Aesthetic:
My Panda Shall Fly

1960s renegade activist meets born-again voodoo sheik – or so I’ve been told by some members of my family.

It’s not something that I’ve had to consider in the past… I suppose the fact that I spent my childhood growing up there means that there is still some aspect of my traditional upbringing that is inherent and remains with me to this day. I couldn’t admit to knowing what exactly my aesthetic may be, although I wonder if it may be something that others might be able to pick up on better than I could. As much as it has pained me to be away from my first true home for so many years, living and working in London has been has been the biggest impact upon my ‘style’.

I remember being only aged eight or so when I witnessed an act of ‘sacred pain’ in my hometown in Sri Lanka. It was shocking to the say the least. There was a street procession charged with noise and colour. There were men on brightly-decorated floats dangling from hooks and other metallic apparatus, their faces frozen in ecstasy. They were impaled onto horrific contraptions yet there was no blood. I didn’t quite know what I was witnessing at the time but after watching a documentary about ‘sacred pain’ I recalled my personal experience as a child and became fascinated with learning about the different expressions across the world.

I’ve never wanted to force any sort of bias towards my music. It’s interesting to ponder what sort of image one can draw from when engaging with my work – which for the most part has been pretty disparate in sound and video so far. There was no decision to set the videos in question within a ‘young, urban setting’ as such, as they were both separate projects with no connection to each other, but I’m pleased that a thread has been observed. Certainly, this theme is not one I wish to expand upon in particular.

My artwork is integral to the music and as such I’ve always been able to exercise a lot of control over it. If I’ve not designed the artwork myself, I’ve been fortunate enough to commission other fantastic artists that I’ve always been fond of. I’ve never been one to shy away from the spotlight, so I’ve made a conscious effort to appear in my artwork wherever possible. I’m curious to see how this form develops over time. Maybe my next EP cover could be a selfie?

Some time ago I chanced upon a stall at a flea market run by a greying middle-aged man who had been making and printing kids’ clothes for a long time. He also had a massive box full of about 100-year-old, unused heat-transfer graphics that instantly caught my eye. There were countless sheets of incredible (authentic) skate/surf graphics in eye- popping red, green & blue fluro colours. I was like a kid in a candy store. I came home with 30 or so sheets, learnt tie-dye and bleaching processes and used my friend’s heat-press machine to apply the graphics onto my t-shirts. That’s how they were born. In tragic news; I’ve lost contact with the man who sold me the original 1980s prints and might not ever see him or his prints again.

People do whatever the hell they want.

MEAT, Subversive & Roberto Piqueras.

Vidur

Photographer: Charlotte Rutherford
Art Direction and Styling: Charlotte James
Assistant Stylist: Valerie John-Lewis
Set Design: Glitterguns by Amy Exton
Hair: Jake Gallagher
Make Up: John Maclean