Issue 74: Harry Wyld
Studio photography by Benjamin Deakin.
Words by Naz Kawakami, Alec Singer, Dave Beamy, and Michael C. Thorpe.
Illustrations courtesy of Harry Wyld. Gallery and painting photography by Benjamin Deakin.
The worst thing a piece of art can do is nothing. If you look at a piece and you feel nothing, think nothing - aren’t stirred or enraged or entranced even the slightest, that piece of art is a piece of shit.
Not to say that some things can’t be pretty for pretty’s sake, there’s a lot of room for that in art and it is appreciated, but even pretty for pretty’s sake gives you a soft and warm feeling. Art should be invigorating and never sterile. It should say something to you. It should say things like, ‘I make me sick,’ and ‘it’s what’s inside that counts,’ and, ‘tear down stonehenge and put up a motorway that thing is old as fuck and useless anyway.’
Harry Wyld’s work says all of the above, right in your fucking face, and so much more. It’s the kind of messy-yet-tight composure that makes my heart beat fast and my lungs push out sighs of ‘oooo’ and ‘ahhhh’ and ‘fuck off cunt’ in a good way, and what more can you ask of art?
In the interview, Naz failed to ask how old he is, how long he has been making art, or anything about the man himself apart from that he specifically isn’t from Bristol. Good on ya mate. Well done. At least they covered the topic of poo.
Get the print issue where this piece originally appeared, issue 74, here.
Did you have a show last night?
Yeah, it was good, I’m really hungover.
Well done.
Thanks, I’m doing this residency in London. It’s super intensive, six weeks of painting, one week gallery show. Last night was the opening which was really fun. A bit interested in selling stuff, met a lot of cool people, and drank a lot of beer.
Is that the normal thing? You’re a full timer?
I’ve kind of been moving into painting more and more since I left Uni basically. I’m fully into painting now, that’s the focus.
What is the culture like? What's your take on the London fine arts scene?
I don’t know. I’m coming across the fine art people more and more as I get into that world. Illustration is frowned upon - if something is illustrative in a painting, that’s not a good thing. I think it's old fashioned and small minded and it's going to be outdated soon.
Is that just a matter of taste?
Yeah, I guess. There are a lot of old dusty men, that sort of thing.
You went to art school?
Yeah, I studied illustration in Bristol.
Are you from Bristol?
No, I never know what to tell people. I’m from North of London - a farm. I moved to Bristol for Uni, then I lived in New Zealand for a bit, then moved to London. Me and my girlfriend just left London a year ago, back out to the middle of nowhere. I’ve just been staying at friends houses to do this residency.
Why the move?
London’s so expensive and kind of so shit - my nervous system can’t handle it. I need calm and to be able to go outside and not hear sirens. I do miss going to gigs though.
Your work is very urban, it feels like the mind of a city. It’s often busy and complex, and I’m wondering what you would identify as being your contextual influences. Gigs? Music?
Definitely skateboarding. There’s so much art work in that whole world, then you get into surfing and music - those underground subcultures. That’s definitely the starting point for my art.
There’s a fair bit of humor in your illustrative work. Aggressive humor.
Yeah I think people expect me to be quite aggressive in that way. It’s one of those things - I just draw so much, and when you draw it's a solo activity. But I still want to live off of this stuff, and so I have to put it out into the world, and sometimes I don't make that connection so I’ll draw a dog doing a shit into someone’s mouth. So then I’ll have an art fair and will be screenprinting that and will think it's funny, and then suddenly I’m standing in front of a tote bag of that with old ladies coming up to me and I'm thinking oh shit, there’s a disconnect.
Can you talk a bit about the words and how you incorporate that into your imagery?
I kind of collect phrases. On my phone I’ve got random lists of things. The title of the notes app page is Baby Names. They’re not baby names, they’re just weird phrases I heard that would be funny to name a baby. I’ll hear something on the radio or someone’s conversation and I’ll write it down and it’ll feed into the drawings.
What are some of your favorite baby names?
Oh let me find some… You’ve got typical chips, barely legible, lukewarm beef, crustacia, horrible pocket, salty worthington, party bags… They’re just funny phrases that I want to remember for later.
Your piece, At The Bar 101, the ways that you use words in it are very formal. Labels add formality and I’m curious about what your attitude is toward that.
It’s funny, I like the way that you described that. I think that the overly formal labels juxtaposed with the drawing that is so loose and chaotic has a power together. I drew that when I was in New Zealand and I had to order a pint and maybe I had some hangxiety. It’s basically about feeling really self - conscious and overthinking - being observed by others.
What comes first? Are you a doodler and then you add words or do you have an idea and want to craft something around it?
If it's something I’ve collected, then that’s the starting point. Or I’ll draw the same thing with slight tweaks and it’ll refine itself. I’m always trying to boil things down to their core and make them as simple as possible in the black and white illustrations.
How does that contrast with painting in color?
The whole idea of my black and white drawings was that I wanted to be able to screen shirts. I was looking at 80s hardcore posters and stuff. But with painting, you’re informed by the medium. You could just do a black and white painting, but why would you? Those drawings are simple because I want to make merch as simply as possible, but painting has more depth and you can put more atmosphere into it. I feel good with color at the moment. I’ve not been painting for that long, so.
What’s your editing process like for boiling things down?
There’s a thing I drew about I make myself sick. It’s a side profile of a head and it's someone doing a shit into - I don’t know why I’m so shit-based. But it’s a poo down the throat. That took me probably a year? Isn’t that ridiculous? I had this idea and it was just not working, because you change one tiny thing - is there an eyebrow or what shape is the eye and that affects the neck, and the sick looks too much like a hand. After like a year of drawing this thing, you get fluent at it and can do it without even thinking. I want it to be one fluid motion where I can draw it without even thinking and it's like oh yes there it is.
Like Bart Simpson writing the same thing on the chalkboard over and over to get it into his skull?
Yeah, yeah a bit like that. I feel like I’ve got a sketchbook that’s just full of that one.
How does that contrast with your painting process where you have to be more deliberate?
It’s tough. I like the idea of going with the first one you do and if it’s a bit off, then that’s just spontaneity. Painting, you kind of embrace that as well.
Are you going for a feeling or something like that?
I suppose it depends from painting to painting.
How do you know when something is done?
I struggle with that because I always over do paintings. People say you can just paint over it, but in reality, thinness of paint has its own weight to it, so if there’s a bit in your painting that has a lot of layers, that has its own feelings, whereas if you had a really thin bit of paint, that has its own feelings. You don’t want to just paint and paint because you lose those areas.
So you just have to stop yourself because the show is tomorrow type shit.
Yeah, it was Saturday and we had to hang the show on Monday, and it felt like a tightrope of overdoing it or leaving it and there’s a bit more you could have done.
Your work seems very much about form. Composition is as important as the content. Do you think that it was beneficial to learn these fundamentals through illustrative work and then apply those lessons to your painting practice?
Hmm. I guess…
What I’m asking is did it help to go to art school or are you thinking sort of fuck that?
Oh, yeah it definitely didn’t help. It’s a different way of thinking, working for yourself than taking a brief. Coming from drawing is definitely helpful in painting. A lot of people don't have those foundations, I suppose, but… I don't know. Yeah, it’s helpful, let's go with that.
