Full Colour Vision Berlin-based artist Paul McDevitt’s practice is a complex mix of painting, drawing, curation, collaboration, publishing and sound. He has just opened a new exhibition space in the city where he has lived and worked for the last 10 years. Rhiannon Lowe caught up with him between a plethora of shows and projects. Paul McDevitt: I recently moved home and studio into one, single, new place. The studio part has a room, which is an old butcher’s shop, with a window onto the street. It’s completely covered in decorative tiles. It seemed a waste not to do something more public with it. So now the studio work, the record and book publishing, the collaborations and curated projects, the solitary and the social can all coalesce somehow. Rhiannon Lowe: So, you have your own public space to play with as part of your practice? PMcD: Yes, it’s a project space, called Farbvision. I peeled off the light-box vinyl lettering from the previous business until that one word was left – it means Colour Vision in English. The idea is to do solo projects and combine it roughly two thirds visual art, one third sound and sometimes both. I have already hosted one concert and will do more. It will be a zero budget space for a while, and when it has been running for long enough, I will apply for some funding. At some point I would like to do an art fair as well, just to see what it’s like from the other side. But the main point is to generate something social to run adjacent to the more solitary studio practice. RL: It’ll have a retail aspect too? PMcD: Where appropriate I’ll produce a small edition to go with each project. I like the idea of these editions being affordable and being made by artists to sell to other artists. Then, along with the books and records which I regularly co-produce as part of Infinite Greyscale (working with long-time collaborator Cornelius Quabeck) these editions will build up into some kind of shop. It may or may not be a permanent part of Farbvision; I’m not sure yet. This all comes from my love of DIY publishing. I’m setting up a print workshop in the basement that will house a Risograph, which we have had for several years now, and soon we’ll add a letterpress printer. RL: I know yours is a multi-pronged practice. Can we take a look at Infinite Greyscale first?
This page: Notes to Self: 4 July 2014 (ii), Paul McDevitt, ink, collage, acrylic on paper, 30cm x 21cm, courtesy Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen Opposite: Notes to Self: 4 July 2014 (i), Paul McDevitt, ink, collage, acrylic on paper, 30cm x 21 cm, courtesy Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen
PMcD: The idea for Infinite Greyscale Records is that each release we do is a single-sided, 10” record pressed to coloured vinyl – the b-side being a screen print. We make the cover artwork ourselves and each one has an area that is masked and sprayed before being printed on the Risograph. The reason that we chose to make 10” records boils down to the fact that our Risograph doesn’t print large enough to make 12” covers. Inside the sleeve are also Riso-printed liner notes and a photograph. We print, crop and pack it all in my studio, then we carry the boxes of finished records over to our distributors. It’s very hands-on and most of the energy
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