By Ludwig Spies
“I want people to be affected by my work.”
Bianca Brand isn’t tall, she isn’t loud and she’s surprisingly nonchalant about her work. Yet affection is exactly what she achieves with her captivating imagery. She readily waives the title of artist in favour of being called an illustrator. On the difference between the two, Brand says that art expresses what the artist feels. “An illustrator has to predict what other people may feel and find a way to capture that. Illustrators specifically produce for an audience; we create posters, album covers, merchandising. It’s much less about us and much more about tapping into the audience’s emotions surrounding the product, organisation or event for which we are creating.”
Although she creates for commercial purposes, Brand has a very strong and distinctive style. Instead of modifying her style to suit a brand’s corporate identity, she chooses to work with brands that are attracted to her style in the first place. “Developing your style is crucial”, she says. “It might seem like an obvious thing to say, but once you realise that your style is your single most important marketing tool, the thing that makes people notice and remember you, not a moment will go by without deeply and critically examining the finest details of what you create.”
One might be surprised to learn that during her studies at Open Window, Brand struggled with colour use. She has since evolved into an illustrator particularly known for her use of bright, electric colours. “Most of my subject matter is quite dark and strange, and I feel that the colours prevent them from becoming scary or downright ugly. In this way, I hope that the works intrigue rather than disturb people.”
Brand’s work is often incorrectly called surrealist. Her work hearkens back to much older art forms like rock painting and tribal art. Otherworldly figures and alien landscapes are all weaved together with the evident symbolism of lines and shapes and repetitions, creating the impression that one is viewing the pictorial mythology of an existing culture. The works seem to depict significant and sacred events and drive one towards finding a spiritual or ethical message. “I love narratives,” says Brand. “But these are not real stories, if that makes sense… I couldn’t tell you what’s happening in the pieces or what this one is about because they’re not about anything.” Instead of conceiving a tale and depicting it, she creates a piece with the potential for becoming a different story for different viewers. Many artists/creators claim to do something similar when they are, in fact, leaving lazy blanks and creating ill-conceived and superficial work. Brand, astoundingly, leaves no blanks and allows you to make everything up. She even admits that her titles are completely ad hoc. The pieces were all untitled until this, her first, exhibition.
Strange Creatures will run until the 5th of December 2015 at Priest Espressobar and the works are available for purchase. Ten editions of each piece are produced, after which reproduction is discontinued. You can also view Brand’s work on the Jameson Indie Channel and her Behance profile.
