NAME :
Oscar Wilder.

OCCUPATION :
Artist.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN :
London, UK.

WHERE DO YOU LIVE :
Brooklyn, NYC.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN 3 WORDS :
Curious. Inventive. Passionate.

WHAT’S THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOB :
For art, it is when I come up with a new idea, that’s when I am the most excited. For my mask portrait project, it is meeting people and talking with them while I am creating a likeness of their face. We talk about each other’s lives and inspiration, sometimes it goes in the form of a therapy session, and other times we talk about the connections that we have in common, or what life is like in the city that we live in. The variety of people that come and sit for a portrait, Usually even people that would never, or have never gotten a portrait done.

ARE THERE DAYS YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO TO CREATE :
Never. I always have something on my mind. Lately, my hand has been feeling the effects of all the cutting of cardboard, but even if my body doesn’t want to create, my mind does !

YOU ARE A TRUE MULTIMEDIA ARTIST IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE ONE GENRE, WHAT WOULD IT BE :
I often think I need to narrow down the mediums that I work with. But on the other hand, I am always reminding myself of all the other materials that are out there and that I still want to learn how to use. I refuse to choose.

WHAT INSPIRES YOUR ARTWORKS :
The ideas come from my imagination, they come from the material, they come from the faces I see all around me and differences in culture and in art that I see at home, or that I see when I travel. In its nature, art is interactive and synonymous with humans. I make my art interactive. I want it to be touched, to be worn, to be marvelled at, to have an element of magic. It is playful, sometimes it is design, sometimes it is representative. My art is a rediscovery of analog mechanisms, modular pieces, just as we are ourselves analog, we are modular, we are adaptive. My art is material, sometimes realming into photography, or the digital realm, but mostly it is tangible, touchable, and movable, in a world where we need things to be seen and touched, where art is physical, playful, interactive.

WHAT INSPIRES YOUR MASK ARTWORKS :
I started making these cardboard masks when I was around 13 for a school project. After that, I kept going with the project, making faces that were familiar, my family, famous artists and celebrities. Recently, I came up with a way to bring it outside and make the faces of New Yorkers, and people that visited. It’s amazing to make a portrait out of a material that is often overlooked, and usually thrown out. The variety of faces I get to represent through this medium and the fact that all sorts of people are drawn to it, is what makes me love this project so much.

WHERE DO YOU SOURCE THE MATERIALS :
From the liquor store below where I live in Brooklyn. I check regularly through the stack of boxes that they put out for recycling, and pick the most interesting patterns and colours. Sometimes walking around my neighborhood I’ll spot a color I’ve been looking for in the oxes and I’ll take that home.

WHAT MASKS HAVE YOU GOT PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE, ANYONE WE KNOW :
More park portraits, no one I know yet!

WHICH MASK DID YOU ENJOY CREATING THE MOST :
When two people approached me, and asked me to make half of both of their faces on the same base. Mixed up features!

WHICH HAS BEEN THE MOST CHALLENGING TO CREATE :
The faces that I know the most.

ARE THERE ARTWORKS YOU WOULD NEVER SELL :
Yes, definitely, there are some that are too important, usually the ones I made when I was a kid. They are my beginnings, and so I wouldn’t ever sell them.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PROUDEST ARTISTIC MOMENT :
The moments when I am proudest of the things I’ve created, are when other people interact with them, and activate them. When I create something that is meant to be played with and changed, or even when someone sees something I’ve made and gets their own ideas for things that can be added on or changed.

AT WHAT AGE DID YOU KNOW YOU WOULD BE AN ARTIST :
I have always known.

WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE ARTISTS :
Some of my favorites at the moment include Marisol Escobar, Alexander Calder, William Kentridge, El Anatsui and Henri Matisse.

IF YOU COULD SPEND A DAY WITH ANY ARTIST, ALIVE OR DEAD, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE :
Alexander Calder, I think I would learn a lot!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE GALLERY :
One of my favorite shows at a gallery was at Arthshila Gallery in New Delhi, India. The space and interactive nature of all the works was so beautifully curated, and there was such a story told.

YOUR THOUGHTS ON AI AND ART :
AI… I’m not the hugest fan… I think it can be a detriment to many artists, especially those working in digital and illustration mediums. However, I think AI highlights the importance of the physical, and of the ‘analogue.’ You see it with the revival of film photography, vinyl records, ceramics. These have become so popular again! As some sort of push away from AI, we begin to gravitate towards the more tangible and the personal, creative. It places a stronger value on physical art and the skill and creativity that it takes.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF BEING AN ARTIST :
It’s hard to be the artist, manager, advertiser and creator, all at once. To fill all the roles that a ‘professional’ artist fills. All I want to do is create art.

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY :
Not so sure about the chronology of time with my earliest memories: one of them was going on a treasure hunt setup by my parents, and the surprise was ice cream. Another, looking for trinkets with a friend in the school yard, which doubled as a flea market on weekends.

WHAT WERE YOU LIKE AS A KID :
Similar to how I am today, I would say I was always making something. Be it out of sticks, or cardboard, or little trinkets. I would make little characters out of anything! Pretty curious about everything, and always eager to learn.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION :
My most treasured possessions… I have a box full of them! Trinkets from my childhood, photographs of family and memories, old items from my parents’ childhoods. An ipod with my first songs, a swiss army knife from my grandfather, some jewelry that I wear, a few old cameras, of which I still use, and a couple of recordings of voices from people in my life that have passed away.

WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IN A MOVIE :
No idea, but I’d like it to be directed by Wes Anderson.

CHOOSE A SUPERPOWER :
Teleportation without any doubt. Second would be the ability to mold any object into something else.

WHAT IS YOUR WORST TRAIT :
Overwhelming myself with too many tasks and projects, that I can never manage to all reign in.

WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT :
Thinking about projects. I can usually plan something out in my mind, especially if it is something mechanical or modular in regards to art. I’m quite the night owl, and then I typically fall asleep quickly.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT :
Hasn’t happened yet. But maybe, beginning to create my world of art and it also catching the excitement of others.

DO YOU LISTEN TO PODCASTS :
I don’t listen to as many podcasts as I would like to, but I listen to a lot of music.

WHAT’S YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE :
One related to art: When I’m doing a part of my art that requires monotonous tasks like cutting out shapes, or creating multiples, I will watch a TV Show and let my hands do all the work while my mind is otherwise distracted.

WHAT ARE YOU TOP 4 MUSICIANS / BANDS :
Tinariwen, Bob Dylan, Jill Scott, Buena Vista Social Club.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING YOU EVER STOLE :
A lot of clothes from my dad’s cupboard. Some great pants!

YOU ARE HEADING TO THE ISS / INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, CHOOSE 4 PEOPLE TO TAKE A LONG :
I have no real desire to go to space. To go to another planet…maybe, but earth has too much to experience for one lifetime, why go to space?

WHAT WOULD A PERFECT DAY FOR YOU LOOK LIKE :
Wake up on an island, drink a morning coffee, go exploring and find some old things and scraps hidden in ruins, come up with an idea on the spot, create something, a sculpture. Take a long walk and go for a swim, eat dinner and then go chatting and hanging out into the night alongside people I love. Sleep.

IF YOU COULD BE FRIENDS WITH A FICTIONAL CHARACTER, WHO WOULD IT BE :
Fantastic Mr. Fox.

PICK YOUR TOP 5 MAGAZINES :
Artforum, National Geographic, Dazed, ArchDigest, Marg Magazine.

WHAT IS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ :
Gunboat Jack. Timeri. N Murari.

WHAT WAS THE LAST GIFT YOU GAVE SOMEONE :
Cardboard portraits of my childhood tap dance teacher and her husband for their 15 year anniversary.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU :
I have so many projects and ideas in my mind and in sketchbooks that I don’t think I would ever be able to catch up and complete them all, thus not allowing me to stop.

YOUR FAVOURITE DESTINATION :
Hampi India, My partner is from India, so visiting there, it is probably one of the most beautiful places I have experienced. The second would be on a mountain top on the island of Hydra, of which the best time to go is at 3am and be there for sunrise.

YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE DESTINATION :
Can’t say I have one!

WHAT IS ON YOUR BUCKET LIST :
Quite a few are already done. Here’s a few more : Learn multiple languages, already learning French, German, Hindi, but would also like to learn Spanish, Greek, maybe Mandarin, and Arabic, but let’s start with just a few for now. Travel to many, many places. Three from my long list are: Japan, Morocco, South Africa. To learn new crafts and skills: metal working, more woodworking, glassblowing, more ceramics. To live in different countries and learn the saxophone.

DO YOU LIKE BEING INTERVIEWED :
Yes and no. I like it because it challenges me to think of answers to questions I am not often or ever asked, but it can also be scary!

WHAT’S THE CLOSEST YOU HAVE COME TO DEATH :
Being surrounded by a growling gang of street dogs on a beach at three years old, My mom scared them away!

IF YOU HAD A BOAT WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED :
Ripple.

YOUR MOTTO OR MESSAGE :
Artists build their imagination physically. They make it come alive in the world we live in. To keep doing that, you must be curious and always open to immersing yourself in all sorts of avenues, not limiting yourself to just a few. Never stop learning and you’ll never stop creating.

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