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[June 14th 2003]
Interview
Synova Lynd
Remixing - Interview med Synova Lynd
kopenhagen har et godt og vågent øje
til "the public space" og hvad der dukker op dér.
Vi var heldige at komme i kontakt med Synova Lynd, en af
dem der uopfordret præsenterer sine værker i bybilledet.
Hun inviterede kopenhagens reportere til et hemmeligt arrangement
i en kælder på Nørrebro, hvor nye arbejder
blev ferniseret med bar og jazz, inden de skulle på gaden.
Synova Lynd er fra U.S.A. og er i Danmark som udvekslingsstudent.
Interview: Maria Kjær Themsen og Torben Zenth.
Foto: Anna Jensen og Torben Zenth.
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
This event, who set it up?
These events were started last October with a guy from San
Francisco called DJ Slant. He was living in the building and saw
potential in this dark empty space. He started organizing music
and then I started putting up art. He left for the States in January.
That is when a few others and I took over the organization. It’s
a pretty easy process, making fliers, setting up the exhibition;
the live musicians are great because they organize themselves.
This is our seventh show.
Did you make all these works for the show?
Yeah, I actually have got this together just for the past
month.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Could you describe the work you are doing in the public space?
I started doing it mostly because I was very frustrated that
I could not communicate with anyone around me. I tried using visual
means and found a relief through the method. I began trying this
due to inspiration I was obtaining from the streets. I'd go on
afternoon bike rides through Nørrebro just to look at the
street art, at this time it seemed like the art posters were the
only things that made sense. In reaction, I started doing a few
pieces to try to communicate and also understand myself better.
I thought of the endeavor as an experiment. I’m very happy
with the results because it has opened my mind in many ways. I
didn’t expect anyone would really notice. One day, I saw
few windows in a dumpster around the corner from where I was living.
It turns out that the entire building was being remolded and the
few windows turned to a hundred. I began taking them and working
with them. My room was so full of glass, I only had a 5ft by 5ft
area to live in. Two of my roommates were sleeping with windows
under their beds as well. I was working with whatever materials
I could find, to recycle them and remix them and give them back
to... well society I suppose. I think I did about 50 windows and
40 wooden boards hanging them up around town between here (Nørrebro)
and Vesterbro.
Mostly I it was the idea that I wanted them to keep changing.
When you put something up in the streets, it gets subjected to
the weather, people, and some of them go missing, so... it almost
felt like a representation of life... always changing unexpectedly...
For how long have you been showing your work in the streets?
Since December.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Where were you before you came to Copenhagen?
I was living and going to school in Santa Cruz, studying film.
Actually I'm an exchange student. I hadn’t been working very
seriously with this at home. I had ventured a little into using
stencils and stickers, but not really with the same ideas. When
I came here I became very inspired by all he stuff that's going
on; I kind of found a reconnection with it.
You are an exchange student going to school?
Yeah, I'm going to school at KUA
Is the Public Space art scene very different here compared
to Santa Cruz?
Yeah.... First of all, the way the school system is set up
here, I found I had much more time dedicate to projects I've been
wanting to try out. I don't think at home I noticed Street art
aside from the graffiti scene. Graffiti can have a tendency to
be contained to one certain specific group that understands it
and are really involved with the culture. What was exciting here
is that people are trying to expand the whole medium, use it in
different ways, and attract a different kind of audience. I think
that is happening in San Francisco, but before, I just wasn’t
tuned into the culture.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Can you mention someone who has been an inspiration to you?
I think Jan Danebod, his work I think is very interesting,
and also HuskMitNavn.
How did you get in contact with these people?
I was volunteering at a clothing shop on Elmegale and mentioned
my interest to the shop owner. I wanted to know who was making
these brilliant street productions because they effected me in
a very intense and personal way. That day, the owner called up
Jan and had him come by. I think they knew each other through
Jan distributing his magazine, but I'm not really sure
Another time, I was wondering around in Vesterbro one day because
I had seen old Byen Brander posters still up and went to check
if any of the galleries listed were still open. That’s when
I found Zens and it happened that Jan was having his Hjemmelavet
Lorte Dansk show the next week.
A while later, I attended >>Arbejderstitel: Offentlig Uro<<
in Århus. I had a chance to talk more with him there. That
was really a great networking event where I was able to meet and
see how others were working with the public space.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Where do you work?
I work here in the vacant attic. It's a nice place even though
it's freezing in the winter and hot in the summer.
Have you any ambitions with your work? Do you want to develop
it?
I'm actually not quite sure, because I focus mostly on doing
video. However, this entire process makes a lot of sense and it
feels like it's a good way to for me to communicate. There’s
a possibility DJ Slant and I may begin working together in SF.
I think he has found a warehouse type space.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Can you say something about you motivation?
Yeah... I think it's important to remix all the stuff that's
going on around me. I always hope the process will help me understand
something in a different way. Frequently, I'll take photographs,
photocopy them, and blow them up. It gives them a nice degenerated
newspaper feel and changes what you saw originally in reality.
Hopefully, this one moment that motivated me to take a picture
can connect to a random individual for another reason. This picture
also becomes a kind of symbol, making it easier for other people
to digest, take into their conscious. Maybe this will lead them
to start thinking about other things... hopefully that.
Furthermore, I am overwhelmingly frustrated with the current
political situation right now. I have this impending frustration
I need to deal with in some way. It’s difficult to make real
policy change through traditional means like lobbying. Voting
seems more important than ever while simultaneously being a gigantic
false joke since our president wasn’t even elected. All these
forces wear on your nerves, so it’s important to do something
with this energy. These productions are a way to remix intimidating
powers into progressive creations. For example, many of the first
windows were full of pictures from the EU protests and other protests
against the war in Iraq. I wanted to take that energy, rework
it, and give it back to where it came from… the streets and
society.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Do you have anything in common with the other street-artists?
In common with them?
Political or something?
Political?
Yeah?
Hhhmmm.... I think that were all anti-Bush... I think the
work that Husk Mit Navn and Jan are partaking in is more effective
since it's more direct and frequent. It truly amazes me that they
are able to do so much with such intensity. I also look up to
the fact that they take time to do something outside of themselves.
They have created and are creating works that are a kind of offering
to the public, throwing it out there to a huge population that
could really not care most of the time, but then in another way
it attracts people that do care. I don’t think I have figured
out how to work on this kind of level but perhaps we share similar
intentions.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Have you had any reactions to your work?
Yeah... I was actually surprised when people started saying
they've been noticing it, or... just the fact that you're exited
about it... It's kind of strange to me. It's also... I feel really
complimented. I think it's one of the best ways really to get
feedback and to understand about the work itself, because it's
a relatively unbiased way to get feedback if someone comes up
to you out of the blue just because of something they saw.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Do you have your name on your work?
It goes back and forth. I've been using the name Synova Lynd
because my sister gave it to me when were traveling through Germany
via regional trains, but I haven't developed a strong connection
to it — maybe the reason is because it's not really an important
part of the project. I feel that when I have put up the works,
it's not really for me anymore. The most important part of the
project is the creation of the work itself. So once it’s
made, it becomes someone else's responsibility.
 
Synova Lynd: Paradis
Helvedesild, Intallationview
Does your work disappear from the streets?
Yeah... I wish I could track it somehow...
Some of Synovas works in the streets:
 
 
Synova Lynd
 
Synova Lynd
 
 
Synova Lynd
More street art:
24. april 2003: Interview with Jan
Danebod
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