British artist Wildcat Will gives his modern-day interpretation of the demi-monde of the Folies Bergère
William Blanchard, more commonly known as Wildcat Will, is a multidisciplinary pop artist and musician based between London, Los Angeles and Manchester. For the past 20 years, he has been channeling his creativity into projects that reflect his personal understanding of contemporary urban life. For his new show, however, he turns to the past, taking inspiration from the dissolute spirit of the Parisian cabarets of the Folies Bergère. Cut outs of topless girls are pasted against animal print and text is overlaid on butterfly backdrops, combining the artist’s interest in painting, graphics and typography. Here, we talk to Blanchard about artistic influences, counterculture and movie idols.
On the fascination of the world of the Folies Bergère…
“The ethereal artists, models, free spirited women were the rule-breakers of that time, and in such an underground way. Their timeless appeal is what I was drawn to, and their ability to disregard the socially and morally acceptable “rules” they had then (and we still have now in many ways). The musicians of that time were the predecessors of rock and roll too.”
On Manet’s vision of the world – A Bar at the Folies-Bergère…
“I like the surreal ambiguity of the people you don’t see in the mirror in the crowd. You can imagine Toulouse Lautrec and his cohorts drinking absinthe whilst watching scantily clad dancing girls cavort decadently. These works encourage the imagination to reflect a surrealistic demi-monde projected through the looking glass. It’s about sex and drugs and rock and roll!”
On the message behind his work…
“I want to communicate the transient beauty of a woman, sex and death, compared with life and the fragility of a butterfly, and a woman’s ever-changing beauty.”
On collecting…
“I started collecting as a kid and my folks used to keep stuff from trips abroad for me like bottle tops and labels, stickers, paper flags, napkins, signs, anything like that. So my bedroom became a museum, like a living collage, a mini history of stuff! Then punk rock exploded and blew up my life, even though I was just a bit too young to fully understand it, it made an impact that changed my life forever. The music, clothes and graphics – I loved all of it.”
On his love for typography…
“I love punk graphics and images and mid-century pop artists, as well as marvel comics, signs and old magazine ads from national geographic mags and old book illustrations.”
On his own artistic language…
“It’s a stream of consciousness that sends out cosmic energy interspersed with symbolic images translated visually into a contemporary pop art style.”
On how the diversity of his backgrounds has influenced his art…
“Image, clothing and style are all very important in music and reflected in art. I am influenced by the work of street artists like Faile, Bast, Pure Evil, Eine and many other major contemporaries. The musical process of layering tracks is also very similar to the process of making art – building up pieces layer by layer, like making songs with different featured instruments. A finished LP is like an art show of connected pieces.”
On the movie and music idols that inspire his looks…
“From movies such as Easy Rider to Dennis Hopper in the documentary An American Dreamer, Jack Nicholson, Jim Morrison, Keith Richards in the mid to late sixties, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Serge Gainsbourg and the Velvet Underground all make up a part of my persona. I take a bit from everyone I love and admire and make up a composition, like a rock‘n’roll gestalt which is the genetic musical make-up and style of Wildcat Will. Like a legendary dreamlike counterculture or a mythical Western character, part myth, part Space Cowboy, part pirate, part biker dude. And part late 60s Parisian San Franciscan Beatnik cat with black leather and black wraparound shades.”
Love Is Like A Butterfly will be on show at the Beautiful Crime gallery from July 9.
