Off The Wall

Andrew Birk

A Multi-Media Mr

We first learnt about Andrew B from a friend of ours in New York.

A very talented artist who uses lots of materials to come up with the finish product, a true contemporary adventurer indeed...

RDC: Hey Andrew it's great to meet you Dude, could you tell us where you are from and where you live now please?

Howdy Wayne, 

I was born in a small town called Corvallis, Oregon and raised in Portland, Oregon. After University I moved to Contemporary Babylon New York City, and now I'm living in Mexico City. The Frontier. 

RDC: Could you tell us what media you use, we know the list is extensive...

Whatever I can get my hands on. No, really, I'll do whatever it takes and use whatever it takes to push painting somewhere. A sound piece can be a painting if you approach it correctly. I will make a video if necessary but I'm not interested in literally filming a video, I just take existing video. I think sound is the most effective tool we have, and I'm obsessed with the Idea of noise when it comes to paintings. Reading and writing poetry and tweeting like fucking crazy @andrewbirk. Ive used spray paint, polyurethane, drug baggies, post-it notes, stickers, books, oil, acrylic, tape, sandpaper, Xerox, fire, 2pac, hammers, fists, knives, whatever. Its not that crazy of a list. When I can afford industrial-grade acid I'll let you know. 

RDC: Are you a self taught artist?

I went to University but it was very traditional and I really didn't identify with any of the ideology or methodology. When I got kicked out I moved to New York and that was my school. I haven't graduated from any institution since elementary school, and I prefer that chip to be present on my shoulder at all times. 

RDC: You have various interesting approaches to your art, could you describe your numerous works and what inspires them please?

That would take forever. I will say that right now I'm working as hard as I can to make the most honest work possible. Things being paired-down or economical, no frills. I'm growing more and more resentful towards tricks. I'm a Hemingway kind of guy. To me economy in gesture is really important, and I think right now especially, at this historical junction where there is a lot less money floating around in the Art world for funding ridiculous Urs Fischer-style fabrication. Now the importance has shifted to the profundity of honest gesture, not the theatricality of a glib New York gesture. For example: Why tape off a surface to paint lines when you can just produce lines with the tape? Why paint what would be better as a photograph? Why photograph what is better as reality? Why the fuck would you record a performance, a gesture that fundamentally lives in its own state of transience? Why turn Internet Art into a physical object to be displayed in a gallery space? I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. I am doing everything I can not to undermine the purity the honesty of my ideas with the way they are manifested into physicality.

RDC: If you could do it all again, what would you change?

I would be rich I would have my family float me for 20 years and send me to the Art Institute of Chicago and pay for my flash-based website and my Lower East Side apartment and my Oxycontin addiction and my David Zwirner unpaid internship and my PR agent and my hotel rooms at Art Basel and I wouldn't think so much and I wouldn't feel any sense of shame. 

RDC: Have you got any new ideas for future work we should look out for?

Yes! I am writing a book right now and its one of the most refreshing experiences ever. Ive been in 16 shows this year and I promised myself Id take a break from producing new objects until the New Year (not gonna happen). Anyway, this book is by far the most honest thing Ive ever made and by far the best painting Ive ever made. Its a book on everything I can think of. 

RDC: What words of wisdom have you got for our readers?

You remember Archimedes of Syracuse? Eh? The king asks Archimedes to determine if a present he has received is actually solid gold. Unsolved problem at the time. It tortures the great Greek mathematician for weeks. Insomnia haunts him and he twists and turns in his bed for nights on end. Finally, his equally exhausted wife, forced to share a bed with this genius, convinces him to take a bath, to relax. While he's entering the tub, he notices the bath water rise. Displacement - a way to determine volume, and thus a way to determine density. Weight over volume. And thus Archimedes solves the problem. He screams "Eureka!" and he is so overwhelmed, he runs naked through the streets to the king's palace to report his discovery. Now, what is the moral of the story? That a breakthrough will come. Wrong! The point of the story is the wife. Listen to your wife, she'll give you perspective. Meaning, you need a break. You must take a bath or you'll get nowhere.

Thanks so much for the opportunity!

RDC: Ha ha it's been a hoot Andy, thanks to you also.

More From Andy... HERE