When I first met Ryan Boserio his friend Timothy Rollin described him as the man responsible for the phrase ‘You’ve just been Boserioed!’ I’m not actually sure what being ‘Boserioed’ involves, but if his artwork is anything to go by it means your head has possibly spliced by a wave of lysergic madness… while a plane flies past.
That might be an odd description, but then there’s something inherently odd – yet majestic – to Boserio’s work. On the surface level there’s people turning into a fluid version of themselves, the edges of their reality seeping into the edges of the people around them. It hints at a world gone mad, yet still gripping on to the vestiges of humanity.
And yet littered throughout his work is a symbology of planes and aircraft, a world of aviation that ties into art school philosophy and high street branding. And Boserio is sure to bring the two together, successfully, as his digital work and aerosol pieces (the latter at Bullcreek Railway Station and along William Street, Northbridge) take flight and take on the world.
You experiment across a few mediums such as video, graphic design, illustration and aerosol – what can you tell us about these mediums and the work they yield? I like different mediums. Spray paint is great, but I love all visual stuff. I feel like a jack of all trades, master of none. Right now the computer is my choice of medium because it is so versatile, it can produce moving images, stills, interactivity and even 3D objects. I am concerned with the connection between an artist and digital tools, things like singularity and post humanism, which is the art school in me showing through.
Why do you like planes so much? Planes are completely recognisable in a simplified form. It’s an exercise in personal branding, right now there is a lot of cross over in the fields of fine art and design and it’s my contribution.
You mention the duality of planes on your blog – the difference in scale and inability to distinguish purpose – can you talk us through this? I guess the plane symbol I use is about the nature of cultural mutation. Scale is an interesting cultural anomaly. When I come across something that has been made by another human being, my recognition of what it is relies heavily on my own use for it which may be different from the original designer’s intentions. I think it is from this point that a mutation occurs. So the plane represents the misappropriation of an object in order to create something else, even something that subverts the original object. In this sense the plane is like sampling or circuit bending in music. Working with aerosol this has significance as well – graffiti kids take spray paint which is originally designed to make house hold painting easier and use it to do other more devious things. The plane isn’t about the result of the cultural mutation, like spray painting private property; it is about the initial thought process like “I could use this object for something it was not advertised that it could do”. Metaphors and similes.
What’s something street art fans might not know about? How to do their taxes. Last Chance studio is definitely the place to go. If you want anything street art or lowbrow related we have got you covered, but if you are fan I’m sure you already know that. I guess street art fans may not know that most street artists are ratbags. Shouts to my ratbags, you know who you are.
Now… consider yourself Boserioed!
Scott-Patrick Mithchell
