Interview: Joe Grillo of Dearraindrop

Dearraindrop: Hidden In at V1 Gallery

Can you introduce me to the exibition here at V1?

I’ll start with our sharing the gallery with this Japanese artist who lives in New York, Misaki Kawai. She’s one of my favorite artist in the world and I think it goes very well with our stuff. I’m glad that those two exibitions are like ping-ponging, because it’s like two different realities that are aesthetically pleasing together. We have a lot in comment anyway, and we’ve know each other for some years.

Did you talk to her about this exhibition beforehand, about how things were gonna work out?

No, it was just plain luck. The gallerists were smart, I guess. I couldn’t have picked a better person – or band. It worked really good and the opening was so much fun.

Dearraindrop: Hidden In,

Can you tell me something about one of the artworks, about what’s going on in that particulary one?

Yeah, in the roof of the gallery there’s this huge stick spinning. It was originally supposed to be a feedback thrombone that moved in and out like a parascope. And that idea went wrong, so we were like “what the hell do we do with this huge tube?”. So we decided to spin it from the gallery roof like the new discoball. And then we build the obelisk and it looks like it’s snapping it over, which was a last minute idea.

Dearraindrop: AT & T free hallucination, 2008. 259 x 320 cm.

Can you tell me a bit about the title of the exibition, Hidden in?

We wanted to do postcards that wasn’t represtentative of anything. It turned into pictures…

There’s a lot of content in some of these things but a lot of it is pretty obscure. A lot of it is hidden in there. I didn’t come up with the title, Chris did, so you should ask him, but I know there’s hidden shit in all the paintings. People don’t even see it, but there’s like two breasts in this one (AT & T free Hallucination, red.), and you’ll have to tell them. There’s dudes that really likes that one, and then you tell them about the motif and they are like “oh!”.

It takes me a while to actually get all the elements in your paintings…

Yeah, that’s good. Things that are good are the things that are good to look at for a second and good to look at for a while too.

What are some of the basic ideas in your work?

We don’t use tape, we don’t use stencils and we don’t sketch things out before we do it. It’s pretty much a mindmelt. We have esp (extra sensorial perception, red.) together because we’ve know each other for so long. All humans have that, they are just not tapped into it. It’s like, you know, when you’re getting a phonecall and you know who it is before you even look at the phone, and when you hear the persons voice you realise that you were just thinking about that person. It works like that for us, and it’s gotten to the point where we’re beyond speaking american. We want a revolutionary world.

And I don’t use photoshop, I don’t know how to. I’m very proud of that! I’ll never use it to make paintings.

Why not?

Because I’m a human being. I’m the best computer. I don’t need it, I have my own photoshop: the Joe Grillo, my brain. And it doesn’t have that really ugly Adope-ish icon that comes up when you open the program. My mind is like way cooler.

Dearraindrop: Philadelphia, 2008. 217 x 172 cm.		Dearraindrop: Watch em` form into to dinosaurs (Crazy Collage), 2008. 91 x 61 cm.

It seems to me that there is some kind of psychedelic inspiration in your work. Where does that come from?

Everyone is born naturally psychedelic anyway. Most children are. I’m not comparing myself to them, but if you look at it most children are totally psychedelic. You don’t have to be doing drugs to get that effect or to put it in your work. It’s already in you. Humans are pretty psychedelic things, you know. God is the most psychedelic artist ever! Look at the sunset or pollution or the inside of a human body. We’ve got psychedelic venes. That’s pretty fucking psychedelic in itself!

We have a history of being into psychedelic artists too, don’t get me wrong. Some of my favorite artists like Rich Griffin from San Fransisco.

What do you find particulally interesting in that?

The visual aspect is interesting to me. I don’t like boring, dry things usually. I do like some things that are boring or simple or plain, but… that’s my style. I think it has been a plus for us working in this group and we were into these things before we even knew what LSD was.

There is a soundtrack to the exhibition as well. Can you tell me about that?

The soundtrack is a jam session from February of our drunk recordings. We get waisted and make music that sounds bad. We’ve never shown it to anyone before and we’re getting ready to make a real album next month in Canada. It’s not gonna sound anything like that, it’ll be more sober and more tight. We’re gonna be like New Order - Hippie-New Order. I just heard them for the first time in Vienna. Blue Monday is an awsom song.

I love Joy Division and I was stupid and thought New Order was like this old band. But then I heard New Order and I listened to it, and it sounds like Joy Division, but different.

Happier somehow…

Yeah, and I like that. I need that. I don’t need to be thinking about my dying soul and all that negativity anymore. I’ve got a lot to be happy for. New Order rules! Hippie-New Order!

Dearraindrop: Noisy, 2008. 187 x 142 cm.		Dearraindrop: Classical Mystery Tour (Eagle, 2008. 101 x 76 cm. Mixed Media

I remember at your last exhibition in Copenhagen there were a lot of references to different musicians in your work as well. Can you describe how music influences your work?

For me personally I don’t think there’s a difference between sound and art. Audio and visual are languages that I think are really parallel or simular. I’m into bands as much as I’m into artists. I like Destroy All Monsters as much as I like the artwork of Mike Kelly and Jim Shaw and Cary Loren which is the same thing. That’s a good example; Destroy All Monsters music match up totally with these pretty well established artists now. They were heroes and predecessors as far as american punk fucked up kids making psychedelic trash goes.

Thank you!

Dearraindrop: Zipatone Spray Cement (Spraycans), 2007. 50.5 x 40 cm.		Dearraindrop: Metal Up Your Ass (Yellow Skull), 2008. 61 x 61 cm.
Dearraindrop: A combination of two (Mechanical african mask with mushrooms), 2008. 91 x 61 cm.		Dearraindrop: Parrothead (Wood Parrots), 2006. 61 x 46 cm.
Dearraindrop: Untitled, Grey (Eyes), 2005. 30,5 x 30,5 cm.		Dearraindrop: Seagull Knifeholder, 2008. 50 x 14 cm.
Dearraindrop: A combination of two (Mechanical african mask with mushrooms), 2008. 91 x 61 cm.		Dearraindrop: Solid State (Pink Fangs), 2007/2008. 61 x 61 cm.

Billeder fra åbningen