Interview: Dearraindrop

Billy Grant, Lara Grant and Joe Grillo.

What is it like living in a place like Virginia Beach?

Billy: It’s cool; it shields you from everything that’s been spit out of New York. When you live isolated in a place like that you can focus totally on your work.

Lara: Sometimes when we go to NYC we wonder how our friends manage to work there because there is always a party to go to. NYC is a fun place to visit for two weeks, but it’s a hard place to live and work because there is so much going on all the time.

Why is the exhibition called V-B?

Joe: Because that’s where we’re from and the gallery is called V-1 so we thought we were being clever.

Dearraindrop: Dream Concert: Nirvana, Turtles, Maxcloud, Cecil Letuer, and Blowfly w/ the Owsley Blues, 2006. 155x248 cm. Akryl på lærred

Several of the works are titled Dream Concert – does that have anything to do with the place you live?

Lara: It is concerts we wish would happen in Virginia Beach.

Billy: No bands ever play in Virginia Beach.

Joe: Only shitty bands like Dave Matthews Band.

Is this your vision of an alternative Virginia Beach?

Joe: We are just having a good time...

Lara: We’ve put together bands from different times that could never have played together.

Dearraindrop: This We Will Defend, 2006. 181x299 cm.

Where did you go to school? In Providence?

Lara: I went to the California University of art and Joe went to a school in Boston.

Joe: We never went to school in Providence.

Lara: We only lived in Providence for a year, just for fun. Providence is a great place, but the police station is shaped like a 9 mm handgun if you see it from Ariel view.

And you don’t think that’s a coincidence?

Lara: No, it’s all controlled by the mafia – it’s just corrupt.

But it seems like the place you live has a big influence on your art. If you lived in Providence there would be no need to make these Dream Concert pictures since there is so much art and music coming out of that place...

Dearraindrop: Trex//VB, 2006. 175x180 cm. Akryl på lærred Dearraindrop: Psychedelic Seal Stab, 2006. 211x150 cm. Akryl på lærred

Where does these psychedelic pictures come from?

Joe: It’s just our taste. We’ve always been into these things, we just didn’t know what it was.

Do you feel any connection to the Lowbrow-art scene in California?

Joe: Not at all. I think good art is good art, there’s no defining it like that. That’s just a way people try to market it and to sell it.

But to me your art is anti-intellectual and that is a thing you have in common with the Lowbrow-art scene.

Lara: What’s intellectual art to you? Conceptual? Because we are definitely more into the visual.

Joe: But I think the three of us know more about art history than most conceptual artists.

Dearraindrop: Dream Concert: Fugs, Iowa Mountain Tour, Neon Hunk, Shaggs, Mind Flayer, and Kleenex, 2006. 186x256 cm.

Dearraindrop: Dream Concert: Peru Ubu, Simply Saucer, the Bizzaros, Clapp, and Mr. Paul Super Apple, 2006. 186x256 cm.

One of you said in an interview that you hated contemporary art.

Joe: I think the majority of contemporary art is bad. There’s a lot of people who don’t know what their are doing, a lot of posers. But we definitely know what we are doing. It’s all just about hype and who has got the money to put up a big show, at least in New York.

Is it because you feel it has nothing to say?

Joe: There’s nothing behind it. People are creating art based on a trend. I don’t know what’s popular and that’s not what art is about.

What does it mean to you working as a group?

Joe: I think collaboration is a powerful tool when people do it well. There’s something more about it, it’s not just an individual, it’s a group of people collectively doing something together.

So it ends up being something none of you could have done on your own?

Joe: I think three minds can melt together to one super mind.

Billy Grant: Plop, 2006. 101x76 cm. Akryl og collage på lærred Billy Grant: Rock City, 2006. 61x61 cm. Akryl og collage på lærred

Have you always been working together or have you done exhibitions on your own?

Lara: Yes, we have done exhibitions on our own but recently we’ve been enjoying working together.

Is it harder being accepted as an artist if you are educated from an art academy?

Billy: It’s something people put in your face a lot, it means something to some people but it doesn’t mean anything to me.

Lara: It’s good to go to a school for self development.

Yeah, the idea to educate someone to make art is...

Lara: Absurd...

Isn't it weird to be working in your studio and then when the exhibition is up, you have to talk about what you have been working on for a long time?

Joe: Sometimes talking about the art seems fake; working in the studio is what’s real.

Billy: I don’t like talking about my art because I don’t think in opinions and I change my mind too much. I don’t like making statements. I’ll do that when I’m 80, right before I’m dead, but I’m 21... We’re all just learning by what we’re doing and we’re fans that love art.

I guess that goes for all aspects of life – that it’s important to stay curious.

Billy: We haven’t seen half as much as we hopefully will get to see.

Joe: But I think a lot of people act like they know everything at our shows.

But some artists act like that too...

Joe: Yeah, they have to back up their shitty art with talk to sell their works, that’s not real. Making art along with making music is the realest thing people can do. If there were no galleries, no stupid art world or stupid New York Times or Billboard 100, there would still be people making music. There are millions of people out there making music that has no idea those worlds even exists. And there are millions of people making visual art that are not concerned with that crap. I really think that crap sidetracks you. People have been doing these things since the beginning of time and they will be making art and sound after these establishments are long gone.

Laura Grant: Voyage into the Sun, 2006. 35x35 cm. Akryl på træ Laura Grant & Billy Grant: The Catacomb Wall (Revisited), 2006. 101x76 cm. Akryl på lærred

But you must have a wish to communicate with others since your making art?

Joe: Not necessarily.

Billy: It can be personal too.

Joe: But it’s great to be able to share something you love with others.

It seems like music is a big inspiration to you – does it matter whether you are inspired by something visual or by sounds?

Joe: They are the same anyway.

You mentioned that you met Eye, the lead singer of the Japanese group Boredoms, and that he is a big inspiration to you – what was that like? (Lara shows me the Boredoms T-shirt she’s wearing...)

Joe: Boredoms changed my life! I would recommend every kid to buy the first six or seven of Boredoms albums; it should be part of school curriculum.

Your art have references to psychedelic art and music of the 60'ies – is it more than a cliché that artist paints while listening to music and losing themselves in the music?

Joe: Don’t you think the businessman does the same thing when he puts on some classical music and types on his laptop?

What kind of experience do you want your audience to have?

Joe: If we inspire some people, that’s cool. If some get excited about it that’s good, then we have achieved something.

Are your political conviction reflected in your art?

Joe: I think we are free people and we have a lot of freedom in our country.

Lara: It’s definitely a concern... •

Joe Grillo: Uden titel, 2006. 61x61 cm. Akryl og collage på lærred Joe Grillo: Jesus in the Gospel, 2006. 48x49 cm. Akryl og collage på træ Joe Grillo: Scrambled Television Set, 2006. 31x35 cm. Akryl og collage på lærred

Joe Grillo: You've Gone To Far, 2006. 91x61 cm. Akryl og collage på lærred Joe Grillo: Prismatism, 2006. 51x51 cm. Akryl og collage på lærred Joe Grillo: F-O (Zero), 2006. 30,5x30,5 cm. Akryl på lærred