Living inside your own head. Interview with Andrés Gudino.
Could you tell us a bit about your background? How did you get interested in art?
I’ve always been interested in drawing and be very passionate about it. My family wasn´t very into art but one aunt did and she taught me how to paint in oil. After that I began to discover different artists and got more involved in art.
Art wasn´t supposed to be a profession but a hobby in my family so at college I studied architecture for 3 years until I realized that I really wanted to be a visual artist so I started studying painting at the Fine Arts school.
Where do you based and what do you do?
I live in San José, Costa Rica from where i´m from and do some freelance work mostly in design so that allows me to dedicate myself to my art and personal projects.
Does she/he (?) have a personality?
It does, it´s someone really seductive and kinky in a very innocent, adorable and creepy way.
Can you tell us what is the story behind „big head” project?
It dosen’t have a name, as I said i´ve always loved drawing and being working on it for a long time. I started some sort of bestiarium or a imagynarium of characters so when I had my first solo show I got to show them. They were made out of charcoal and embroidery. I always take into consideration the space it self so I did an instalation with the drawings where they seemed to be trying to get out from the paper and the walls. So after that I decided to get them out of the paper and into a sculpture. I didn´t had a plan for it just wanted to be able to play with it since it allows me a big range of mediums to work with. I see it as a tool and an extension of my drawings
How people react when they see it on the streets or/and on exhibition?
It´s really funny, people are attracted by it but yet uncomfortable. It makes people laugh and feel weird since theres something about it´s expression that can be really adorable and flirty but at the same time creepy and suspicious. The interaction is really interesteing since one can´t see from the inside but it makes you feel as if you´r being watched.
How do you actually create these heads?
They are made out of fiberglass. I sculp the design on clay and then make the mold to get the final piece. This technique is a tradition in my country and others in Centroamerica, they are used in folklore parties. I studied the thecnique with a traditional mascarada artist to be able to create my own design and representation.
Who are your biggest inspiration?
I get inspiration from a lot of different places, literature, films, paintings, music,etc. I admired a lot the work of spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, and the work of artist like Anne-Marie Schneider, Francis Bacon, Goya, Mike Kelley just to name a few. I just finished my study as a painter.
Do you think painting is something what anyone can learn? What is your point of view of Art Schools?
You can learn the thecnical aspects of it but it is what you do with the technique to make it your own that cant´be taught. What frustrates me about most art schools is that they often care only in the academic aspects and restrained the artist into working in just one medium, painting, sculpture,ceramics, etc. And I consider that what they should do is allow to experiment and play with all techniques and mediums as one, cause you cant´say the same thing with a drawing that with a video or an object/sculpture. Something like Baldessari´s Post-Studio program, and I had the luck to work with teachers that tought the same way and allow us to work and experiment
from outside the painting.
Do you have any big plan for 2018?
I´ve being working on some new projects but my main plan is to continue creating and get an artist residency in another country.
Find more: @gudino.a