Interview: Erik Parker

Erik Parker: Adapt (installationsview), 2010.

The show is called Adapt, can you give me your thoughts on this title and on the painting called Adapt?

Visually, I like the way this painting looks. It is about coming to terms of what is going on, both in the studio and in life and globally. It is about trying to figure out a new way to deal or survive. As a living person I try to sum up what is going on globally. Adapting seems like what we are all doing right now. We are adapting, amorphing or maybe changing but it seems like it is positive.

Erik Parker: Shape Shift, 2009. 2@132 x 81 cm. Acrylic on canvas.

The paintings often have the title written on it as part of the painting, how should one look at that? Like the painting Adapt has the word “Adapt” written on it as a part of the work.

These words are there to spring into an open narrative for the viewer. I also look at a lot of graffiti and tags and how they are placed in an urban architectural environment and when it is done right it is really cool and opens my own narrative. Hopefully, the viewers will say “Adapt” and get involved and hopefully make their own decisions.

Erik Parker: Think Tank, 2009. 2@132 x 81 cm. Acrylic on canvas.

Some of the paintings tend to look like portraits and others are more focusing on certain parts of the face. Should one see your paintings as portraits?

There are certain cropping elements, it is such a imaginary concept of figuration so I thought it would be interesting to kind of crop them, they are like standard portraits but then again not really. The paintings deal with abstraction, cartoon-language and lowbrow language and I try to put it in a more classical kind of way.

Erik Parker: Hand to Mouth, 2009. 2@162 x 111 cm. Acrylic on canvas.

How do you work with the paintings?

I sometimes use a projector but I try to stay away from the idea of using a projector because I do not want it to lack spontaneity and fun. I have been working on the Adapt painting for over a year – it is ridiculous. I kept changing it, it has a lot of paint on it. When I started it I did not have any idea of what I was going to do but I chose to do a very difficult form right from the center of the canvas as a challenge. That is maybe why it ended up being called Adapt. I try to make this kind of form, become something, to adapt to what is going on in this environment. It is a kind of formal painting-games I play. At the end of the day I try to make something interesting to look at and I try to have fun doing it. It may hurt a bit, then be fun and then you get angry. You go through all kinds of emotions.

Erik Parker: Free Your Mind, 2009. 172 x 162 cm. Acrylic on canvas. Erik Parker: Adapt, 2009. 198 x 167 cm. Acrylic on canvas.

You used to write different words on the edges of paintings but the works in this exhibition continue round the edges. Why did you change that?

I think writing on the edges was becoming a standard thing. I wanted to bring the picture up and around the edges of the canvas to accentuate the idea of the object, to refine it and clean things up a bit for a moment. I also felt that the edges were taking away from what was happening on the main surface of the canvas.

Erik Parker: Ace, 2009. 109,5 x 101 cm. Acrylic on canvas.		Erik Parker: Stuck, 2009. 109,5 x 101 cm. Acrylic on canvas.

You have also started making diptych paintings, splitting up the canvas into two canvasses and mounting them with a gap. What are your thoughts behind doing so?

The most interesting thing about symmetry is the center, so I thought it would be interesting to do it on two panels and having that gap between them creating like a spine bringing more attention to the center of the composition. In the gap between the two panels you can see that the picture continues around the edge on each panel.

Do you paint the canvas before or after it has been mounted on the stretcher?

I paint it after it has been mounted on the stretcher.

Erik Parker: Loot, 2009. 51 x 46 cm. Acrylic on canvas.		Erik Parker: Turn Down, 2009. 51 x 46 cm. Acrylic on canvas.		Erik Parker: Sneak, 2009. 51 x 46 cm. Acrylic on canvas.

I know you have made a list of words referring to different things that have inspired you for the past year or so. Can you tell me about this?

Conspiracy theory has interested me. You do not know whether these things are true or not and you may be driven mad trying to find out. It is said that if you hear something eight times you will remember it and psychiatrists know this. But sometimes the shit that they say sometimes comes on the regular newspaper six months down the line. Sometimes I just get inspired by this and I like to mix it with different kinds of music, i.e. some of the references in the music of Wu Tang Clan and rap music.

I also like the sign-painter Royal Robertson who was schizophrenic and saw visions and he did some awesome stuff.

Then there is the swine flu, less people have died from the swine flu compared to a regular flu. The media created hysteria, so we do not have to focus on what is really going on and a gigantic amount of money was spent on vaccinations. If you follow the money trail then there is always a different answer. I do not know how it relates to what I do visually but I have always liked that other idea of the media. Some people say that is crazy to think of the media like that but who is calling it crazy? It is usually the people who own the media. Pirate media is just as interesting as pirate radio.

I saw the new documentary on Mike Tyson, it is fantastic. He was the ultimate boxing champ since Mohammed Ali and he has been brought down to nothing. He was a true fighter and was worth millions of dollars.

Thanks.