I always felt an alliance with peeps from similarly-sized cities. Growing up in Perth, I kept my eye on people just across the desert: the Adelaide guys.   Heads like Steve Gourlay, Bryan Mason and Paul Brabenec were in a parallel world to us and just seemed that much more approachable. In the decades that followed, those parallels converged and I gradually got to meet them all. Although I don’t seem ‘em nearly enough: Steve Gourlay and Paul Brabenec have become two of my best friends. And I have been lucky enough to lurk with them in many different cultural backdrops. Last summer I caught up with Brabs in London and he was skating better than ever. Paul is a person who has been living the nomadic lifestyle of a pro skater or rock star for the past five or so years, but this is soley funded by his artistic pursuits (which range from motion graphics, to design, to painting to video and more). Just recently he has dropped a new series of boards (including Andrew Brophy's debut pro model) for the French Cliché mob, and strangely enough he is actually in the country at the moment. Since we were in the same time zone, I thought it would be good to catch up for a chat regarding “Brabs 2”.

How many series have you done for Cliché now?
Paint
Paint 2
Hands
Brabs
Brabs 2

What is this series called?
Brabs 2

Where did you get inspired / source the imagery for your remix?
I guess inspiration comes from what I want to say, as a reaction to things I've been reading about, and then any imagery I come across that enables me to get the message across, I will use.

It could be a block of colour or a direct image. Most of my work crosses into an abstract (version) of the original idea. I use a kind of a coded language.
Its necessity is immediacy, between what needs to be said and getting that idea down on paper. They're just a bit of fun.

Are they personally tailored for each pros personality?
To a certain extent they are, although not usually. In this particular series you might find some themes, in Andrew Brophy (below) for sure, kind of funny, because I did the graphics a year ago, and Brophy had a pair of glasses on in a pic or vid somewhere. He has continued to be photographed in them and its kind of 'a thing', so the board works for him more so than the others, also in his graphic there is the power of the mountain (the mountain wears the glasses) and a golden hands, this board is in shamanistic terms imbedded with power.
Also, I like the Javier Mendizabal (below) board, where the image of the human separating himself from the universe looks very much like Javier himself.

Which is your favourite?
I'm going to go with the Charles Collet (below).

I get a celestial / Egyptian vibe from this series, are there any underlying themes?
There's a lot of 3-sided / pointed triangles or pyramids, which I’m attracted to: 'a symbolic death of the current state of being and a re-birth into a higher order one'

"The reverse nature of both triangles provides a typical analogy proper to the alchemists. According to the “Emerald Table”, what is up or above the water surface (supra-cosmic world) is reverse reflected below the water surface or down in this world (cosmic world). The superior becomes inferior, the inner is transformed into the outer and the universal is changed into the individual and so on. Finally, the human being only perceives a reverse reflection of the reality to which he will have barely access when going through the water surface."

I guess these boards are loaded with themes. My girlfriend said to me, do you think anybody else sees the images in the way that I see them or intend for them to be read?

The Javier Mendizabal board (below) is about man and his quest for containment and control of his surroundings, Civilizations that have gone before and warning signs; I guess the Lucas Puig (above) has similar themes.

The JB Gillet board (below) has a government / control theme.

The Charles Collet board (below) has an Indian Chief who resembles 'pure matter' being interviewed and thus passing to the interviewer information that should be heeded.

The Jeremie Daclin board (above) is about globalization. And so on... they play with common imagery, and reducing a commentary on life to simple forms.

How long did it take you to complete?
A few weeks.

You have lived in London for a long time, how is it being back in Oz for you?
Not sure yet, I sure miss my friends back in London.

What is the weirdest place you have seen a piece of your artwork?
I haven't seen my artwork anywhere strange yet.

Which artists inspire you today?
I really like Thomas Hirschhorn, Doris Salcedo, Nam June Paik, Raymond Pettibon, Chris Johanson, and hundreds more....

What are you working on now?
At the moment I'm working on some proposals for gallery shows (installation works), video pieces and also on a book for a publisher in New York.


If you could do a graphic for a pro model board for anyone in the planet, whom would you choose?
Mies Van Der Rohe or Sol Lewitt.