Body Circuitry: 60 seconds with Orfeo Tagiuri

2022-01-14 00:00:00

Q: Summarise your practice in three words A: Encouraging poetic constellations. Q: When did you decide you were an artist? A: I think it’s important to clarify what we mean by that word. For me it has a lot to do with the understanding that we create our own experience and that a conscious approach to doing so can generate a world of poetry. In this sense the ‘decision’ to be an ‘artist’ must be constantly renewed and requires an immense attention, which I often lack. I’ll decide now to be an artist but I’ll probably have forgotten by dinner time. Q:What’s your favourite museum/gallery? A: I loved La Maison Rouge in Paris, which was a Foundation by the collector Antoine de Galbert. The works they showed were the product of a genuine curiosity/poetry/function in the artist’s (and often non-Artists) lives. I think there’s better poetry on the street than in most gallery shows. Q: What’s inspiring you at the moment? A: Harun Farocki’s ‘In Comparison’ (2009), which was included in the Musee de L’Art Moderne Paris ‘Les Flammes’ ceramic exhibition (2022). It’s a wonderfully shot comparison of the process of building a wall across many different cultures. Q: What do you like to do when you’re not making art? A: Jiu Jitsu, which actually translates as ‘The Gentle Art.’ Q: To whom do you owe a big thank you? A: My uncle Rob gave me a great Christmas present. I still have yet to thank him but I’ve thanked quite a few other people recently. Thank you for asking and to anyone who has read this far. Q: What is your earliest memory? A: A blue glass item hanging in our kitchen, metal pins through my brother’s broken leg and being late for my own birthday party where they had already smashed the piñata. Q: What is your guiltiest pleasure? A: I’ve spent too much time feeling guilty but I do eat a lot of animals. Q: Which words or phrases do you most overuse? A: ‘Gosh.’ But I mostly just mumble this to myself from time to time. Q: What’s your greatest regret? A: Wish I’d invested in crypto when they told me to or else wish I’d bought some of Alvaro Barrington’s work when I saw it at the Slade degree show. Q: What are you ordering? A: French onion soup. Q: Which album changed your life? A: John Frusciante’s ‘Niandra Lades andUsually Just A T-shirt’ was a sort of musical equivalent of my artistic outlook, which is something like ‘with enough heart it’s all pretty good.’ Also anything David Berman, which is such a constant celebration of the potency of language, tenderness and perspective recalibration. Q: How would you like to be remembered? A: When I die, at the funeral, please hand out a number of plant amounting to however many days/months/years (practicality depending) I was alive. People can eat them or throw them in green places. This should make up for a lot of misspent time. Life Fall (2021) by Orfeo Tagiuri is one of four new NFTs featured in the Body Circuitry collection. Life Fall drops at 4pmGMT on Known Origin,Tuesday 18 January 2022 Sign up to Orfeo's free drawing workshop on Tuesday 18 January at 6pmGMT on Discord.