“We don’t fake. We don’t try to enhance things. We love the imperfection.” — Mothmeister
Mothmeister — the Antwerp, Belgium-based creative duo — are responsible for some of the most imaginative and haunting creations in recent memory.
Combining high-level taxidermy, photography, costume design and cinematography in equal parts, the duo create what they’ve come to describe as “post-mortem fairy tales”. Over time, Mothmeister and their images have evolved into a striking display of hand-crafted masks, solitary characters, costumes and taxidermy — all set amongst breathtaking, desolate topography.
“We portray anonymous, ugly masked creatures as a reaction against the dominant exhibitionism of the selfie culture and beauty standards marketed by the mass media.” — Mothmeister
In 2015, the duo created Wounderland — their imagery compilation masterpiece built upon years of simultaneous studies of art and collection. The duo has since gained recognition for their oddly familiar-yet-undeniably frightening imagery as well as their collaborative artistic spirit. Mothmeister have mastered the tightrope walk of honoring life through the display of death. Each portrait — each figure — casts an imaginative backstory in the viewer’s psyche while leaving an indelible fingerprint across the cognitive conscious within each spectator.
While preparing for their next collaboration, Mothmeister took the time to speak about their inspirations, goals and their process as a duo.
MOTHMEISTER
- Artistic duo based in Antwerp, Belgium
- Creators: Wounderland (2015)
ON ARTISTIC PROCESS
Mothmeister is born out of an instinctional gut-feeling… While our ratio is dormant, both of our boiling brains seem to erupt non-stop — emitting our subconscious, imagination, dreams and nightmares. This is what feeds our inspiration.
Creating a character is a spontaneous process. There’s no sketching involved. It just happens.
The character pops up intuitively as we plunge in our collection of costumes, masks, junk and all kinds of stuff that is within our hand’s reach. Once the character has come alive, we cast and dress the stuffed animal that goes with it.
When it comes to collaborations with other artists, the approach is a little different.
Each of the artists we’ve been working with — whether it’s Russian fashion designer Polina Yakobson, mixed media artist Annie Montgomerie, French headpiece designer Candice Angélini or UK-based taxidermist Adele Morse — contributed to what Mothmeister is today.
They are our source of inspiration and influence our characters. On the way they look. On the way they behave.
Once the character and stuffed sidekick are done, we travel mostly to isolated places on foot. Packed like a mule, we make our way to barren, isolated landscapes. This is often the most time-consuming part of the shoot.
But knowing there will be no voyeurs around, it’s worth well the effort. As some of the masks are pretty difficult to breathe through, we need to shoot as fast as possible… because of the insufficient blood flow to the brain.
Rain or shine, we shoot anyway. So the weather plays an important and unpredictable role. As we shoot with natural light only — to keep things ‘real’ — we don’t do much editing, neither. Apart from some color and contrast enhancement, it is what it is.
We don’t fake. We don’t try to enhance things. We love the imperfection. Also when it comes to editing our pictures.
ON WORKING AS DUO
Both of us ‘suffer’ from the same cerebral quirky short-circuits. Since our childhood, we both have been intrigued by myths, legends and fairy tales in which animals are often humanized. Sharing this curiosity and interest in the decayed, the weird and oddities in general has proven to be very complementary. Being ‘just the two of us’ feels like a comfort zone in which we love to create.
So Mothmeister is like a siamese twin.
One of us always has the privilege to suffocate in fullface latex masks and to be squeezed into Victorian corsets, while the other one is the photographer. Being a couple for more than twenty-five years is pretty handy when it comes to role-playing.
No need to script. It’s chemistry at its best.
ON CREATIVE INSPIRATION
Apart from our own imagination, we’ve been unsubconsciously influenced by other artists.
Some of them are taxidermy related — like Les Deux Garçons (adorable, fragile animal sculptures); Polly Morgan’s wonderful world; Julia deVille’s jewel pieces; Pascal Bernier’s wounded animals; the controversial Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere and mechanical taxidermy artist Stan Wannet.
And of course the Victorian dioramas of Walter Potter have always been inspiring. We also adore the photographs of Cindy Sherman, Joel-Peter Witkin, Floria Sigismondi and the controversial art of Paul McCarthy.
And of course Edward Kienholz: an outrageous pioneer of installation and assemblage art. His approach of mixing junk with taxidermy has been very inspiring for us when it comes to decorating our junkjungle-like home, which looks like a cabinet of curiosity inside an indoor zoo. Best of both worlds.
ON EXPANDING INTO DIFFERENT MEDIUMS
We’ve had some proposals for short movies from film directors. But as we want to cherish and protect our imaginary world, we only collaborate when it’s right up our alley. When a band asks us to model for their music video, it should match in a creative way.
That’s why we agreed to be featured on the Evil Blizzard album Everybody Come To Church.
These noisemongers from North of England are not only masked; their sound is anything but easy listening. It’s dissonant. Distorted. Noisy. Like a rumble. Harsh.
Therefore, our disrupted imaginary world was the perfect fit. We are thinking of doing more video stuff ourselves, as well as adding some kind of soundscape. But we’ll need to experiment a little more first.
ON PERSONAL DEFINITION OF WORK
Whereas some people consider taxidermy and our work to be a cruel, sick hobby — we believe it’s a tribute to dead animals. By portraying dead critters as fantasy characters in what we call our surreal ‘post-mortem fairy tales’, they become immortal instead of being discarded and labeled as waste.
Our work has evolved from a reaction to exhibitionism and selfie culture — in the beginning we only portrayed masked characters — to a hommage to dead animals.
This is when taxidermy came in.
Apart from some haters who think we kill animals for entertainment — which is absolute nonsense, of course — feedback on our work has been very positive. We get all kinds of spontaneous requests to collaborate. These collabs inspire us, which is very positive, too.
Sharing our stuff through Instagram has been an amazing experience so far, as you slowly ‘conquer the world’ even though our work is very niche. We get great feedback, whether it’s from Colombia, Kenya or Azerbaijan. This way, we come across people and galleries that are interested in our work which we never would have met without Instagram. So that’s great.
ON FUTURE OF MOTHMEISTER
Mothmeister is a non-stop morphing thing. We hope to inspire people by showing a weird world of imperfection and taxidermy. We would love to collaborate more with artists that have an immediate connection with what we do.
Apart from that, two exhibitions have already been confirmed for 2017. One will be in Leeds (UK) and one in Aalst (Belgium). More details coming soon.
We are also working on a Mothmeister book. But as it’s an ambitious project it needs some more time.
THANK YOU
- Anyone can see our work through Mothmeister on our Instagram.
- Want to purchase postcards and (signed/mounted) prints? Visit mothmeister.etsy.com or Paxton Gate in Portland, Oregon.
- For special requests or collaborations, drop us a message via mothmeister@yahoo.com
Written By: Matteo Urella / November 2016
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