For the original interview in Italian: http://leisurespotblog.blogspot.it/2015/01/intervista-red-tweny.html
Thank
you for granting me this interview! The first question that comes to
my mind is: why Red Tweny? Does it
have a particular meaning?
Hi
Maurizio,
and
thank you for your interest. So…why Red Tweny? Well, I chose “Red”
because I couldn't find a shorter name – admitting that it's a real
name
-,
because it reminds me of the name Rhett (the amusing male
protagonist of Gone With The Wind, i.e. Clark Gable), and also
because the colour red contrasts hugely with my black-and-white
subjects. As to Tweny, it is a contraction of twenty
freely inspired by twenty-two (22), a number that often
recurs in my life, on occasions both lucky and unlucky.
How was your passion for drawing born? Do you think that some particular
events prompted you to embrace this passion?
I
have no recollections of particular events which prompted me to
draw...
it
has always come naturally to me since the
times when I
drew
on the desks at school. I drew with Bic pens and the lines that I
trace today on large-format sheets are more or less the same that I
drew on the
smaller
space of
a green Formica-topped desk support. Later on,
the cleaning lady would wipe the desk clean,
and
the day after I would
find
a new drawing "sheet". When I was a kid there was plenty to
be inspired by: as I was a bit smaller than my classmates, both
physically and emotionally, I always felt a little like an outcast.
The many and untimely delusions of love together with a sanctimonious
and stifling family education were the icing on the cake: monsters
and writhing à gogo! While as a teenager
friends
and family harshly hurt my
feelings, today I aim to voice those sufferings and aspirations in a
human soul which are often denied. I cannot help but see how, inside
of me and around me, suffering and unease envelop us, no one
excluded. Such increase of
a feeling of
malaise in
the
current human condition is all too evident to me and is in stark
contrast with the quantity of objects and things we have at our
disposal as compared even only to fifty years ago. I am unable to
provide explanations, let alone cures: I only voice these feelings
through my drawings.
How
has your art changed over time? Were you particularly inspired by
somebody at the beginning? Was it difficult to develop a unique and
personal style or was it somehow an automatic, spontaneous process?
Let's
say that I haven't always
been
constant.
I started drawing seriously (that is, with a view to organising
exhibitions and selling my work) when I was 19 and
went on until
25 to
take
it up again
about 10 years ago, at the dawn of my 40th year,
spurred
by a friend of mine who works as a publisher.
My favourite subjects were and are faces, that is where I most
successfully manage - or so it seems to me, at least - to condense
the essence of my moods and sensations. The essence of my work
resides there and I don't feel the urge to go beyond that. I
understand, however, that one risks becoming monotonous, so, three or
four years ago, I started alternating the faces with more complex
images where bodies and odd anthropomorphic beings move, lie
down, sit down or hurl
themselves into the space while still remaining twisted or partly curved
in
on themselves. It's not easy because the sheet always appears to me
too small for such subjects, but I feel the need to tackle such
images once in a while.
With
respect to my style, I didn't consciously meditate on it, it was
rather a natural process. Later on, over the years, I realised that I
was quite a unique specimen in the almost endless artistic context
that Internet provides us with and I managed to assert my position
there. Later I became aware that drawing with India ink also presents
several practical and positive aspects: it's cheap, doesn't make you
dirty and if you have to send a piece of yours by post you can roll
it into a tube and send it by DHL as far as to the USA with 25 euros.
That'd be impossible with an oil painting.
Normally,
how long do you take to make a drawing?
The
making of a work of mine envisages two distinct phases: sketching the
piece with pencil on a A4 sheet of paper and drawing the final
version with India ink pen on a large-format sheet (50x70 cm).
As
to the sketching phase, times vary: I can spend a whole week doodling
without producing nothing significant or I can make four or five
sketches in an hour. It's a matter of being in tune and inspired, of
silences and lights, of chance and feelings experienced recently.
One thing is for sure, and that is that I have made a lot of sketches
which I have put aside,
so
I have in "store" a lot of drawings to reproduce
on large-format sheets, rigorously 50x70 cm. Once I have chosen the
base sketch, I proceed to draw utilising the India ink,
usually with
a 0,3 mm point
pen.
Here the times are more precise:
about two hours a day for seven days, it cannot take less than that.
I am set on producing at least one work per week: I have to and I
want to, because I think that constancy pays.
I
know that you greatly admire
Francis Bacon. What do you find particularly fascinating about his
work? Are there any literary figures who influenced your work
indirectly in
the
attempt
to
evoke
a certain mood? If not, are you used to listening to music while
working and are there certain tracks or music genres that allow you
to work better?
With
regard to
Bacon,
I
admire his perfect representation of the modern malaise of the human
condition. The use and juxtaposition of bright and "frivolous"
colours with sudden and implausible shadows is both disconcerting and
brilliant. What is strikingly evident is the representation of human
loneliness during moments of common life in settings which you'd
never think to utilise for an artwork. His torn and decomposed faces
convey innumerable concepts: our caducity, our suffering, the monster
that is in all of us. However, several essays have been written on
Bacon and it would be foolish of me to exert criticism. Personally,
he's the only artist who stimulates me to draw every time I see his
work. But I have to confine myself to a
few glimpses
not to risk being influenced....it'd be problematic!
I
never listen to music while I draw in the evening but at 9 pm I tune
into Focus channel
with
the hope of coming across a programme on
outer
space and physics: nothing better than that to roam freely a bit and
remember how small
we are, and only passing through. Music would engross me too much,
and I wouldn't be able to concentrate on drawing... I don't know why,
but
Focus
programmes
are ideal for drawing and simultaneously thinking of features that
somehow come
up
in my drawings: have you noticed how many spirals and orbits appear
in them?
As
to reading, I confess that the last author I read, at a early age, was Edgar
Allan Poe; at a later time, life, work, family,
and
all the other activities have prevented me from cultivating a reading
habit: simply enough, I have no time to dedicate to reading a good
book; you can't do everything in your life!
In
your drawings, white, black, and all the hues of grey are used to
give depth to goggle-eyed figures wrenching in implausible twists
which still retain a precise
and flawless plasticity. However, I'd like to ask you: do you also
enjoy experimenting with colour? Do you find it more difficult to
obtain the same effects?
Illustrators
and painters cannot forget about colour, for pity's sake, I'm
perfectly aware of it. However, in my case, working
with colour would entail a huge slowdown in my production.
I'm
looking
forward to creating the “perfect” subject that I haven't yet
managed to produce. I
made
some
colour
drawings
with India ink
which I don't have anymore nor
have
I photographs of them,
but the
time required to
make them is
ten
times as long and
I have no “time to lose”! One of my goals is to have 400/500
pieces in my gallery and, considering that I don't want to make
pieces that look similar or present only
slight
variations, you can understand that I cannot dedicate two or three weeks
"only" to colour my pieces (I'd always utilise India ink
pens, no gouache or watercolour techniques). After all, you can
recognise my pieces at first sight also because of this chromatic
characteristic, although I'm
certainly not
the only one who tackles B&W! Besides, I know myself and I know
that I'd have the tendency to fill all the spaces with colour, thus
distracting the viewer's eye from the core message. In any case, I
don't exclude colour a
priori,
but the time hasn't come yet.
How
much do you draw upon reality and how much upon imagination?
When
I can find the right moment and the ideal situation to jot down a
sketch, my rational side turns off and I almost go into a trance.
Consequently, it's difficult for me to rationally determine what and
how much I draw upon. Shall we say 50% each?
I'm
not a fan of abstract art, surrealism or hyperrealism for the sake of
it. I only like something about each of these styles and I try to
combine them. Of course, even in this respect, Bacon was a master.
I
agree with you when you say that your style is extremely personal and
recognisable. In this sense, do you think that originality always
pays or sometimes it occurs to you that perhaps it'd be easier to
follow a certain trend, walk down the beaten path, be part of a group
which has certain guidelines?
The
answer is easy. Luckily, since I don't make a living selling my
works, I am free to walk down my own
path
without making any compromises. In any case, following a certain
trend would be no guarantee of success…and, in everyday's chaotic
situation, who could determine which is the current "trend"?
I don't participate to art-related events nor
have
I
acquaintances in the art world,
but
I have the impression that,
unlike what
happens with articles of clothing in the fashion world,
there
are no longer trends or specific currents: everybody dresses the way
they want and in
the colours they like.
What
is crucial now is to voice the age we live into and manage to strike
a chord with the viewer. There,
that
is the
only way in which I
want to be fashionable,
depicting
the crude, scary and by now out-of-control social and ethical chaos
which frightens us and makes us writhe out of angst and fear, from
the United States up to China.
Where
are your works available for purchase?
My
American curator is based in Switzerland and promotes my work in that
area, her name is Julie Draper: http://www.drapercontemporary.com.
For the Italian friends, I can take care of it:
(redtweny@gmail.com)!
Thanks
for your time!
Thanks
to you, Maurizio, I feel honoured.
Other
links on Red Tweny:
***
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