Crushing the Mold: An Interview with JG Thirlwell
Posted in Art, Interviews, Music, Underground/Cult |
Photo © Bre Pettis
So has Clint Ruin gone into a witness protection program or is he in retirement?
He’s currently in a mental asylum in Bavaria undergoing electro-shock therapy.
What are you doing these days to maintain that youthful glow?
Hydrate and moisturize?
With titles like Antabuse, Ataxia, Bruxism, Cirrhosis Of The Heart, Ectopia, Manorexia, Pareidolia, Propagnosia, The Hardened Artery, Thalassaphobia, Thrush, Tubercular Bells, Zithromax Jitters, etc., you seem to have an obsession with afflictions or medical contexts. . . are you a total hypochondriac, or when you are stuck in airport lounges with your laptop, do you spend too much time on WebMD & Wikipedia. . . or did you stumble upon a medical textbook you just can’t put down once you start reading it? Inquiring minds want to know!
Yes, names of afflictions are a thread in my work. I’m not sure why I’m drawn to them but part of it is the linguistics and the endings. I also like words with “X” in them. I have several threads in my work, including the color palettes that I choose and the monosyllabic four-letter title.
Are you running out of four-letter monosyllabic words yet?
Nein.
Where’d you get those snazzy white shoes and those amber-tinted shades? Are the shades prescription strength?
The shoes from all over—I got the latest pair in Bangkok. I am known for wearing exclusively white footwear.
And yes, the amber shades are prescription strength of late.
You seem to gravitate towards kitschy things in general, and I’m sure you have a collection of odds/ends that you just had to have but don’t really serve any other purpose than to make you giggle from time to time. What’s the best kitschy item you own, the crown jewel so to speak? Was it a gift or something you found on your own?
No, I wouldn’t say I “gravitate towards kitschy things.” I have broad interests, and obsessions that come and go in about a week. I don’t really “collect” anything anymore except music. My possessions were pruned ten years ago. My most mammoth unwieldy collection has to have been of Berrie’s occasion statues, which I gathered some years ago. . . I have hundreds. Please don’t send me any!
So what is that big “X” shaped thing that seems to show up in the background of many photos of you over the years?
It’s a cross structure that was built by Richard Phillips for the play South of your Border by Lydia Lunch and Emilio Cubeiro [in 1988].
JGT in Istanbul, Turkey
Photo © 2005 Aylin Gungor
From Bant Magazine
In the final scene Lydia was strapped to it naked while blood dripped down her body and one of my songs blasted thru the PA as the soundtrack.
It ended up at my place.
Mint or Cinnamon? Chocolate or Vanilla? Coffee or Tea?
Diet Coke, Bolthouse Carrot Juice, Bahlsen Choco Leibniz.
Are the pretty ones really always insane?
If that’s the case, then why bother?
Because they are the ones that hypnotize.
Do you think that James needs to have more “faith?”
Absolutely.
JG Thirlwell will be showing “Narcissum Escenda” at the Teleport Färgfabfriken exhibition at the new Färgfabriken museum in Östersund, Sweden. The opening is April 1-3, 2008
Additional Resources:
Foetus Official Website and MySpace Page
Click to read more from JG Thirlwell on. . .
LEMUR, Strings of Consciousness, Elysian Fields
Current favorites, Der Kastanienball, “Narcissum Escenda”
freq_out, Baby Zizanie, Christian Marclay, Chloé Delaume
Afflictions, shoes, and sunglasses
One Response to “Crushing the Mold: An Interview with JG Thirlwell”
May 27th, 2008 at 12:43 am
[…] is a stretch, but I’m limber and drunk enough to reach that far right now. Thirlwell’s his latest work, a modern sculpture called Narcissum Escenda, is currently on display at the Fargfabriken Museum in […]