POP 464 Wednesday 1 December 2010

Today’s POP is Tui, thinking that life in plastic, it’s fantastic!

Not long ago, POP was exclusively invited to witness an extraordinary collaboration between Anya Hindmarch and artist Régis-R for Hindmarch's Christmas display. Along with an assistant Régis-R who also work under the name of Prince of Plastic, left Paris and arrived in London in his car, literally filled with crap and spent a couple of days working on the window and shop installation. While Hindmarch and Régis-R's work couldn't be more conflicting, the contrast between the unnaturally colourful plastic works beautifully and harmonically when juxtaposed in the traditional setting of the bespoke store.

POP strongly recommend you to stop by the shop, if not to buy your Christmas pressies at least go and check out the artwork!

Régis-R: So what do you want to know?

I just want to know a bit more about you and your work really. I’ve prepared a couple of questions…
R: May I have a look at it or are you going to read it?

I’ll read it out loud cause you probably can’t read my handwriting.
R: Let me see. Oh, nice handwriting [I think he is being sarcastic]. Micmacs… What’s that?

Don’t you know? It’s by the director of Amélie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
R: Oh yeah Micmacs. I didn’t like it… You know the two moving machines, it was an artist who made them and he is my neighbour, I mean we work in the same place. I really liked this part, I really like the decoration and the set. The atmosphere was great but the story was kinda boring for me.

I really liked it. Well I saw a picture of you somewhere and the movie reminded me of you for some reason.
R: Yeah it’s the same spirit more or less, doing art and doing new work using rubbish.

Where do you find all this junk?
R: I collect them and I’ve got people who collect them for me and I find them on the street. You know I’m just walking and picking up.

So you don’t have a strategy?
R: No strategy, just an eye. I’m kind of a sampler you know. I would say my work is a sampling process. I pick up stuff and I recompose them.

Is there any rubbish that is so crap that you wouldn’t use it?
R: I can use everything. I’m a natural born crap sampler! I would say that I’m a serial crap collector. I keep everything except things that can be recycled. It depends. Sometimes I keep some of it because it’s interesting. As you can see I keep almost everything, I keep [cigarette] butts. I have a whole cigarette butts collection. My work is part of a lifestyle, I buy everything second hand, I share my car when I’m travelling. When I go back to France I will post on the Internet and people can come back with me.

When are you going to Paris?
R: On Thursday. Do you want to come with me?

I’d love to but I have work to do.
R: Oh well it could have been. No really, it’s like a lifestyle choice and trying to make the world better where possible, with less rubbish, with less crap. It’s a lifestyle choice but it also comes from a weakness. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the world; the way things work so I do my own work such as parties and music. I don’t just do only this. I love music too and I draw more and more and I can probably write poems if somebody ask me to. You know what I mean?

Will you write me one now?
R: Yeah! [Starts scribbling.]

So this will be worth a lot of money if I sell it on eBay?
R: Well maybe not that much…

So Anya Hindmarch is about consuming and your work ethics are the complete opposite. What is it about this contrast that attracts you?
R: I love contrast. You know when you wear £2000 shoes with broken jeans or the opposite. It’s so boring when it’s just one dimension. And with those prices you don’t want to throw anything away. You would keep them for your children or your grand children. Of course we are all involved in this consuming system. I am too, I mean people who buy my work, they consume art.

Hi Anya, how did you first hear about Regis and what is it about his art that attracted you?
Anya Hindmarch: I am passionate about contemporary arts and am heavily involved with the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, I am always on the lookout for new talent and when a friend of mine told me about Regis-R I was so intrigued that I traveled to Paris to visit his exhibition at the Pompidou 'The Party is Over’. I love that Regis does not simply recycle but re-composes giving the matter second life, transforming the thrown out plastic into monumental sculptures and installations.

Your designs are all about classic and beautiful pieces, which have longevity, a million miles away from all the plastic junk we are surrounded by. How does Regis' work relate to you?
A.H.: Both Regis-R and I collaboratively believe that objects should last a lifetime or several although we express this in a contrasting manner. Regis-R breathes new life into disposable objects whereas Anya Hindmarch Bespoke creates objects designed to last. I thought this contrast would create a really fun project.

Is the installation some sort of political statement or a commentary on today's throwaway culture?
A.H.: The tendency to throw away is never more visible than at Christmas but the installation was not created to make a statement more to provide an unusual and unexpected collaboration with a play on 'handmade' and to express a mutual belief in giving objects longevity.