Gustavo Eandi

Once again my non-talent with languages has me at a disadvantage, this time with the extraordinary work of Gustavo Eandi. His body of work takes form in, amongst other things, small publishing and graphic graphite drawings. All I know is the dream scenes and mutated masses betray some serious drawing skills and the darkness that imbues it all must be a small clue into his motivations and influences. Very intrigued and in need of a translator, I had to speak to the man himself…

Can you tell me bit about you, like where you are right now and do you think of yourself as an illustrator?

I was born in Argentina and have been living in Barcelona for a while now. But it’s been back and forth. I work mainly around the drawing technique and the array of oppportunities you can get from it. I have a graphic design background (with the good and the bad it means). Also worked for many years as an ad and editorial illustrator, which gave me a platform to start creating personal work (mainly drawings and collages) far from others directions. But I am still able to ocasionally work with fellow musicians or artists on a couple of parallel projects every year, or on a more regular basis with people I admire like Jeff Jank from Stones Throw Records. With time, I feel I’m becoming a little less of an illustrator and more of something else.

You have an incredible body of images on your site and alot of it has been published, do you consciously make work to show others?

Even though I work for myself, the answer is yes, I’ve always been interested with the idea of my work being displayed somehow. I’ve never been obsessed with the feedback though. At 13 I started to publish work, often myself. Badly stapled Xerox copies about Bruce Lee, Trance Zomba, or Spike Jonze. This was at the beginning of the 90s. I would make the drawings and the pictures were mainly stolen from the few Thrasher magazines we were able to come across in my city at the time or Tres60 Skate, another skateboarding mag. I would then give them away, trade or sell through the mail. I continue to publish independently nowadays, even though the content is more abstract and deformed. The medium, however, remains not as a leftover of immaturity (not in this case at least) but as a personal political decision: independence.

Are the images distorted or mutated? Do you think you have a style?

My images are becoming slower, more black, excessive and pagan. The shirtless girls I used to draw are becoming bad Xerox copies of shirtless girls. Human figure has become less evident and new other shapes are surfacing. I am less and less interested everyday in a “clean” work and the media though. Same with style, I’m not worried about it, I may or not reach one once I finally achieve to forget about everything else and finally get to draw slower, more black, excessive and pagan.

Do you have any particular things/people that you feel influence your work?

I constantly migrate with my objects and objectives, but I’m still a fan. I am influenced by America Sanchez (with whom I share a friendship, definitely a much recommended work), Ray Johnson, Thomas Shütte, Matías Duville, Mike Kelley, Martín Ramirez, the Gugging artists, horror-manga, no-wave, hardcore and synth-wave graphics from the 80´s, Robert Pollard…