Julian Brangold alias JBR, is a digital illustrator from Argentina who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He studied media and communications in Buenos Aires, Argentina..
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..artists need to be in a position of extreme privilege or uncontrolled virality to create some sort of meaningful impact in society. That’s why I started focusing on the local, trying to translate my intention to make the world a slightly better place together with each person I interact with. - JBR
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Julian Brangold alias JBR, is a digital illustrator from Argentina who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He studied media and communications in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the last years his works have been exhibited in several galleries between Berlin, New York and Buenos Aires.
Besides his interest in video art, JBR begins to deepen painting, drawing and tattoo practice. Within this field JBR today explores digital materiality and the relationship between the body, technology and the current state of contemporary art. An example of this reasearch is the series Technology Eats All. Quoting the artist, the images presented at LoosenArt are an exploration on the subjects of technology and the digital world, and how they intertwine with the art practices. Based on the appropriation and destruction of digital imagery and the experimentation with contemporary materials and new ways of creating artworks, it delves into new visual worlds and tries to push the boundaries of what can be considered a work of art.
L.A.: Julian, to start can you tell us a little bit about yourself? what led to you working in illustration?
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JBR: I started my artistic path in Buenos Aires, where I studied film. I was always attracted to visual expression, so while studying film, I got interested in video art, mainly because of the possibility of pure aesthetic expression and abstraction with a lack of coherent story. After experimenting with experimental video for a while I started painting. This medium gave me the chance to express ideas through a long path of associations and very indirect uses of meaning. Abstraction functions as a means to put ideas that make no sense in a context that can be then interpreted and even organized. I have always been interested in science and the relationship between humans and nature, that's why my paintings were very biological and related to animal organisms. Enter my interest in technology. I started to be fascinated by the development of human technologies and how it's changing our world more rapidly than we can grasp, and so I began to explore which experimental mediums would help me explore the relationship between machine and the human body. I got interested then in tattooing, and as a result of this interest, I started developing a style of digital illustration that is very influenced by the processes of machines and digital imagery.
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L.A.: Who were the first artists that you found inspiring?
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JBR: My first experience being emotionally affected by a visual artist was seeing The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh in a temporary exhibition at the Guggenheim museum around the age of 12 years old. I was walking around alone, not focusing too much on any artwork when I suddenly came across this one. I stopped, looked at it for a few seconds and started crying. I cannot explain the feeling of void, depth and compassion this painting evokes in me every time I see it live. The interesting thing to me is that when i first had this experience, I wasn't familiar with the sad story that Van Gogh had throughout his life, but somehow I felt a sadness being transmitted through the expression of that painting. This marked a clear path for me, and does until this day.
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Wall as in Bang Bangs
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L.A.: How do you come up with ideas for your works?
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JBR: I find inspiration absorbing from sources that have nothing to do with what I do, like listening to science podcasts or reading science books. I also find a lot of sources of inspiration online, like watching Youtube videos. I also see a lot of other painters, illustrators and tattooers’ work.
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L.A.: Can you take one of your works from those presents at LoosenArt and try to express a personal comment about meanings or concepts?
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JBR: The work “Wall as in Bang Bangs” was created by taking reference from an antique illustration. It’s a very good representation of the way I work. I traced a reference image, then started playing with it and after a couple of hours of trying different things, leaving and coming back to the work in progress, I randomly came up with the action of repeating the lines in a downward position, so I started exploring that idea. I usually don’t like to extract meaning before I finish a work, but this one in particular was made with the reference to the violence we find online and how our online personas predispose us to a profile of confrontation due to the anonymity that the internet provides.
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Human Pirámide
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Worried That
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L.A.: What is the role of the artist in contemporary society?
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JBR: I have only recently started realizing that artists need to be in a position of extreme privilege or uncontrolled virality to create some sort of meaningful impact in society. That’s why I started focusing on the local, trying to translate my intention to make the world a slightly better place together with each person I interact with. That’s why I love tattooing so much, it’s a very intimate personal experience where you give something to someone and both of us can experience this immediate feeling of well being and excitement.
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L.A.: What are your future plans/projects or aspirations?
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JBR: Next year, in exactly five months, I will open a space in Buenos Aires that will serve as my tattooing studio, but also a space for art exhibitions by other artists and intimate live music shows, as well as a space for the exploration of tattooing as a form of contemporary art.
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Percolate
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JBR www.jbrtattoo.com
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Human Pirámide
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