Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.04.2012, Blaðsíða 31

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Words
Rebecca Louder
photography
Alísa Kalyanova
of the two pieces, so I represent all four.
Chinese cinema uses four seasons, four
acts and things like that, so I want to
try and have some reference to it. Then
they are also paying for another epi-
sode where I can do whatever the hell I
want, and I am doing whatever the hell
I want! It’s brilliant.
How did the hook-up with Converse
happen?
It came about in a very Icelandic way—a
good friend of mine from my hometown
in England works for them [in China].
Last November I was going over there
for a holiday and she was talking to
the marketing director [about me]
and ended up showing her the [Weird
Girls Project’s] website. I suddenly got
an email a couple of days before I was
supposed to leave for China asking if
I could pull one off while I was there
and I was like “are you kidding me!?”
Normally I spend three months of Excel
spreadsheet organisation before.
The marketing director asked if
I could do one just as a tester to see
how I do with the Chinese women be-
cause this is kind of a totally new thing
for them. She came down and watched
me just do a photo shoot and halfway
through the day she sat me down and
said, “right, you’re coming back here
and doing a tour.” She told me that in
just a couple of hours she’d watched
these girls go from standing against
the wall to running around. It’s a great
feeling. It’s very scary now though. I’ve
got to try and do it again with eighty-
five different women in the next three
videos.
THE FEAR AND THE FUN
What is the most exciting and/or
terrifying part of all of this for you?
Oh my god, I don’t know! Everything
that is exciting is also terrifying—al-
though not really in a bad way. I’ve
gone from just mucking around with
my friends to a massive budget from
a huge company and I have to deliver
something. They are supporting me as
an artist—these are not adverts, they
are being done for the content—but
the bottom line is there is someone
else paying. I’m talking, like, A LOT
more money than I’ve ever spent on
episodes. Major stuff. I’ve got the best
cameras I can have, the best lenses I
can have, I have a section of the Great
Wall for one of the episodes! It’s going
onto another planet, so it’s totally in-
timidating and totally exciting.
Also, directing women whom I have
no language in common with is some-
thing I’m nervous about. I’m going
through these very simple moves to do
with the girls in China, and I want to see
if I can direct them without any words. I
have a translator but it’s much easier to
interact with them eye-to-eye because
if they look to the translator, I lose a lot
of what I’m trying to express to them.
The other thing is that this is going
to have huge exposure—they said that
a “bad” view-count would be three mil-
lion in China. I have no arts qualifica-
tion, I have no film qualification and I’ve
suddenly been able to go to China with
the best equipment to shoot in some of
the most amazing locations. I feel a lot
of pressure to do good because this is
a once in a lifetime opportunity. I re-
ally want to be able to burst with pride
when I show the pieces I’ve done.
Did you ever think it would come to
this point?
No! Never! I mean, I haven’t been stu-
pid. I have a bit of a business-head, re-
ally, and a lot of what I’ve done has been
to get further. The fact that I’m using
the music video format has been stra-
tegic from the beginning. I know that
art galleries only have a limited num-
ber of people coming and, even though
YouTube is massive, there are only a
limited number of art videos. A music
video means that it gets exposure from
the band’s fans, as well as the fact that
it can end up on television as a lot of my
videos do, so the artwork gets seen on
a much broader spectrum.
I know that to a lot of people I am
missing the exclusivity of high-brow
art stuff because I’m just putting it on
for as much exposure as is humanly
possible. But as far as I’m concerned,
the more people that see it the better.
If they don’t like it, they’re not gonna
like it whether they see it in a gallery or
on television. I plan to do more of this
strategy when I’m in China because I
want to get to Japan. I WILL do Japan
next!
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