Battlemouth

This next artist has quickly become one of my favorites. Phoneticontrol is based in San Francisco and has been rocking the costal art scene for quite some time. His work reaches me on a completely different level than our previous battle-artists. His classic combinations of art and electronics make for some of the most creative and fantastic work I have seen. (Perhaps it is my inner geek.)

His use of different mediums throughout his body of work is a testement to his flexibility and talent as an artist. PHO has done some great collaborations with artists like Sket-One, REACH, and Shawnimal, as well as some insane custom teddy troops (40 Artists versus 40 bears- Rotofugi), Qee, and many more killer toys. His amazing (sometimes downloadable) paper figures are some of the most fantastic designer figures any collector could hope to have. I could go on and on about how fantastic his work is, but I think Phoneticontrol can do a little better job convincing you himself.

Here for your reading pleasure is 7 Questions with Phoneticontrol

1. Who is Phoneticontrol

Drinks tons of tea (english style), rides a bike, collects colloquialisms. Is becoming a slow food connoisseur, but still digs fast, cheap pizza and burgers. Also enjoys traveling and exploring new things both culinary and spacial. An illustrator/painter living in San Francisco with his wife and two cats. His wife is also a kick ass graphic designer and painter in her own right. She is in the SF Series show and designed the flyer to boot.

2. Where did the Thought Processor come from?

He evolved naturally while I was exploring different avenues of illustration. Been drawing and painting him for a long time now. He is just a few lines and each one is important to hold him together. He is a mobile container that leads a mostly sentient existence. He is available to bounce ideas off of, also has been known to just float and listen. Beware! Dont try to play mind games! For he ALSO has been known to cause brainstorms. Or worst yet, roll all over you and your stuff with his think tank. I like the fact that he is deceptively complicated to put together. The old adage “dont judge a book by its cover” comes to mind. Sjors Trimbach did a wonderful job bringing him to life. We had a ton of fun collaborating on the piece. Best paper sculptor in the Netherlands, hands down.

I am booking a tour with all local artists. Giving me a chance to work with artists on a larger scale, one city at a time. Each artist will create a Thought Processor colorway and a complimentary 2D piece. The colorways will be available free at www.phoneticontrol.com for the duration of the show. The SF Series is on June 6th at Super 7. The LA Series is in September at Munky King. There are plans for the rest of the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and beyond. World wide. Some colorways are in and up on my flickr. Untill the show my three Brew Tea Full series are available for download. They were/are featured with my solo show at Gallery1988.

3. Your art has a bit of a steampunk feel…It can at least be said that your work carries an “electronic” theme.
With that said, where do you derive your inspiration?

Recently I have been into the temporary history of Boom Boxes. Without them there would be no hip-hop. It allowed someone to get their message across in a way that couldn’t be avoided. That imagery has worked its way into my bots recently. Also, I am able to tie in the cassette tape that was a HUGE part of my growing up. Back then it was really difficult to find out about new music. You had to rely on word of mouth or the mixtape (R.I.P) Plus, it was a great way to tell a girl you had the hots for her. I remember enjoying making mixtape covers too. Cutting out pictures from magazines and doodling over the top. Also, I enjoy the nobs and sliders of analog synthesizers and old video game systems. It is all about dipping back to the 80s-90s latley.

4. If a piece of your art could talk…what would it say about you?

010100111010101001111010101010100100101001010!

5. What kind of music is most conducive to your work?

Thats a hard one these days, with access to so much music. Sometimes its Fela Kuti, Two Lone Swordsmen, T. Rex, Madlib, Mandate.
Others its NPR, This American Life or I’ll put on a movie. It changes day to day. (I am listing to Gaslamp Killer and Solvent as I am typing this)

6. Who are your biggest inspirations?

Frank Gehry and his intuitive architecture , Osamu Tezuka and his tons of manga, Jim Phillips and his chrome.

7. Zombies or Robots?

Robots. Zombies are fun to watch, but aren’t contributing members of society really. They seem to only want to bring us down and eat our brains. While robots will do our bidding non stop. Just keep them out of the elevator!

Be sure to check out www.phoneticontrol.com to pick up a piece of PHO’s work!