’t really have much input. I form their characters and let them out in the world. I teach them. I develop their songs. I develop their music. I even go to the point where I am there with the production designer or choreographers and we are really talking about it all and we basically present it to someone. So, in a way, you can say I am “producing” …sort of… in a mainstream music.

JK: Ok. So you are a producer. Recently, you are mostly concentrating on music production, right?

AA: Yes, very much so.

JK: Before, just to put things in order, you were also engaged in an area of visual arts and writing practice. But now, how I understand what you are saying, it is all mostly about the soft manipulation. You are actually transforming or invading the mainstream art world as this grey eminence figure standing behind the scene that actually wish to bring some subtle changes to the mainstream business?

AA: Yes. But words like “subtle” or “soft” are quite incorrect. Because you have to understand that I genuinely have made these people, these people who present themselves as self-made. I am actually the person who has formed them. Any single detail of them. I work with the tight-knit crew but basically at the certain point once I find that a certain artist or ego is particular attractive or interesting in whatever way I script their lives from that point onwards. And we sign the contract that they must pursue exactly what is scripted for them. We usually have contracts for 30 or 40 years.

JK: Since the conversation is getting more and more interesting, let me ask why are you creating these “monsters”? Can you give us a few examples of people you have created?

AA: Sure. One of the reasons that I first become intrigued in creating these various egos is because I found that leaving one life through one person was a bit too limited.And so I thought, I would begin to write “lives ” of other people and find those people to pursue them. So I can live alter-egos of myself through very very various mediums. So, for example, Kanye West is I. I have created him, I have created his music .That ego is a performance that he was scripted towards. This sentoments of being the greatest arist of all time it is all scripted

JK: Are you also influencing hos personal life? Is it also scripted?

AA: Of course!!!! I have created the Kardashians to begin with. I made this reality TV. What better outlet is there then finding the ridiculously rich family which has no particular talents and to really enjoy that. And then, of course, when I had to develop these two it was not always scripted that these tow should actually coincide but understanding the success of one and the other you can continue to change scripts.

JK: I have some problem with understanding your both, moral and critical position behind this mode of manipulating people? You are mostly producing some pop-culture monsters? What is the purpose of it?

AA: Sure but you have to understand, that is not the only extend. These are just more popular extends. I also work with many others things and have produced my works under various names. The thing is that it is just fun.

JK: Yes, but you are also largely responsible for the fortune these people are earning by being artificial products? You are tricking people: the audience, and the publicity. You are creating machines that are earning big money. It is very capitalistic approach.

AA: Like with every project you have intension and where the project ends is not really in you control so you sort of ride/write? the way as it comes.

JK: So you are not really taking a responsibility for your manipulations? Your gestures have a big impact on many people and they are also creating the whole media-sphere around those celebrities. 12 –years-old kids might easily consume this whole package of illusion without any understanding of what is going on. I think is quite dangerous, right?

AA: I also invent sort of characters as I go along to kind of counteract: for example, Lorde. She is a very popular singer but more appropriate. I try to balance out this disparity.

JK: But in a way you are a cynical producer?

AA: I don’t really understand what cynicism has to do with it. At the end of the day I create people I send them out in the world and see how world reacts to them and then depending on that I either continue to play that character or I pick up a new one to kind of counterbalance.

JK: Well, but in deed you do set up an ironic game by creating fake figures and make us believe that they are actually genuine artists. I would call it a cynical approach that you have developed because you are being bored with your own world. It is very alarming. What makes you different from the average soap-opera producer?

AA: Well, yes. This is true. I am not saying that I am a good person. I am just having fun!

JK: How do you end your contracts? When the created persona is not interesting for you any more or you feel disappointed in their performance? For instance ,do you intent to trash Kanye at some point?

AA: Well, we will see if he manage to keep up. Basically what I do I look for people who are quite weak, when they have nothing going for them. It is a kind of a devils contract. I own them for extended periods of times …it is a thing of decades…30 -40 years, depending.

JK: And when the person is getting out of control a bit? You started to feel that this particular personality might be an unsuccessful production and you want to break up sooner then the decade?

AA: This is only happened to me once, with one of my charters. She didn’t seem to click and I couldn’t hold her responsible for that because that was my mistake as I am the creator. I pulled her back and I have pulled her is into production and I have created my own little team and she ended up working more within the production of new characters.

JK: So you are merciful. No one stays unemployed and abandoned?

AA: Well they are definitely my children.

JK: What do your view on the practice of building this kind of fake reality on the top of another already corrupted reality of the pop industry?

AA: Whether I or to do it, or someone else or to do it. That always how it goes with the mainstream celebrities. I also worked on many visual artists and filmmakers and other musicians that maybe are not so successful as Kanye.

JK: But how do you feel about using or even abusing “weak” people in order to entertain the wider audience?

AA: To be absolutely fair this not what I am only doing. I am also participating in the zeitgeist. The big advantage I have is that I have been there, in a game, somehow early one and I have manage to hold contracts with some very influential people, or the one who came to be then very influential, and they begun to sort of shape the zeitgeist. That is fascinating to sort of be able to participate in what the decade holds in character of culture. So that is my way of seeing this. That is what my medium is.

JK: Ok, so this is not only extensive manipulation but also hmm…are you trying to bring some new values into this world? Does you character have something in common?

AA: I have very various people. Some of them are very sensitive and some of them are very voracious; some of them work in a pornography business, and some of them are doing a charity work. I think it is quite interesting to look up the sort of people I have picked up. Majority of them are in this point of their lives where they feel purposeless. I think for a lot of people it is very reassuring to be given a purpose. What I do provide, as much as I do take a lot, but I do give a structure to their lives, they have ambitions, they have a goal. This all is scripted for them so they don’t have to think at all.

JK: Are you like MacDonald? “Don’t think, just eat.”

AA: Pretty much but I manage to provide you with health care and roof…and sometimes even fame.

JK: Is it then more like a symbiotic relation between you and lets say your victims?

AA: Yes. Another thing I want to say is that you often use words like “artificial“. Fair enough. I understand why you came to that but I don’t think there is more true to anything that has happened before. Whether there is one mastermind behind various identities or whether all these identities spring out because the culture of that time accepts them and promotes certain virtues or values- well, it is always designed.

JK: How the in-born, “original” personality of the people you are choosing is relating the image you are suggesting or imposing upon them? Is it easy for, lets say a porn star or a charity worker to use you script on the daily basis?

AA: As you say it is much more symbiotic then that. With Kanye we spoke first time when he was 16 or 17. He was not doing well at school; he didn’t have good relationships with his peers. There was a certain spark when we I first saw him. He was just drinking the bottle of whisky standing next to the supermarket. I just though, like; hey, who is this kid?! And we started talking and he said that he is really into rapping. He rapped me; it was terrible, you know. Then we started to speak and I said; hey, what if I start writing for you! What if I produce and develop your music: promote you, and style you? Of course he become very enthusiastic. Then it becomes a matter of promoting this person; not only to the others but also to himself. There is a reason why he is possessed with this idea that he is the greatest artist of all time. This is because I have fed him this.

JK: How many personalities do you have here, already running around us in this world?

AA: I keep relative track of everyone. So I would say it is around 50-51.

JK: And what about these “insignificant”, not popular individuals who are having a boring life but still using you personalities? How are they doing?

AA: Sure. I have this one housewife and she is one of my favourites, to be honest. She has a beautiful life that I’ve designed she has a beautiful green lounge and the book club. She has two beautiful children. In a way, I try to live through these people all things I always wanted to do but one can’t do in one life-time. The wonderful thing is that I can always go and visit and participate in that life.

JK: So when you are visiting, this housewife is performing a “happy housewife” in front of you? And I am guessing, that she is also performing constantly in front of her children and all the members of the book club. Is that correct?

AA: Well, not any more. Within 5 first years you can always see some glitches with these Personalities. They struggle to agree really to what I have scripted for them. For example, if I want someone to have a peanut allergy but they don’t have real peanut allergy and they keep on eating peanuts…this is very frustrating for me.

JK: The contracts you are preparing for each individual are quite detailed. Is there any purpose to have all these little things, even organic ailments, scripted for them? Since you can decide if someone should have kids or not, or you can script people’s sex life then it is a bit on the level of small harassment, don’t you think?

AA: Of course but I also think that you speak to me from the position of the individual you are. You would be surprised how many people want me to step in their privet lives and kind of provide for them…hmm…fair enough we had conflicts… but I think they feel generally “blessed” and privileged that I’ve stepped in and I have given them life. I am not talking about people who are already advantageous …No one would sign to this contract if they already knew who they were or what they wanted. The people whom I seek out are also people who need me.

JK: In that sense you are partly a devil, partly a saver?

AA: Exactly.

JK: One more question maybe completely unrelated. What have happened to your leg? I see that you are limping…

AA: Well I guess that is also one the thing. At young age I was in the freak accident with the motorbike and the horse. I have lost ability to walk with one leg and I suppose that’s when it really started. I was very young at that time and extremely athletic. The inability to continue that dream crashed me. That was the moment when I became possessed by this idea of taking over or being able to aid someone in the position that could fulfil the dream I wanted. But I can facilitate that dream.

JK: Thank you for showing us you soft belly at the end of this conversation.

AA: Thank you.