Interview with Janosch Feiertag

What was your initial inspiration for creating this book – was there an underlying theme you wanted to explore?

Actually I wanted to sort and archive my drawings for a long time, so it was convenient for me to do this book. I have boxes full of little pieces and sheets of paper with my drawings. I can’t keep a sketchbook because I have a habit of always tearing out pages that I don’t like.

While going through my old work I found myself feeling a bit fed up with it and decided to start from scratch, so almost every piece for this book was made exclusively during the course of this year. There was no theme, chains of associations form themselves during the drawing process for me

You display a huge variety of subjects such as animals, food, furniture and combine them with simple everyday objects. Tell us how you come up with these concepts, is there a deeper meaning to it?

Visually I’m very much influenced by my daily environment. What I see merges with the feelings and dreams I have. There was a time when I wanted to collect every object I found beautiful and ended up in chaos. Today I just draw the things I like. Through the process of drawing, they wander through my mind and then I transfer them onto paper. So mentally and physically I have established a close relationship with these objects but I no longer need to own them in real life which saves me so much space. What I keep instead are my drawings.

What is your workflow, do you start pencil sketching and then scan your images into your preferred software. What tools are involved in your process?

I hate to sketch with pencils, I always draw directly with markers or ink, otherwise my drawings would not be what I’d like them to be. After transferring my drawings to my computer I simply adjust the contrast and that’s it.

You also make use of typographic elements such as brand names. What is your relation to these products?

Often it’s not the individual letter that interests me but more so the shape of the word and its visual expression.

Tell is about the book title »777«, since numbers also appear quite often in your work.

»777« is part of the logo sign of my favorite pub right next to my gallery.

Your are among the few artists who have their own art space, your gallery „Feiertag«. What is going on there at the moment given the current circumstances and what are your plans for the future?

During Corona there only were occasional events at my gallery, partly even just in the shop window. Therefore it was nice being able to add a billboard and expand the gallery beyond its premises. In 2022 the famous art exhibition Documenta takes place in my hometown Kassel again so I’m planning to invite many artists from Germany and abroad to be part of my gallery and the billboard.