All pictures were sent by the author
Translator, polyglot, tireless worker, fond of cults and religions, practitioner of after hours -no shortcuts needed. For some, a bit meiga; for others, the shadow that goes unnoticed. We talk to ARS ERINYOS, who introduces the first edition of their fanzine/catalogue of artists, ARS GRATIA MUSICAE: Galician visual art linked to underground music; 76 pages in colour, glossy paper and A4 format (available in three languages: Spanish, Galician and English), in which newcomers and veterans meet.
-(...)
-What can you tell me about yourself? Details or other projects you've been involved in:
-AE: My pseudonym for all my artistic endeavours is Ars Erinyos. These projects range from layout, to design, to drawing, to helping with lettering and layout, to many translations... In other words, in terms of my work - I don't want to call it holistic because it's not a natural therapy - maybe I bite off more than I can chew, but I really like to cover different grounds. I'd say I'm a humanist in that sense. Work I've been involved in? For six years I did covers for a fanzine that I won't name for reasons of stylistic disagreement, not to mention of all sorts - let's leave it at that, it's classier [laughs] - then I did the cover of Necronomía de Subexistencia for the grindcore band Mondo Podre, hailing from the Rías Baixas. And I was commissioned for unfinished projects to illustrate book chapters that didn't come to fruition, but I was hired for them. I won't mention any more, because I'd become redundant.
Interviewed in this issue: Raposa!, Laugurio, Luis Sendón, Maru Astray, Xoio Carmesí, Lusco e Fusco 13, Silvia Blackened, César Valladares, Hic Svnt Dracones, El Miserable Ocioso (Nor Prego), Ira Miserorum/Khalipse.
-You've also painted patches, T-shirts and other handmade work. Are the emotions different when you work for yourself and when you work on commission?
-Yes, maybe because the commissions, especially in the textile field, were reproductions of other artists' work. The thing is that I've never tried to make patches for bands that have their own merch and sell it. For example, we're talking about T-shirts in very large sizes that aren’t being sold, not because of fatphobia, but because a band has a limited budget, does market research and acts accordingly. But it's still reproducing the work of other artists; you don't have to break the mould and in the end it's almost a meditative process. But when you're making a work for yourself, there's the whole onslaught of perfectionism and the eternal impostor syndrome; the burden of a work that's never finished. That comes into play a bit: you don't know when you're going to finish it, and you're always finding flaws. You end up being much more critical of your own work.
-I understand that it came about quite quickly and that it's made with love. How did it come about and why?
-Let's say it was a kind of epiphany as a result of things I usually pondered as a consumer of art: I've always loved discovering new artists, especially emerging ones, and I realised that we have a lot of incredible illustrators and designers here who have collaborated with international bands, yet a lot of people don't know them. And not only don't they know them, but they think they're foreigners, just because of their quality, or they confuse them with more recognised artists, precisely because they're on a par.
-Are they comparable on a technical level or because of artistic similarities?
-I would say on a technical level and also on a conceptu al level. They are at least as good as foreign artists, although I appreciate them equally and I love discovering foreign artists, no doubt about it. But well, one day it was quite... Almost mythological [laughs], I experienced a kind of revelation and I wondered: 'Why don't I let these people talk, not only about their work, but also about their experiences as artists? Not just the things they do, but how they do them and the vicissitudes they go through to get to the end of their work.
-Most of the artists are Galician, have settled here or have roots in this area. Is there a motivation for this?
-Maybe because of this idea of thinking globally, acting locally. That might the reason: they're people who are close to me and whose struggle I see. So I can perhaps value them more out of sympathy or empathy than I can someone who lives in Illinois, or, say, Rwanda-Burundi.
-The approach and focus of the fanzine is a catalogue in which there are six blocks - technique and execution; work; method and process; inspiration and references; clients; and miscellany - within which the same questions are asked to all the artists involved. They tend to show an obvious parallelism in taste, but all the answers diverge and each artist has a different type of layout and ad hoc font. Is the result different from your initial idea?
-I don't know if it's more egalitarian, but it's certainly fairer, that's the intention. If it doesn’t come off as fairer in the end, time will tell, of course. And, at the same time, it seems to me that the questions are direct enough and broad enough for them to expand as much or as little as they want.
-When you say (more) fair, what do you mean in particular?
-Well, even unconsciously, we’re all liable to have a bias. I mean, there are artists that I know a lot about, there are artists that I really like, and maybe you can give them a super-pampered, super-detailed interview because you know a lot about their experiences as well as their adventures. So, of course, that leaves people I don't know, or who I've only just discovered for the fanzine, a bit in the lurch. And of course it seemed fair to me that the people I'm closest to and who are closest to me should feel my affection in a different way.
-In the end, 11 people were interviewed (all in all, 12 artists if we include Raquel Currás García, 'Rashel', the author of the cover). What was the process like and how did you work with them?
-The process was very easy. They made it very easy for me. I thought there would be a lot more obstacles [laughs], not because I didn't trust them or because I thought they were a bunch of bums, but because people, by and large, don't read emails; after all, it's yet another extra chore in the chaotic lives we all lead, or more than chaotic, hyper-busy. So I said to myself: 'Well, they'll probably forget to answer, we'll have to nag, or they'll be reluctant to answer because they don't like the questions'. But it wasn’t the case: they all replied amazingly, I didn't have to nag at all, I really liked the works they sent me.... It went much more smoothly than expected.
-Seeing that you're in charge of everything, or that you've done other work before, didn't you think about doing the cover as well?
-I thought about illustrating the cover myself, but because of distribution issues I thought: 'I'll do a mediocre job' and I said to myself: 'I'd rather commission this artist [Rashel] whose style I really like, I think she'll get the idea right' and the proof of that is that she got the idea in a flash , with the added benefit that she's a local artist. I said to myself: 'Look, I'd rather introduce an artist - whom I hope to interview for future issues, by the way, if they finally come to fruition- that can make a much better job'.
Handmade by Ars Erinyos
-One of your most recent works is Mondo Podre’s, handmade and mixed media. You also include the 'client from hell' in these questions, and they respond by talking about people who send the artists a sketch as a basic idea so that others can do it later for less, not even sending a copy of the CD or a T-shirt when it is finished, making a deal with the payments and then having money for drugs... Or even, in your case, you were ghosted after being commissioned an artwork, they have even proposed using your artwork removing your signature for an editorial. One can almost vertebrate the precariousness of the artist. Is this chronic?
- From what I've seen, it's quite widespread and it's sad, because you expect this kind of treatment from corporations, from companies that don't value artists and see them as mere tools. However, when it's other artists, even if they are from other disciplines, hiring artists and treating them in the same vexatious way - well, I don't know whether to call it vexatious, although in some cases it could be classified as such - or with contempt... It's surprisingly bad; in fact, it's a bit repulsive. But, well, in the end, that's a human problem. That is to say, we are going to encounter the same miseries no matter what we do.
That's partly why the fanzine came about, to offer a manual of good practices: how to talk, how to commission and work with visual artists, because, even if some of them don't do it professionally, can't do it given the circumstances, do it as an amateur or as a hobby, it's still a job and it takes a lot of hours, not only working on the art itself, but preparing for the work. One of my artists mentioned that people don't take into account all the previous sketches you send them, they don't count them as work; they think you've done them on a napkin - and what’s it to them if you’ve done them on a napkin! In the end, as I was saying, the fanzine is also a way of making up for it a bit and trying to give value to artists who I think are really worth it.
-Regarding what is in your manifesto, I wanted to address your opinion on artificial intelligence because of the declarations of principles that is featured in it, or - on a personal note - the fact that you got a response from Pestilence because of their attempt to create artwork with it and their comparison to that of Consvming Impvlse. Is the manifesto against it or against its misuse? What does this mean for you and for the ones who make visual art for bands?
-I'm going to summarise a lot because this subject, like all the subjects I'm passionate about, can give rise to endless perorations. My problem is not even with artificial intelligence in general terms. I am against generative AI being used for (let's put it in as many quotes as possible) 'artistic' purposes. It seems to me that art is something essentially human, and as much as I dislike the concept of elitism in art, I think that in this sense human art, or even animal art, is above anything that can be produced by copying, reproducing and then spitting out generative AI. Always.
The concept of soul in art may sound a little sentimental, or perhaps a little old-fashioned, but I really believe that art should be limited to human creation. And honestly, for me, a person who has jotted down sixty prompts and says that it took effort doesn't know what it is to pick up a pencil or to make an illustration with pointillism or with coloured pencils, for example. They don't have a clue. And I feel sorry for the people who enjoy using that “tool”, but I really hate it.
-And what are prompts, for those of us who don't know what those are?
-Prompts are words that you type into generative artificial intelligence programs, whether it's Midjourney or something else. They are words that you type in so that later a search comes up and that search picks up different elements that it then puts together and creates. Well, it throws up, rather, because it's a vomit: there's no processing at all. In fact, there is no idea of the artist or anything. That’s basically my point: I could go on for a long time, but I recommend the Argentinean activist and excellent illustrator Santiago Caruso (https://santiagocaruso.com.ar), because he is in fact in Arte es Ética and in various forums for the limitation or even the elimination of the use of generative artificial intelligence for “artistic” purposes.
-With your approach, it can give the feeling that there is a scene here, or that you are trying to unify/assemble one as such. I don't know if you agree with that or what you mean by that word/concept.
-The term scene is quite diffuse and can be misleading. People are tribal, so be it a tribe, a clan, a scene... We want to belong to a group. In that sense, underground music does not escape this human drive. I think there will always be a tendency to get together with the same kind of people and to distinguish oneself from other groups. This will always be a scene. Can we call it a scene? Well, for me, to really call something a scene, there has to be a clear intention to do stuff, to have projects, to support each other and a certain cohesion. Of course I can see different people and collectives striving to create one. I mean, there are people like Miguel - from Tronko Bar - or Guille, from La Hija del Carroñero, or Dra-gon, from AkoúΦenom, who I consider to be the absolute backbone of what we can call “Galician scene”. But I also think that there are certain people who use the scene as an excuse to say that they belong to something, but without wanting to get involved; looking for what they can get from it without wanting to contribute. It's a double-edged sword.
-Do you think that this is something that is happening not only at the level of Galicia, but at the level of the whole of Spain or even Europe? I don't know to what extent you can delve deep into this succinctly.
-I think it is a general trend: there will be internal tensions and internal wars everywhere. What I think is that, perhaps, from my point of view and from my humble opinion - which I sense that might interest whomever reads this [smiles coyly] - we ought to fight to reconcile and iron out differences and disagreements, to try to build something, even if people are not 100% what you expect them to be or do not always behave in a coherent way. At the end of the day, you try to build something without romanticizing it, knowing that, like everything else, like the people who make it up, it has its imperfections.
-You talk about ironing out the differences or the imperfections, like the fanzine that sputters the cliché questions of the guild... Beyond that and the fact that you're jumpy and that your fanzine is translated into three languages... How do you deal with the frustration of having someone disappear for weeks after having committed to answer?
-Nothing, you simply cast an aire de defuntos [Galician malaise caused by coming in contact with a dead person] [laughs] and... just kidding, just kidding, we won't be cursing anybody here - …yet! - [laughs] but how do you deal with it? Quite simply, the people who ghost, the people who stop responding to you, are people who display little commitment, but I don't see them as people who have a fulfilling life either. I mean, the people I've met who have ghosted me look very unhappy; I think they are already experiencing their own hell, you're not adding more fuel to the flames. You simply stop counting on these people. And, in that sense, I admit that I'm very much in favour of them telling acquaintances that are about to work with people who haven't behaved well towards me, without publicly flogging them here either: 'You should know that they did this to me'. I say this tête-à-tête, I don't say it in public. But it's more important to me to protect an excited artist who wants to work with these people so that they don't feel let down like I did. Maybe some people think it is a bit brash, maybe they don’t think it’s right. I can see why, but that's the way I do it. I simply deal with my frustration ignoring these individuals and not count on them for the future. And, well, if someone asks me, of course I won't first thing give them a hard time, but I'll say: "Look, they didn't treat me right" or "they did this to me". And that's basically it.
-Lessons learned, ideas for people who want to tackle similar projects... or whatever you want to add....
-First of all, I would like to thank all the artists who have worked with me. They are, without exception, spectacular people on an artistic and human level. Secondly, I would also like to thank the people who are the backbone of the scene: María Banshee, Guille, Miguel, Patillas and all the people who always try to keep us together and support everyone. I would also like to say thanks to the artists who make up the scene, and provide us with the music we illustrate, or want to illustrate.
Opportunities for learning? There's an infinite, infinite amount of advice in the fanzine - and this is not a self plug- it's just that anything the interviewees say there will surpass anything I could possibly say, because they have a lot more experience on an artistic level than I do, so I recommend that everyone reads it. Or just hit me up and I'll pass on the answers: it's not a question of money, it's a question of transmitting values.
I would also like to add this: thank you very much for the interview, for giving me this space, and I hope it won't be my kind of endless philippic [laughs] on every subject that interests me.
Many, many thanks to I Don't Give a Fuck.
This interview, along with some extras, will be included in the next issue of the zine I Don't Give a Fuck.
Interview with Ars Erinyos, renamed Funeral Mama by Sadistic Intent.
