louis/aida volume 2, 2006, #016

louis/aida are a pair of petite cupcakes born, bred and living in singapore. they draw inspiration for their work from observing pretty sailors on ships, checking out androgynous convent school girls, going to the theatre, reading books, jerking off to alternative s&m smut, and listening to music. lime flavored kickstart motivates them to go on. that and annoying scheming friends.

1. how would you explain 'art' - in 19 words or less? art is something that imitates life but better, because it is an extraction.

2. what is the first work of art you ever loved? if it's the first, we would have to say it's animation in the form of saturday morning cartoons on tv as children. smurfs, and jem and the hollograms. but we remember seeing edvard munch's the scream on an MTV commercial when we were like 12 or something, and that was one of the first few works of art that made us want to pick up painting, and enroll in art school.

3. how important is theory to your art? aesthetics is important to a piece of art, but beauty is nothing without a concept behind it. theory and history makes art more meaningful than just simply the creation and physical construction of something.

4. describe your ideal art workspace. it can't be small, but neither can it be too big to the point of engulfing. messy in an organised fashion that only we know our way around it. a constant supply of paint, paper, canvases and materials. a good medium-format camera with a digital back. an endless supply of fags can't hurt too.

5. describe your current art workspace. nothing like the above.

6. if you could be placed in suspended animation and safely reanimated at some time in the future with the sole purpose being to see how history treated you / your art, would you do it?
no, we don't think we would do it. but we don't really determine ourselves, what makes history, so we suppose it's really out of our hands.

7. who are some of your favourite artists (contemporary or canonical)? anna gaskell - there is beauty in the grotesque way she photographs all her strange girls in the forests, and the evil things they do to each other.

8. tell us about a gallery (online or physical space) that you think rocks, and why you think it rocks. well it's not really a gallery, but it's a studio space belonging to some artists in kuala lumpur, malaysia that just simply rocks. it's an abandoned indoor squash court that is converted to a studio. it's just such an absurd idea, we love it!

9. would you choose the baked bean jaffle or the caramelised pumpkin and red onion tart with crispy radicchio and hazelnut salad with apple vinaigrette? we would choose the hazelnut salad with apple vinaigrette, because the rest seems kinda chunky and fart-inducing.

10. finish this sentence: "the work of art can / cannot be considered separately to the artist because ________." the work of art cannot be considered separately to the artist because it is an extension of the person who creates the work. our works are very personal so it can't be disconnected from us.

check out more of louis/aida's work at: www.louis-aida.com

close to julie, 2005

how you looked to me, 2005

quiet
quiet, 2005

i like you, too, 2005