In this exclusive interview, Larry Achiampong and David Blandy discuss the creative process behind the ground-breaking series Finding Fanon.
Achiampong and Blandy's Finding Fanon 2 is currently on display in the RECORD level of GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY.
This video interview was produced by the students of IULM's Master's Program in Arts, Markets, and Cultural Heritage. Editing and Subtitles: Mariacristina Maffeo
LARRY ACHIAMPONG
Larry Achiampong (b. 1984, UK) completed a BA in Mixed Media Fine Art at University of Westminster (2005) and an MA in Sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art (2008). His practice uses sound, live performance, and imagery to explore representations of identity in the digital age and the dichotomies found within a world dominated by facebook/tumblr/youtube-based cultures. He crate-digs the vaults of history, splicing audible and visual qualities of the personal and interpersonal archive-as-material, offering multiple dispositions that reveal the socio-political contradictions in contemporary society. Achiampong has exhibited, performed, and presented projects within the UK and abroad including Tate Britain & Modern; London, David Roberts Art Foundation; London, Modern Art Oxford; Oxford, New Art Exchange; Nottingham, SAVVY Contemporary; Berlin, and Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation; Accra. Achiampong lives and works in London.
DAVID BLANDY
David Blandy (b. 1976, U.K.) is an artist based in London & Brighton, who works with digital media, including video games. He was educated at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. Blandy produces video, performances and comics that deal with his problematic relationship with popular culture, highlighting the slippage and tension between fantasy and reality in everyday life. Blandy has exhibited at venues nationally and worldwide such as Bloomberg Space, London; Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki; The Baltic, Gateshead; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Spike Island, Bristol; Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Germany; PS1, New York and Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China. Represented by Seventeen, London. His films are distributed through LUX.
The two artists were also recently interviewed by the BBC ("Making Art from Grand Theft Auto"). You can read the full text here.
Recently, Achiampong and Blandy released a new installment in the series, titled Finding Fanon: Gaiden Alternative, which we discussed here.
By Larry Achiampong and David Blandy with the Factory, Newcastle. Commissioned by Tyneside Cinema. Supported by Arts Council England