A very dear person to me was the first to tell me to take a look at his work on the web and immediately I fell in love with the project “Domo Arigato.” Called an ‘Online exhibition’, the series of drawings made by Magomed Dovjenko, a native of Chechnya, but living in Germany, is flirting with Japanese pop culture, also much loved by us in Europe,through the use of icons from the world of anime and cartoons, from Sailor Moon to Pokemon. But the coup de théâtreis the idea of letting these characters play with symbols and logos from the fashion industry, from Gucci’s G toHermès H and so on, in doing so Magomed plays with the consumerist and television obsessions, two worlds that intersect. The final effect is pop, funny, but also with a critical subtext. I found and talked to the artist through Facebook, knowing a young man, who has worked a lot, as an illustrator and as a graphic designer, and I’m sure hehas a lot of things to show to the world in a future. Here’s my interview to Mago.
Could you tell me when did you understand you loved art and that being an illustrator could be your work?
I started out when I was 12, looking for somebody who would do me a signature design for a gaming forum I was on that time. Since nobody was really good at it, and I didn’t want an ugly one, I decided to do them myself and downloaded the Photoshop trial. I quickly understood that it’s much more than just cutting together some pictures, I started playing with it for 7-10 hours a day instead of being outside, playing football. After a while, when I was 13, I was tired of doing just small signatures for forum and went for bigger things, tried out Photo Manipulation. I was not really good at it back then, but then I found an illustration by my favorite illustrator Alex Trochut and decided that illustration is the real thing for me. That was the moment I fell in love with illustration and the whole design scene.
Where do inspirations for your work come from?
A lot of things. I don’t necessarily have something special, it’s just everything that inspires me. May it be music (Rap/Electro/Dubstep etc.), the nature, fashion, industrial design, everything inspires me. Everything I see is a shape. I try to look further than just at the visual, I try to look through to the blueprint. That’s what inspires me.
Which is the most important moment in your career so far? The things you are more proud of?
I had a few. I was interviewed live on Germany’s biggest (Late Night) Talkshows, TV Total by Stefan Raab (comparable to David Letterman ) and Stern TV by Gunter Jauch, also I had a dozen of documentations about me and my work with the biggest TV Channels here in Germany. Another highlight and proud moment was working on my Domo Arigato Series, which caused a lot of hype online. I worked nonstop on it until I thought everything was perfect. I’m really proud of what came out. And of course I’m also proud of having worked for clients like Nike, Toyota, Sony Playstation, Hummel and many more.
I’ve discovered you thanks to the project Domo Arigato. How did you develop it? To which target are you talking to and which is the message behind it?
Yes. The basic idea was to develop a series that is doing the hoola-hoop between being commercial and Art at the same time. I’ve drawn inspiration from the Japanese Culture. You know, I always read and heard from everybody that they’re such fanatics of logos. BIG LOGOS. That they want to show what they wear in a clear way, so that people know what brand the shirt is and such. Next step was to find what could merge these aspects and showcase them in a visual way, I thought there’s nothing better than taking anime characters and giving them the very Mago make-over, this is what came out.
The project has some manga and fashion cartoons as main protagonists. Which do you think is the importance and the influence of this ‘pop’ Japanese creativity to the western world?
In Japan, they are masters at taking ideas that are universal to the world, for example: a Dinosaur and Radioactivity equals Godzilla. They’re masters of remixing ideas. Much like what you see with old western ideas mixed with new western ideas. So what I’m doing is quite an homage to the quintessential japanese way of doing things, a hats off to Japan. Secondly, japanese culture is very colorful, big, far reaching. So you can’t but be influenced by their culture. They’ve given us a lot, whether it’s in products, art or food.
Since in Domo Arigato you, in a way, flirted with fashion, and this blog is basically about fashion, can you tell me which is your relationship with fashion? Do you think art and fashion can collaborate and which is your ‘personal’ style?
Yeah that is true. My relationship to fashion is easy to describe. I love it. I love clothes, I love to think about looks and what to wear, how to combine different colors while still looking classy and everything. It’s a way for me to express myself, not only through my art, but also through myself when I step out of the door. Not everybody has the mind for it but the ones that have it should use it.
Is art still a ground in which one can be critical, portray strong messages or in your opinion art has become more ‘commercial’?
It definitely is. I’m also on to doing that more. Nowadays, it’s not only about the messages being told on TV, it’s about your own opinion , especially in Politics. I think it’s good that people like Banksy do their thing and show them what they think about Politics in an Artsy way. Of course there is still the commercial world, and commercial art can also portray messages, I just think people have to see the line between that.
Projects for the future?
I’m freelancing right now and working on getting my work out there, I’m always looking for good opportunities, may it be freelance for brands or working somewhere. We’ll see what the future brings.
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