If you caught our Australia issue last year, you may remember our interview with Joel Birch. Musician, artist, designer, illustrator, typographer, Joel is very much the modern Renaissance Man whose work, be it in music or art, has garnered a strong following both here and overseas. His solo exhibition, Under The Influence, is opening this week at Sydney’s China Heights Gallery, we caught up with him to get the lowdown on his latest show.
My name is… Joel Birch.
But I’m also known as… Joel Birch.
My latest exhibition is called…Under The Influence.
And it is about… It is at its heart a collection of lyrics that have either had a profound effect on my life either musically or emotionally at various junctions. There are also lyrics that I have written personally interspersed there, as it’s an intrinsic part of my life both in music and in art, both of which I am luckily enough to have as jobs.
Some things that influenced this series are… Oh no, I think I just answered two questions accidentally.
An album I listened to a stack when making the works was…Cancer For Cure by El-P. Love it.
The time of day I’m most likely to make art is… any time that I sit down at my desk and feel absolutely relaxed. If I’m not relaxed I can’t really do anything, it’s a weird problem of mine.
The hardest part of putting this show together was… finding the time to do it all. I’m still finishing it up as we speak actually. I got back from a trip to Bali and have been flat out painting, drawing, designing, jamming and trying to fit time in with my little family here as much as possible – it’s been a hectic month.
First thing I do when I get up in the morning is… have a shower, beg my girlfriend to make me a coffee because I suck at it, and then sit down to check my email and get stuck into drawing… or procrastinating on documentary sites or 12ozProphet…
Some other artists I have been enjoying the work of are…there are a few mates whose work I am consistently enjoying, Kill Pixie, Roach, Numskull to name just a few, other than that I’ve just been enjoying many and varied typographers, I couldn’t really name one in particular.
What I’m working on at the moment is… this show hahaha I’m also working on a few outside illustration jobs, but nothing too fancy. Also jamming because my band is about to embark on two months of touring.
My favourite colour is… blue. Any shade.
If I wasn’t doing what I’m doing, I’d be…in jail for graffiti perhaps… who knows, I might be a junkie. I certainly find it difficult to imagine that I’d be happy, but maybe that’s just because I don’t know.
The last website I visited was… theopeninghours.com.au/author/roach/
My favourite youtube vid is… Kilian Martin – Altered Route
Tomorrow I will be… doing more of the same; wake up, beg for nice coffee, draw, head to band prac, head home, draw some more, hopefully get it all wrapped up and then relax. Yiew!
Under The Influence
Joel Birch
China Heights Gallery
16-28 Foster Street
Surry Hills NSW
Opens Friday September 21 (6pm)
Until Saturday September 22
See more of Joel Birch and his work at his Tumblr or follow him on Twitter @JoelDTD.