Fellow NOE artist and ArtSpace curator Mark Maher interviewed Jesse Auersalo about his work.

What I like about your portraits is the feeling that I’m being let into a Dickensian underworld full of fascinating characters that are half delightful and half scary-as-hell. Are these portraits really based on people in the club scene that you actually know?

No. I don’t know Dj Mehdi, Matt Didemus or Vicarious Bliss…unless a sweaty handshake can be considered as knowing. They are gig-posters for Club Misf*ts where they have had their shows. I just thought it would be nice to make a portrait of each performer and find a new way to design a club poster. It’s more interesting to show some tear drops than make yet another triangle-unicorn-explosion. Boys DO cry.. at least when the music is just sooo good.

You seem to epitomize a new generation of creative people who actively reject any clear line between art and commercial design - or between “marketing” and the “chance for truth”. Does where your mind want to go and where your clients want it to go ever conflict?

My best results come when a client respects my work and gives full trust all the way through the project. This of course needs a certain type of client - and then things go well because I’m also that certain type of worker. I commit to doing my best to break the new ground and find interesting solutions - and I assume my client will do the same. For me it’s pretty much about encouraging others toward Individualistic thinking and just awakening people to question things around them. And hey! Great and fresh ideas don’t do any harm in commercial design either…

You’ve already done some interesting things in China. Obviously, every artist presents a unique perspective, but what might other Western artists be surprised by regarding specific Chinese responses to their work?

I think it’s more interesting to notice cultural similarities rather than the differences, and that’s why I don’t like to highlight the origin. And besides, I don’t do politics.

Tags: Interview, Jesse Auersalo, Mark Maher

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