Dee Dee Cheriel
Interview conducted by Sander Lindeke
When being introduced to someone new and the conversation reaches an awkward pause, do you:
- A. scan the room
- B. lie and say "it was nice to meet you, but I've got to run"
- C. bring up a new topic to ease the tension (give example)
- D. make out
- E. stare at the other person until they say something interesting or walk away
I would have to say C. People fascinate me. I am really interested in what it is that drives people. Do they have pets or children, do they travel, etc. Los Angeles is a weird place, most people are creative and pretty interesting, but separated by cars and lack of community. I really appreciate social interactions because I usually spend all day painting at my studio alone.
The current il.lit.er.ate theme is Love to Hate/Hate to Love. Do you think it is possible for both love and hate to coexist within one relationship either simultaneously or over the course of time? Have you ever had one where this was the case?
I have had a relationship where that was the case. Love and then after a few brutal years, Hate. I don't recommend it. It is unhealthy, and it ages you. You should probably just feel love, like, and ambivalence, but not hate. Hate is just fear, and fear is usually lack of understanding. I don't hate anyone anymore. I dislike some people, prefer to not be around a lot of people, but hating requires more of my energy than I would prefer to spend. I strongly dislike certain bad ideas more than the people that have them.
A lot of your work has strong contrast with color and line quality, often your paintings feature one or two characters standing out from a minimalist background. However, I've noticed several images that include an extra graphic element of written words. Obviously everyone is familiar with their own handwriting, especially visual artists and writers, but are you satisfied with it? Does it change in size and fluidity depending on the time or mood? Has your handwriting changed since you first developed your own style?
I sometimes use song lyrics in the backgrounds of my work. They are usually partially buried under paint and drips, I like words in art, and the way different words look. I like a lot of old signs around Los Angeles that have neon and are worn and faded that are graphically from the 50's or 60's. I feel like I am a product of my environment and the inherent nature of advertising is that it affects us in a subliminal way. The liquor store near my house has an amazing neon sign that says "House of Spirits" with a little neon house and some clouds, the only thing missing is a happy face on the house, because usually a house filled with those spirits isn't so happy. Maybe I will do a version of it for my upcoming show at White Walls Gallery San Francisco. (I "Palin-ed" the question and didn't properly answer.)
Most of the figures in your work are human bodies with animal heads and the given animal head for each figure tends to be the revealing element to the meaning and context of each painting. These animals often coincide with the human figure's gender and seem to give more life to how the characters interact. Do you choose animals that most people would associate with one gender or the other, or do you choose these animals based on some other criteria? Do you ever associate specific animals with the real people you meet?
The animals are usually corresponding with the emotion, not the gender. I usually see bears as grumpy or hungry, or in search of.... I guess bears sort of represent that Buddhist concept that to desire is to suffer, so I guess I see the growly bear is often representing this, almost me reminding myself.
The first girl with a bird head was a caricature of this girl in Santiago, Chile. I was living there, painting and playing in bands. My band mate lived on the 21st floor of this building, and we would sit around and drink wine and do lots of drugs and his skinny model-girlfriend would wander around the apartment talking in a little high-pitched voice, she was like this little beautiful bird in a cage, living up above the dirty city!
Obviously, the body positions in many of your paintings are blatantly sexual, but specifically they bring to mind ritualistic imagery found in eastern religions such as the Kama Sutra and Tantric practices. Do these references relate to your personal experiences and heritage or is it simply a depiction of generalized erotica?
I am half Indian, and have spent time in India visiting family, and was initially inspired by one of my trips to a temple in Southern India, where there was some hard-core monkey on giraffe, on tiger on bear action. The relief carvings were painted some really vibrant colors. They lined the outer parameter of the inner sanctum of the temple. I studied Indian temple imagery in college, and those things tend to symbolize spiritual inter-connectedness, and fertility for the earth and the crops etc, plentitude, abundance etc. I guess my thoughts on it, beside the fact each human desires that connectedness- both emotionally and spiritually, are that the sexual imagery is my response to the disconnectedness, anger, violence in our culture that we are bombarded with on a daily basis.
Many of these sexual interactions appear detached and cold as well as oddly funny. Is it possible that apathy can play a part in the act of love making?
Ha ha! I was dating a guy that said the same thing about some of my work. It really annoyed me. But he was right, I guess. Yes, I believe humans are very complicated species.
Since you seem to be a nature lover, care to give il.lit.er.ate any dirt?
I am a nature lover! I grew up in Eugene, Oregon and went camping with my mom a lot. It is a total hippy town! I think it is legal for women to go topless there as long as no one complains!! I would help my parents plant their vegetable gardens in the summers. We would go rafting, fishing and hiking. It was amazing. I guess it really affected me. I now live in a part of L.A. where I can walk 2 blocks to a hiking trail in a gorgeous relatively empty Elysian park. It's great, you can be in the middle of the woods , watching hawks, butterflies, lizards and hummingbirds, and see the dramatic cityscape of Los Angeles in the background. I don't think I could live here if it didn't have such amazing parks and places to be in nature. But I also need the city, movie theaters, galleries etc. to be inspired and balanced and influenced by fashion music film....