ARtist PETE fowLER is goiNg
home to cARdiff foR his New
show oCEANS of fANTASY,
wheRe visitoRs cAN meet his
lAtest cReAtioNs, the sYNth
people. he tAlks to johnny
tucker, who fiNds thAt he’s
evolviNg his woRk iNto
somethiNg moRe peRsoNAL
Pete Fowler is perhaps best known for his
phantasmogorically, anthropomorphically
populated semi-paradisical and somewhat
utopian 2D and 3D worlds, but ‘You know
what?’ he asks, ‘I’m doing less monster
based work these days.’
But lest you think that this artist, also
known for his long-standing creative
relationship with Welsh musical maestros
the Super Furry Animals, is hitting the
straight and narrow, he describes his
latest output as ‘Seafaring synth people’.
. Immediately open and friendly upon
meeting him, you get the feeling he’s a
gregarious guy, but there’s clearly this
side to him where he has to escape to
other worlds, to those he creates within
his head and shares through his work,
or to his studio, where he mostly works
alone. The first time I visited the studio,
just under a decade ago, it was in a largely
forgotten, seamy part of East London. For
better or worse the area is now achingly
hip, but the studio hasn’t change a bit,
apart from the evolution of The work that’s
on the walls and piled up with a sense of
organised chaos on shelves.
When we talk he’s just finishing off a
large canvas, including two of the said
seafaring, knob-twiddling Moog-men that
will form part of a major new show opening
this month at the Wales Millennium Centre
in Cardiff. Called Oceans of Fantasy, the
>>
STUFF OCTOBER 2014
11