Artist Spotlight: Lordess Foudre
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Lordess Foudre
Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up and how did you find yourself interested in design? Was there a pivotal moment that you can remember?
Congratulations! You have reached the help desk of popular internet user, Lordess Foudre. Your interview is very important to me, and I’m going to craft answers with as much passion as you put into your questions. Firstly, I want to say thank you for taking the time to inquire about the manner in which Lordess Foudre lives or had once lived. In response to your second query, I believe that art is the most important way to sit in a chair with art supplies and a computer. And lastly, but not finally, Lordess Foudre became inspired to create art when she noticed that life is short, physical attractiveness peaks relatively early in life, and Instagram is totally free and easy to use. Just open the App Store on your IPhone or Motorola and search for ‘hot popular hot programs’ and Instagram will be the first one to call you back to set up your Instagram URL and homepage address.
People often attribute nostalgia to A E S T H E T I C and Vaporwave. Why do you believe this is such a powerful force for so many people? How do you translate that feeling into your art?
Nostalgia is something that’s very easy to recognize when you feel it, easy to advertise, yet quite difficult to actually capture. We see this phenomenon play out with modern cinematic sequels, prequels, and remakes which have marketing campaigns that rely heavily on the power of nostalgia. The marketing firms that put a film’s advertisements together tend to conjure up a hit of that nostalgic drug, which is something that the actual filmmakers can’t do as successfully. The nostalgic response is akin to an orgasm, and no one can have a 2 or 2.5 hour orgasm, even if we feel we want to. If the film is pure nostalgia, it’s exhausting. Not enough, and the audience feels cheated by false advertising. Vaporwave has the solution to the ‘nostalgic promise followed by disappointing product’ problem: Get rid of the product. If you can get your emotional needs met by absorbing the promotional artwork and exaggerated promises, you’ll never have to be disappointed by the inferior physical reality of it all. Vaporwave is that feeling, that memory, that possibility, that excitement; but it’s never that product.
What inspires you the most about creating your artwork and what kind of image or idea are you trying to convey to your audience?
I don’t know if creating artwork inspires me, but it does help me to more accurately notice and define the disparate elements that make up my personality. It’s especially helped me to capture the obscure, ugly or confusing parts of my character that don’t want to be seen. In that regard, constantly hunting down ideas and creating art at such an extreme volume has made me into a different person. I would hope that it’s made me a more thoughtful and better person. I would love to think that my efforts have helped other people to find and contend with the darker parts of themselves, as well.
How do you feel like the cultural and philosophical themes of Vaporwave have influenced your artwork?
We’ve heard a lot of great opinions so far, and on behalf of everyone here, I want to express her support for her eccentric ideas and visceral “take-no-prisoners” attitude. While the thoughts and opinions expressed here don’t necessarily reflect the views and standards of Lordess Foudre, we nonetheless respect her fresh take on the important issues you’ve raised. Lordess Foudre’s philosophy is directly in line with The Vapor Wave.
Do you have a work ritual? Take us through the process of creating your art.
I get art ideas all of time, because I’m usually engaged in conversations with myself or past self, measuring my actions or future actions, building arguments, responding to arguments made by people who don’t know I exist, and practicing a mental dance for some nightmarish philosophical ball that may never come. I live and work inside a psychological coal mine in where I keep digging holes deeper and darker. The words and phrases I put into my art are the super-condensed stones that get pushed up through the dirt and toxic dust. Not always but usually, the phrases or words come into my mind before the visual ideas. After that, it’s easy. I will have a lot of coffee on my desk, anywhere between 5 and 10 artworks in progress at the same time, and various kinds of audio playing in the background (anything from serious dialectics, to conspiracy-theory true believers, to strongly worded criticisms, to droning or 800% slowed music, to sprawling conversations, to '90s religious scare programming). I don’t wear more clothes than I have to and I never work in public.
Who are some of your favorite artists, business people, creatives or intellectuals?
I’m very fond of works by Andrzej Żuławski, 平沢進, Sam Harris, Phillip K Dick, Matt Berry, Jean Sibelius, 天野喜孝, Mario Bava, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Wagner, 深作欣二, Ovidio G. Assonitis, David Lynch, 筒井康隆, Vangelis, among others.
What has been the highlight of your artistic career so far?
The achievement of my career is that I’ve been able to come up with and create new art pieces every single day for the last 3 years without taking a break.
Please tell us something about yourself that we may not know that influences your work.
Great question. What you may not know, is that Lordess Foudre donates a considerable amount of her surplus to whatever social causes are popular on the internet and is proud to announce that the target demographic has never once staged a protest against me, nor have I been accused of any wrongdoing by large academic tribunals. Lordess Foudre has, and will continue, to appease the boards of directors and advertisers of all the best social media platforms.
What are your plans for the future and direction of your work? How do you see yourself growing as an artist?
I’m planning on creating art pieces that a person can actually touch or hang on a wall, which is something that I don’t think has ever been done before. I might call it Hardwave... imagine that. Art that you can physically hold, art that can put in a physical space for people to look at without having to have a computer monitor or goggles or a phone in their hand. I’m still working out the science of it, but I expect to have at least one piece developed after my Kickstarter reaches its $250K goal. As an artist, I’ve finished puberty and yet, I cannot stop growing.
Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?
Please spend more energy recognizing and developing your personality than you spend on compromises. In the physical world, we face daily pressure to sacrifice our time, bite our tongues, mince our words, bend our wills, or bow our heads. Some of us want people, attention, or things so very badly that we’re willing to purposefully or inadvertently chip away at our souls to obtain them. This isn’t necessarily the way things are within the creative spaces of our minds. Your artistic arena is a pitch-black void, but once you enter it; it’s going to take the color and form of whatever is inside you. You don’t have to drag all those ugly social demands and personal insecurities into your creativity and poison the art that grows out of it. You have a chance to find and embody an uncompromising ideal within the intangible universe of your mind, and express it to the physical world through your art. I encourage you to take that chance. Show us the ways in which you’re truly less like us and more like you.
Final Thoughts?
It is my final will and testament that my Instagram account login and 1/3rd of my followers be left in the capable hands of the 52nd Regiment of the Inner Circle of Light Workers of The Ashtar Command. The remaining 2/3rds of my followers and my password shall be left on my phone.