To celebrate hitting ten weeks of amazing artists, we’ve got two weeks of awesome content for you specially focused on film. This week and next, we’ll be meeting some really amazing and progressive film artists; #thedailyedit will be exploring some classic B movies and our top 10 art-house films; some new and exciting content will be dropping and we'll be accepting your submissions every day to showcase your favourite directors, films and recommendations.
To kick start it all off we're featuring Louis Judkins. 22-year-old Louis is a born and bred Londoner and recent Chelsea college of arts graduate. He also makes anthology short films: conceptual sketch-comedy meets experimental sound and vision. To summarise Louis's work in short, imagine him reading an extensive list of explicit sex ads in front of background of interchanging cats. Or, perhaps, dancing and lip-synching to a recording of the Chapman brothers, in front of found footage of hardcore porn and cow being slaughtered in an abattoir.
His work is undoubtly shocking. Yet, he explores what is ‘shocking’ in art for the post-internet generation. With extreme violence, gore and pornography literally at our fingertips and playing on our screens, Louis's films seem to ask: what happens when our culture itself is so shocking that art can no longer compete?
Hello Louis, will you introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself?
I’m Louis. I’ve lived in London my whole life. I’m an artist/filmmaker. I make funny art for miserable people.
When did you start creating art?
I suppose everyone paints and draws and eats crayons when they are babies but it was most likely when I was about 6, when I started getting obsessed with cinema. I used to make cinema auditoriums out of cardboard boxes or in the bottom draw of my wardrobe. They had tiny seats and I’d stick pictures of films from magazines, like a shot from Monsters, Inc. on the side as the screen, dim the lights and pretend it was real.
 |
| Credit: @chr1ssy.d and @harrie.bradshaw (Christian Denbigh and Harry Freegard) |
Tiny cinema sounds awesome... Have you always experimented with multiple different art forms? I love that you paint, make collages, make films AND take photos.
What I learnt at art school is that when you’re working with a conceptual idea for a piece, you have to let the idea inform what medium it’s going to be. You should ask yourself, why am I painting it? Why am I going to film it? Would it be a better piece of work if I just wrote the idea down on some paper and stuck it on the gallery wall? You have to justify the medium you’re using with the idea behind the piece. So with that way of working, it really opens up the possibilities of what medium to use.
Saying that though, when I see an artist that works with every medium I just think, “Is there anything you can do?
(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)
Would you say you try and get specific themes across in your work?
Definitely. I try to justify every detail in whatever it is I’m making, and there are many recurring themes. I’m not going to list off what they are though. A lot of them are very obvious.
A lot of your films echo stand up comedy. How would you say your personality reflected in your work?
The way I tell jokes and the comedic way I observe things is really magnified when it comes to making work. It’s really the only way I like to do things. It’s not just me though, I have a lot of creative friends who do exactly the same, its brilliant. The more people at private views laughing, the better.
I’ve also been through many periods of anxiety and depression through my life, but I never really like talking to people about it, so I feel like it subtly manifests itself in the work, as well as in my diary entries
Concrete Dildo - S01 E03: ‘RUDE GLUE’ (2017) from Louis Judkins on Vimeo.
Who are your favourite artists?
Paul McCarthy, Rachel Maclean, Pipilotti Rist, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Kenneth Anger. Right now though I’m completely enamoured with Jenkin Van Zyl’s work. I don’t think anyone our age is even remotely on his level at the moment.
How do you overcome creative blocks?
I always watch Julien Temple’s documentary about the sex pistols, The Filth And The Fury when I've hit a creative block. I’ve got the dvd and have it on itunes so I can pretty much watch it anywhere. It’s just so fucking punk. It’s got great editing, great music, great visuals; It’s so full of energy. And the whole story of the band is really inspiring as they were so young. I always get halfway through it and think, “Right I have to fucking get a fucking a move on and fucking do some fucking work”.
Anthology films and sketch shows have both really inspired my work. So when working out a plan for my degree show piece, to just go crazy and make a lengthily film series of different vignettes was really a natural progression of my work so far. I wrote pages and pages and pages of sketches, filmed a select few and pieced them together like a jigsaw which then turned into 3 different episodes instead of just one, which was the original plan.
I have a lot of ideas about having an anti-tv tv show that just goes completely of the rails like in The Eric Andre Show, where the scene is set as a comedy bit and then the next surreal scene happens and while watching it you’re hit with that ‘holy shit’ panic attack feeling you get whenever you have an existential crisis and think about how the universe is constantly expanding and that everything dies and that you’ll be dead forever. I still haven’t fully achieved this though, which I’m trying to work on more in the next episodes.
Your films are a big mixing pot of stand up comedy sketches, arthouse, explicit videos and diary entries. It's a very unique mix. Where do you get inspiration from?
The Mighty Boosh has had the biggest influence on me in this respect. I honestly don’t know what I’d be doing if it wasn’t for that show. The writing, the mad costumes, the sets, the music, literally blew me away when I first watched it. The first time I watched Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and El Topo were also completely life-changing. They’re completely packed with so many different ideas that every time you watch one of his films its like you’re watching a completely different film.
 |
| Credit: @chr1ssy.d and @harrie.bradshaw (Christian Denbigh and Harry Freegard) |
You're very natural on film. Have you acted before?
I have, yeah. When I was younger I went to this youth theatre called Group 64 where you were allowed to run around and scream and tell jokes and improvise and act in plays, which definitely had a big impact. A few friends I was there with are becoming really successful actors.
When watching Concrete Dildo episodes my emotional rections were so varied. From giggling, to wincing, to feeling happy, sad, thoughtful and everything in between! Is that a reaction you'd like viewers to have from your work?
Yeah definitely, I’ve got lots of ideas of trying to replicate that soulless feeling of being stuck on youtube at 3am clicking through meme compilations, or with spotify where you can instantly listen any genre you want, its almost like you’re dreaming, where you’re in multiple random situations after another.
 |
| ‘The Man Tries Running His Usual Game But Sweetback’s Jones Is So Strong He Wastes The Hounds (Yeah! Yeah! And Besides That He Will Be Comin’ Back Takin’ Names And Collecting Dues)’ (2017) |
A lot of the film clips in your films are quite shocking. Do you enjoy taking risks with your work?
Yes, but on a Bob Flanagan level. Trying to make something provocative, but not offensive I think is definitely a lot harder now than it was a decade ago.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Concrete Dildo - S01 E02: ‘TRIGGERED !!!’ (2017) from Louis Judkins on Vimeo.Which is more important to you, the original concept behind the work, or the way it is executed?
As long as it’s got a really interesting idea behind it either way works. I do find that even though the whole “yeah man just start filming and see what happens” attitude is an interesting way of doing working, most of the time you do just end up with something shit.
Do you think Art is a good medium for questioning politics, society and culture?
Of course yeah, It’s the best medium for it. I hate artists or musicians who make a big deal about not being political. From an early age our entire lives are governed by politics, whether it be things like transport, law and order, healthcare, education, the government, defence, even nursery rhymes. So if you say that your work isn’t political, it’s just like… your work is about nothing then? It’s meaningless? You’re an idiot.
A Philosophy Joke (2015) from Louis Judkins on Vimeo.
What are your plans for the next year? Do you have any exhibitions/collabs coming up?
I’m working with my friend Anna on a film she’s written, and I’m in a group show with some friends near the end of April, and more concrete dildo. My plan is to have episodes 4, 5, 6 finished before the summer, and then show them in some kind of installation.
I like to make it look like I’m super organised and on top of things, but all the half-baked ideas and projects I’m working on at the moment are just in a big mess on the floor. You have to wade in everyday and try to pick something out to continue working
You can find Louis on instagram here, where he often posts new work. To see more Concrete Dildo and other film work, check out his Vimeo Page here.
Post a Comment