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pbljournal.eu

JACOB e schenck

JACOB SCHENK 1 - 8
EVA IRINE 9 - 14
EUGOR 15 - 21

NATE HARMON 22 - 25
THRUSH HOLMES 26 - 30

MY MORG 31 - 34
FRAMACHO SILVA 35 - 36

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LU LOME 37 - 42
TOM KROL 43 - 47
AMIT MENDEL 48 - 51
JORDY KEWRICK 52 - 56
MABE / SERVADIO 57 - 62

COCO 63 - 66

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Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday,
Jacob E. Schenck lived in Germany all by himself under the name of Electric Uwe.

“What does ‘under the name’ mean?”
“It means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and lived under it.”

When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say,

“But I thought that he´s called Jacob?”
“So did I,”

“Then you can’t call him Uwe?”
“I don’t.”

“But you said . . .”
“He’s Electric Uwe. Don’t you know what ‘that’ means?”

“Ah, yes, now I do,” I said quickly;
and I hope you do too, because that is all the explanation that you are going to get.

Jacob Schenck, 2016
Leipzig Germany

@ELECTRIC_UWE 8

EVA IRENE

I work as a printmaker and started tattoo- wasn’t very interesting to me, people would
ing kind of by accident – my best friend pay me in weed or pills and stuff so I kept
from high school got me a crappy eBay doing it – I was a freshman in college and
machine when I started college, Art school was pretty naive.
is a good place to start tattooing cause ev- I started to feel pretty intensely guilty
eryone is down to get some stupid shit and because of how bad and permanent they
let you practice on them. I gave a lot of were, and the smell of ink and blood and
shitty tattoos that year. I was doing what- skin was making me sick, so, I quit for a
ever designs people wanted and it really

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year or so. learning the traditional trade, and now
Shop culture is so discouraging of DIY everyone and their mom knows how to
tattooing, but I was super inspired again tattoo. At the same time, I think tattooing
by friends of mine like @sally_idgaf @ can be explored in more ways than just
scariest_thug_ever and @illegal_tattoos. one, and I think it takes serious DIY par-
They are super talented, have professional ticipation to explore it fully as an art form.
set ups and work outside of shops. I’m Not to mention keeping an alternative
lucky that these people saw potential in subculture from becoming something ex-
me and were willing to let me in on some clusive to the wealthy. I’m super exited by
of their knowledge. Tattooing has always artists like @stephane_devidal_tattoo and
been an alternative culture – it’s pretty @framacho_silva who use tattoos in really
backwards that it has gotten twisted into experimental ways – in collages, as poetry,
this capitalistic – very exclusive and main- as performative art – it becomes more than
stream bullshit. just a picture on a skin.

I can understand why some shops artists I have some experimental tattoo related
are frustrated, having apprenticed for years projects in the works, but they are under

wraps for now. I hope that I can do some stuff that hasn’t been done before, maybe freak
some people out – I dunno, we’ll see.

EVA IRENE
@RITASALT
EVAIRENE.COM

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I live in Ukraine I don’t love travelling it’s hard to me physically and I’m feeling no
good. I’m 31 now, I started painting when I was 15, maybe 14 but between
20 to 25 I wasn’t spraying graffiti. I didn’t want to do it during this time
and also at that time I was a football hooligan. It’s funny for me now
because it was stupid and now I’m glad I’m not doing it. I have
crewmembers and spray with them but also sometimes
alone, it’s a long story of how we met but there are 8
of us now, at first there was three and we meet in
some different situations, I go out to spray
maybe every one to two weeks.
@eugor1996

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NATE HARMON

Tell me about 111.. So your lifestyle is totally reflected in your style
It’s a 9 year installation. I started tattoo- of work.
ing at 11 years old in Spartanburg South
Carolina. Hand poke to home made rotary, All shit I do now is contrived, based off of
to a Spaulding kit 93. It was illegal in SC folly old America, hard imperfect tattoos.
and Indiana; I got a shop in 98 when it was
legalized. I’m 41 now, I have two degrees It seems like 111 is treated as if another
in fine art associates and a bachelors in piece of work.
drawing, all I know is skateboarding and
tattooing. 111 is a functioning studio with multiple
artists input and energy, it’s a classic tattoo
Did you have a space before 111? shop and full function art studio.
Oh yeah I’ve been in several shops, I
worked out back of a record store, tat- You said you what you do tends to be fairly
tooed out of hundreds of houses, I’ll tattoo polarising, was it like this from the begin-
anywhere by any means necessary. Appren- ning? Or early on were you surrounded more
ticeships and shops now days can be very
fucking phony ass poser shit, my roots are by people who got it?
when it was illegal outlaw and you had to I don’t care; it’s my vision quest. Others
want it, I’m glad I’m a scratcher. fed off it regurgitate. I think that before
it was breaking down and doing multiple
styles where now you have the ability to go
back and do this earl Americano folk style.

The fact that tattooing is getting bigger let the medium by the message.
means there’s more genres and this creates If I draw on paper I’ll end up cleaning it
the room for sub genres, that’s what I up, like using old flash and fixing it up a
like. I consider mine apocalyptic folk, you little. I went away from that and wanted
know it’s definitely crude but it’s definitely it to be wrong, there’s too much familiar
emulates people from the past and their cleaned up shit, I need those old tattoos
styles. again that were wrong but in that it was
I get bummed out when I try and com- right, it spoke to me and still does. It
pare to other people, but I have no idea makes it more outsider or human, I don’t
what their vision is and the craft itself and know, tattoo styles like anything else art
the techniques we can all do, so overall a related are very subjective.
very wide range of tattooing is happening. That’s it for me, drawn in makes it exist solely
What you really want to push is something as a tattoo. I remember first reading that tat-
that you like and you would wear yourself. tooers would draw their flash poorly and with
I like to do Coleman style colour theme
but I don’t like perfect tattoos I like the mistakes to catch other tattooers out, but to
hand made look. That’s the folky aspect, I me they were perfect already and didn’t need
like to draw them all in so they are wrong, fixing, that’s what attracts me to your work.
creating a new narrative that only exists as Yeah the magic of only one lifetime. This
a tattoo, wonky and wild. shit is 6000 years old, blood spilling and
magic symbols. Some of us must inher-
I’m the same, I like to draw straight on as ently be reborn; at its roots it’s just a tribal
much as I can and let what happens happen;

-rently be reborn; at its roots it’s just a trib- All I feel with my degrees is that they
al language that means nothing more than equipped me with a new language, that’s all I
a trinket or mark of individuality to us. got out of them. Were you tattooing while you
Tattooing is the oldest human language,
the oldest art form still practiced by man, were studying?
who apprenticed the iceman? Who told Yeah, tattooing since 11 never stopped,
who to get tattooed, that far out long leg- maybe 1 month at a time, novel really I
acy is more powerful than any contempo- suppose didn’t’ take it that seriously or I
rary image, we’re just in our first 100 years didn’t think I would tattoo as a profession,
of electric tattooing. it was illegal until ‘97 here. All I knew was
outlaw tattooing, I didn’t imagine it to be
Did you find your degrees made much of a what it is now ever, just like skateboarding.
difference to what you’re doing? The kids that called me a skater fag and
picked on me all skate and get tattooed
I just love art, it’s better than a factory job now.
would have been, I know different terms
and am decent at researching and commu- You think it was better then?
nicating. I was a printing technology major I don’t know if it’s better, just different, and
and switched when I realised newspapers tougher.
were all gonna close, I was working with
off set 8 colour litho presses, big sheets, it’s Higher stakes?
a language and a studio language. Yeah, now it’s over saturated with copycats

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and disrespectful bullshit. this lifetime they jump off your body and
Do you think tattooing has lost any potency? light up the sky as you cross on the log.
Tattooing will always hold it’s potency, it’s That came out weird, anyway. Tattoos are
a language, certain images certain place- still magic, a language that doesn’t need
ment, it’s a requirement and will never lose words.
that. Magik can’t be bought with a credit It sort of makes sense since you describe your
card, but it’s a commodity too, you can
exist in the culture on multiple levels, pris- work as apocalyptic folk tattooing.
on, gang, hipster, religious, family etc. A ‘Industrial wasteland’, ‘apocalyptic folk’,
person once called me moneybags talking I have interviews for International Tattoo
about tattoos out of his jailhouse; I was a Artist Magazine, and Chris Pfouts (RIP)
target, while business suit guy just sees me who called stuff ‘Midwest Apocalypse’. I
as a possible criminal, it’s mindless but that get influences from Hieronymus Bosch
in itself is a language. and music I like, Death in June, Blood
I like the idea that when you die, to enter Axis, dark folk and tattoos that are dark
the estate you have to cross a tree and book and folky.
a log across the river and if you don’t have
tattoos you can’t see across the night time, Who else should people check out?
and it’s slippery and you fall to really be Brent Dailey (@tbogg)
lost for trinity. But if you have tattoos in
@N8_HARMON

THRUSH HOLMES

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I’m living in Toronto. I moved here 10 years ago from
a small town. I’ve gotten comfortable - it’s a good place
to work. I’ve considered moving to NY as it would be
seemingly easier to navigate my career from there, but
I go there enough and I’m always happy to return to
Toronto.
I went to art school for 2 weeks before dropping out.
I’m typically good with commitment but this was
something different. I started painting very young and
school seemed to be a bit of an impediment at the time.
I opened a gallery when I was 19. That was short-lived.
I then trained as a master carpenter.

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I got back into art when I was 22 or 23 and started showing
in LA and Atlanta. I opened a project space / public studio in
Toronto when I was 26. I did that for 5 years. I have a private
studio now and show regularly in NY and Europe. It’s simpler,
I’m in a good spot.
I’m always exploring new materials. I’ve become known for the
use of neon in my work. I started working with it 10 years ago.
It was a difficult thing for a long time - seamlessly incorporating
neon into my paintings. I made a lot of bad work for a few
years as the material and approach necessitated a lot of study.
It’s now naturally embedded into my work - there isn’t any
perversion and it’s never an afterthought. That’s when you fuck
yourself - when the material isn’t wholly integrated, when it isn’t
honest and necessary.
I’m in a group show in London next week with some of my
favourite artists - Josh Smith, Sterling Ruby, Katherine Bern-
hardt, Joe Bradley, Chris Succo, Katharine Grosse, Anke Weyer,
etc… I’m excited about that. I have a solo show in NY middle
of October, then a solo booth at PULSE during Basel through
my London dealer, then a solo show in Detroit second week of
December. I might have a party in my studio in October if I’m
feeling social enough. No plans for the winter as yet. The fall is
always a crazy season for work and personal.

THURSH HOLMES
@THRUSH_HOLMES

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mymorg

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F
R
A
M
A
C
H
O

S
I
L
V
A

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What are you working on today?
Drawing / printing some stuff / I bought my own ma-
chine (riso) it keeps me at home all day long. I also spent
a lot of time on eBay, but its kind of work isn’t it? Aha.
eBay is work for sure! What upcoming projects are you working

on?

I
have a
bunch of drawings
I would like to make
into a book; it will
be very … I don’t
know how to say it
... heavy? Intense?
Aha. I like the ide of
building, or at least
trying to build some-
thing by the drawing.
I want the space that
I draw to be cold
and oppressive, but
they are not really …
viable? I’m reading a
book ‘Discipline &
Punishment ‘ have
you read it?
I’ve not read it! I like
the duality of the
geometric style of line
work along with the
softness and loose flow
of the other figures
over the top, it seems
not at all contrasting

LOMé LU

or oppressive to me but actually quite
harmonic.

I grew up in a Paris suburb close to
the Espace d’abraxas, a pretty name
for a building, which looks like a jail,
it was supposed to be the perfect place
to live but they just failed. With time
it becomes something else that they
didn’t expect, I put a little of this in my
drawings.
I also have a project where I scan and
zoom over some pieces of healed flesh
after a tattoo, bad healed skin etc, it
looks like a dog!

Yeah it’s really weird! Tell me some more
about it..

I guess I like to collect
things. It’s kind of an
archive, maybe an organ-
ic archive. Sometimes
when you get tattooed it
heals badly and builds up
crusty pieces of skin, you
can see the ink or it and
also the several needles
composing the main
needle.
I love those marks, some-
times I’ll split the needle
with a razor or open the

solder too much to get
very rough textures. Where
were you first introduced

to tattooing?
I used to hang out with
a friend in a tattoo shop



when she was 16 or so, she badly wanted to be a
tattoo artist but at this time I wasn’t really interest-
ed in it then I was here just like that, it came with
time. When I bought my first machine a friend
of mine started to tell everyone he knew someone
who can tattoo well.

Have you found tattooing has brought differences to
the rest of your practice, or vice versa?

I’m not sure … I feel like I have two different prac-
tices, because a drawing for a tattoo is more like
illustration, I don’t know how to say it but in a way
there are more rules? Hmm I feel like the difference
between drawing and illustration is not really clear
most of the time.
It’s a pretty hazy subject and I find some people can be

quite sensitive about it. What are your plans for the
future with drawing & tattooing?
I’m into editions and printing, like
I said earlier I just bought a riso so I
guess I’m gonna kill that, spend my
time researching that … no big plans
I guess, some exhibitions coming

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but mainly printing
and experimenting over
everything else.

Did you study printing
at all?

I went to an art school
specialising in graphic
design called Duperré in
paris. , I also studied an-
thropology but studying
isn’t for me I prefer to
learn on my own.

Any suggestions for people to talk to next?
Antoine Horfee and check out Paul Loubet.

LOME LU
@LOME_77

tom krol

I’m living in Brussels, Belgium at
the moment. I was looking for a
young and active city and found
it.
For nearly 5 years I was studing
at the Hochschule für Gestaltung
in Offenbach Germany. I also
was studying at the Art Academie
Düsseldorf. I think it was a im-
portant time for me. I had a room
where I could work in, alot people
around, so we had a constant
exchange. It was good but Im also
very happy to be out of there.

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I’ve been painting since 5 years or a bit longer; before I was just drawing, which brought
me to painting. I was doing quite complex abstract drawings and was wondering where
these forms and fragments are actually from. So I started to reproduce the process of
these drawings. Out of this prosess a new work flow started and I tried to find a next step,
which was painting for me.
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TOM KROL
@TOM_KROL

AMIT MENDEL

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