1xRUN Thru Interview
Gif-iti Lenticular #1 by Insa
1xRun: Tell us a little bit about this piece, when was it created?
Insa: I painted this piece in London in November of 2013. It is one of my GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) or “Gif-iti” paintings that I have been doing for the last 3 years. It is just one of an ongoing evolution that I can play with creating an animated painting. This was a particularly fun one because I stopped painting letters a while ago, so this was purely fun to paint letters again, to paint “Insa” again in a new way.
These prints for me are really exciting because my Gif work came about trying to make a street work look better online, but this is the first time that I’ve tried to take something online back offline and turn it back into a physical tangible item. I originally thought that you would only be able to see these pieces online, but through this kind of retro technology of lenticular printing we have managed come go full circle and bring this piece back into being the real world.
1xRun: Can you tell us a bit more about this series?
Insa: The Gif, or “Gif-iti” as it has become known as, came about because I realized that more people have seen my work online, rather than in real life. Most painters don’t want their work viewed like that, they want them viewed in real life, but I wanted to re-create a piece where the internet was actually the ideal place for it to be viewed.
People’s lives look better online. People’s faces look better online. Everything looks better online. So I wanted to create work that would look better when it was viewed online. The idea started out as series of different sketches similar to this piece that were playing with stripes. Creating these directional stripes and seeing exactly what effects you can get with them.
1xRun: Where did this piece fall in the series?
Insa: At the time this was probably the 15th or so “Gif-iti” piece that I had painted. However, it was perhaps one of the first that I felt really happy with. Everything worked out exactly as it should have. Every time I paint a Gif like this I won’t really know until it is finished. This one really came out on point.
1xRun: When was the first piece created in this style and where?
Insa: The first Gif piece that I painted was in 2011, that was in Belgium. I was on tour with an artist named Inkie and I had been trying to explain this new idea that I had to him. I had the idea for a few years, but that’s when it all kicked off really. I stopped painting graffiti because I got really bored with it. All I had really thought was that if I ever went back to painting letters again I wanted to do some next level shit with it. So when I first started painting them I though this is it, and then I thought I’ll start doing it and then everyone will start doing it. A little bit of some ego maniac shit, haha. But, it’s now 3 years later and there really have only been 2-3 people that have tried to do it. So now I really see it as my own style.
1xRun: On this piece specifically, how did the idea and execution came about?
Insa: The day I painted it I had a French TV crew filming me. I was meant to do a totally different painting around the corner, on a different building, but that fell through, so I painted this just on the spur of the moment on the hoardings (construction site boards) that I saw walking back to the studio. So it was an illegal piece, but having a film crew with me made it easy to do in the daytime.
1xRun: How long did the piece take?
Insa: I managed to paint the first two layers finished that day, but I had to go back the next day to finish the full Gif which ended up being 4 layers.
1xRun: What is unique about this piece ?
Insa: This one is fairly unique as it is the whole wall is moving, meaning every part of the wall is moving. It’s just using these stripes to create a real depth. It’s very minimal in content, but it has maximum impact.
1xRun: Why should people buy this print?
Insa: Because it’s the first time ever that an animated Gif painting has been produced outside of the internet. Also, for a lenticular print the piece is hella cheap.
1xRun: Describe this piece in one gut reaction word.
Insa: Development.
1xRun: How did you get involved with Pow Wow? Is this your first time in Taiwan?
Insa: have been throughout Asia before, but yes it is my first time here in Taiwan. Earlier this year in Hawaii was the first that I had been out for Pow Wow. I was psyched when I got the invite. Previous years I had watched from afar and I always wanted to get involved. Each Pow Wow has been a great event to be involved with, they put a lot of effort into making sure that it is good painting and good times.
1xRun: Can you tell us a bit about this current wall you are working on for Pow Wow Taiwan?
Insa: The painting that I am working on here is fucking huge, 8 stories high. It’s a collaboration with Madsteez, who I met for the first time in Hawaii earlier this year. When it is finished it will be the biggest mural in all of Taiwan. It will also be the biggest Gif-iti in the world. I actually would never have attempted to do a Gif-iti piece this big, apart from right before I left I saw that some cunts in Norway had stolen the Gif idea and had done a big advert for it claiming it to be the world’s biggest gif-iti. So I couldn’t let that be the case.
1xRun: Where else can people find you?
Insa: Website – “Gif-iti” Tumblr – Twitter @Insaland – Instagram @Insa_gram –
-1xRUN