ALASKA PUBLIC MEDIA: State of Art Interview
Will Franklin interviewed us for our show at Akela Space that coincided with Anchorage Design Week in October 2019. A Swiss agent did the courtesy of reading the script to help conceal our identity. Listen to the “interview” with the link below;
Or read the transcribed interview here:
State of the Art interview
Will Franklin: Last Friday Anchorage photographer Keep Anchorage Beige had their opening at The Akela Space downtown. Keep Anchorage Beige is an Instagram account that documents the prominence of the color beige in our city. I was able to ask the owner of the Instagram account who chose to remain anonymous for this story some questions.
So here is a kind of reenactment of the interview that we would have had if we had been in the same room together.
What inspired keep anchorage beige?
Agent Seven: Keep Anchorage Beige is inspired by the man-made surroundings of our town. It is drawn from the everyday conditions that define our built environment which acts as a backdrop to our lives. It is part critique, part curiosity, part catalog, part documentary, part serious and part fun.
Will Franklin: Do you know why or have any thoughts about why beige is “the unofficial color” of Anchorage?
Agent Seven: We don’t know why it is like it is but we do find it curious.
Will Franklin: Is it important to make people notice how much beige there is around?
Agent Seven: Anchorage is a city of beige – it is ubiquitous to our built environment. It is equally important to know why we became a city of beige as it is to know how we became a city of beige. Becoming aware of our status quo and opening our eyes to realizing what we are is just as important.
Will Franklin: Ok so now I just have some more general questions.
Other than art or photography, what do you find inspires you to create?
Agent Seven: We never said that art inspires us. Just kidding, mostly. Our city inspires us. Our everyday conditions, givens and potential inspire us. The human body interacting with the built environment and that built environment mediating between us and the natural world inspire us.
Will Franklin: What keeps you motivated to create?
Agent Seven: We do what we do because we are driven to dream and trained to act on it. For us it is easier to create than not to create. When we look around our city through constructive criticism, insatiably curious eyes and endless optimism - we see motivation to do better. Before we can do better, we need to determine what we are, how we got here, what is important to us and where we want to go.
Will Franklin: What goals do you have for your artwork?
Agent Seven: Our goal with our work is to elevate our experiences and help define our place. We live in the last frontier – literally and figuratively. It is exciting to live in a place with nothing but latent potential to define its future of what it could be. Hopefully our work helps stake a claim to what we could be but minimally it makes our own personal everyday more fun. We aim to elevate our own every day, hope to inspire others to do the same and dare to dream to spark curiosity in others.
Will Franklin: What is more important to you - technical proficiency or emotional connection?
Agent Seven: Emotional connection. Technical proficiency is a result of education, training and experience – basically anyone can become technically proficient if they devote enough time to something. An emotional connection is something that cannot be learned – it is either there or it is not there. Something either arouses strong feelings or it does not. Emotions are instinctive which distinguishes them from reasoning. They are intuitive over knowledge based.