Artist and animator Tréspur grew up in a stone hut without running water or electricity in the middle of a forest deep in the south of France and never went to school.
After begrudgingly joining civilisation to study Digital Media Production at Arts University Bournemouth his work retains a savagery and sense of the otherworldly.
Alongside his own art and animation, he is part of L.E.G audiovisual collective and a curator of Iklect, a non-profit initiative helping promote, sell and exhibit up-and-coming artist’s work (often from the skateboarding world).
Here Huck premiere’s his music video for Pila’s ‘Look Inside These Tired Eyes’.
How did you come up with the concept for the Pila video?
Phil (Pila) is a friend who I have known for a long time through skateboarding. He once mentioned that he made music and the more I listened the more visual I found his sound. It was around the time when I had just started playing around with computers and programs, so I quite naively asked him if I could make a video for one of his tracks. He was really up for it… and here it is.
As far as a structure, I pieced it together as I went along really. It was the first time that I had ever seriously worked on an animation, so I had a lot of fun messing around with it all.
What’s your background in filmmaking and animation?
I have always been interested in the raw power of film; the huge impacts that it can impose onto your emotions and thoughts, narratively of course, but much more importantly how it is presented to you; through a series of carefully crafted audio/visual scenes.
I initially went to study Film Production at University, during which I co-created a short experimental film, ‘La Quantité de Vie’, which went around a few European film festivals. But I quickly grew bored of the constant, creative restriction that is strictly imposed onto studying classic cinema, so I jumped ship onto digital media production, which has allowed me to experiment with moving-imagery with far more freedom.
I think that undoubtedly everybody struggles with challenges in a very personal manner. Having never worked on such a large project, I found it hard to keep my compositions organised. Which, can quickly become a nightmare if you have to back-track at all. Also, when working in animation, time is constantly a challenge. It is hard to stay focused at the same level, on the same project for a long period of time, which makes it easy to loose the rhythm of it all.
Could you explain more about your work with Iklect?
Iklect is a non-profit initiative that Al Hodgson and myself started up about 10 months ago in order to get up and coming artists together and give them a space to exhibit and sell their work both physically and online without having to pay any extortionate rates. It is basically an excuse to get a load of like-minded people together, put on nights, curate exhibitions, host workshops and have a good time with all of it.
We had previously put on a few bits and bobs, but in July we had our first official three day exhibition in Brighton, with an after-party that L.E.G hosted in a Church. It went down really well, with a really good turnout. We are now onto planning loads of events for the near future, whilst focusing on one main event a year.
There’s a lot of skateboarding-related work, which was an unconscious decision really. Both Al and I have skated since we were kids, it’s how we first met, so inevitably lots of our friends skate. But we basically just got all of our friends who produce rad work involved, whether they skate or not.
What do you do for fun and how do your passions find their way into your work?
I am, always have been, and probably always will be very passionate about my work. When I was a kid I wouldn’t go anywhere without a sketchpad to obsessively scribble in and nowadays its very much the same. Aside from all that though, I love traveling, skateboarding, climbing mountains, jumping off rocks into water, partying, peeing, talking nonsense, dancing like an overexcited music conductor, eating avocados, gypsy music, drawing moderately overweight naked people, drinking red wine, pretending to be someone else and climbing cranes. I think that whether consciously or not, everything one choses to do has an impact on the work that they produce.
Where do you go/what do you do to get inspired?
What I chose to watch/read/listen to obviously has an impact on my thoughts and ideas but I find that quite often the best way to stay inspired, is quite simply not to over-think anything. If you have an idea, do it, if it sucks, try something else. Never be afraid to fail. And enjoy what you do, otherwise whats the point?
Where does the darkness and surrealism in your work come from?
I don’t see it that way, although a lot of people make similar comments. My artwork is something that I rarely plan and never really think about too much. I have always had to draw and I find it highly therapeutic scribbling down whatever happens to come into my head at the time. What I do now is just an escalation of what I did as a kid.
Check out more from Tréspur.
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