China Post Interview

Julian Opie

I have around 35 artworks going, which are effectively focusing on the human figure. There are a few relating to landscapes, but most are centred on the human face and figure. There are some 3D works (statues), and also some which are moving/animated on computers.

There are some LED works - dancing and walking figures, which are fairly large.

The Primary gallery was where my first gallery shows started about 25 years ago.

There is a gallery in Seoul, called the Kukje gallery, where there is a show, and I have a gallery in Tokyo called Scai, and there are various works at each.

I have just had an exhibition is Seoul. I don't tend to go to art fairs myself. They are exciting to look around, but are not really an exhibition - more of a show.

I have worked with Alan Cristea. It is a print and multiple gallery, so I run the web shop through them.

I work with about 13 galleries around the world - they are all listed on the website.

I don't really know Hong Kong that well, I have visited there, and seen some of the islands, and spent a little time in Shanghai.

Computers are very central to what I do, as they act as a tool or a lens through which most things pass at one point. Some works are shown on computers/LCD screens, and LED (light emitting diodes) are generally used for larger scale, and are linked to/run by a computer. Paintings and sculptures are generally drawn on computer.
They may start with a real figure or landscape, which will then be transferred onto a computer to be out put in various ways.

I am focusing on commissioned portraits again to a degree, in the style of Manga/Japanese animation.

I am also moving towards 17th/18th century portraiture, which used to be used as the process of commissioned portraits, so I quite like mimicking that in a way. I have also done a family group.

I have done work on dancing and walking figures at the Royal Ballet, which was a project with a choreographer named Wayne McGregor. That was on stage earlier this year, and lots of projects have come out of that linked to dance. Some of these are on display in Hong Kong.

Seoul focuses on a ballet dancer and human movement. This can be close up - eyes/fingers moving, or more distant - whole body moving/people walking.

I have also done some outdoor commission work, which often focuses on large moving figures. I was reading about Hogarth - he said "true human beauty was in movement". I don't quite know what he means by that but thought it was interesting he thought the same. Humans are always moving, and especially humans we don't know we often see moving, on the street, walking, or outdoors.
Even sitting down humans are quite animated, so to depict humans in a realistic way we need to use movement, which is available now with computers.
Making images move used to be less easy, and used to be only available as films, with time stretches and a story to engage people. A painting in a gallery doesn't need a time stretch or a story; we can include movement but keep to a single picture. I am not the only person to do that - Warhol was doing that but without computers.

I have always combined movement with non-moving images, and to a degree I have solved that now.
We spend a lot of time and energy looking at screens, and I don't tell my kids not to got on the Internet, or watch the television too much - just tell them " not too much screens'.
They are the common denominator, and are a threat to the real world, but are also a great way of processing the world and understanding it.

I don't confine myself to working on the moving images - often even still images contain a lot movement.

I have spent a lot of time looking at Japanese wood block prints from the 19th century like Hiroshige and Utomaro, as lots of their works involve suggested movement:
Birds flying across the picture
People punting boats
Rain falling
Somebody smoking
Somebody playing with a child

I have made a series of landscapes after Hiroshige, and I also collect his work as did Van Gogh.
I set off in Japan with a GPS guided car following Hiroshige's route around mount Fuji.I took photos, and then put these images together.

I have always liked Japanese culture, as it is quite particular and refined, and has a certain melancholy to it. I think Hiroshige is one of the great geniuses of it. I have double computer screens that hang on the wall and show his landscapes - if you look closely you can see they are all moving, if not only small things:
Clouds pass by
Aeroplanes go over
Water ripples
Insects/birds fly around

This adds a narrative without there being a story, and makes people slow down when looking at something. There are so many images everywhere now, and something simple moving allows one to slow down, and gives time to stop and listen. It allows one to focus on our surroundings and allows it to enter your consciousness. Making pictures with small amount of movement allows people to just look, and let the art work or not work for you.

I am careful not to use the phrase "computer generated" as it suggests that the computer generated it. It doesn't, but simply acts as a sophisticated drawing tool. It is simple, sensible, and is easy to copy and change. I think of Digital cameras more like a mirror. We can use it to record images and information, and then take it back to the studio. It works like a series of mirrors.

Technology used to be more expensive and difficult, but can now be used as a constant feed for you. I don't think it is further away from reality. Art instead is a processing of reality. It is seen by someone and thought about and processed, and then drawn by someone. It often allows us in a strange way, to see things more clearly. Sometimes books or films are more understandable/digestible than real life.

Insight teaches us about the world through other people, whether they be a filmmaker, writer, or artist, and it adds to our understanding of the world. Artists process and dream about, and complain about, and praise the world around them, and it is the results of that that what we as an audience enjoy. It is a tool in order to look at reality, and enjoy it. You can use a pencil or computer, really what works best for you. Do, in a certain sense, what is easy, but take it to the level where it is better than you could ever expect to do.
In the 90s I used to copy the way computers imaged things, but do it by hand. In the end it is easier just to draw on the computer.

Generally, so far, I have felt websites are good for information as opposed to being artworks themselves. I am producing a new site now, and like an artwork it will have a theme or idea, it won't just be an online list of lots of my pictures. It is a means of communication and information. I also have an online shop. It is frustrating that I make a few multiples for museums, and they very quickly disappear, so it is an opportunity to have them available. My outlet is for prints without edition numbers for multiples, posters and catalogues. It is another option for getting work out there. Galleries and museums are relatively modern, there never used to be a system for showing work. I have made billboard projects and CD covers, installed works on building facades and on street corners, made book covers and my own artists books.

The Lisson Gallery stand at the fair will be just my work; I have tried this once or twice before. I think it gets away from the feeling that it's a bit of a jumble sale, as most galleries tend to show all the artists that they represent. Some galleries try to show just 1 or 2 artists, and it makes more sense for people who don't know the work that well. In China my work has not been shown so much there's a chance for people to catch up with it a bit.