RIANA MØLLER, Denmark ❧

"Are You Scared Yet"

Underground comix, a movement that started in the late 1960's, and one that is known for depicting the unconventional lifestyle and trend of its time in its experimentation of all things including drugs, rejection of sexual "taboos" and the ridiculing of "the establishment", faded away, and by the 1980's resurged as Alternative Comics.

The root of those underground movements can be traced, interestingly enough, to the Frenchman, Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (1901-1985).

Dubuffet is a key figure to remember as he established the art form and coined the term "Art Brut" as one that would know no intellectual strictures and was "free". Art Brut was applied by Dubuffet to art created by institutionalized mental patients, prisoners and children.

But note the saying that goes, there is "a fine line between insanity and genius" before you jump to any radical conclusion about the art form.

With Art Brut, much as the art form and style often projects the impression of being primitive and child-like, it was aptly characterized by Dubuffet in the following statement:

"Those works created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses - where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere - are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of professions. After a certain familiarity with these flourishings of an exalted feverishness, lived so lively and so intensely by their authors, we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade." - Jean Dubuffet. Place à l'incivisme = Make way for incivism. Art and Text no. 27 (Dec 1987-Feb 1988) p.36

From that root, the art form and Dubuffet would find an admirer in one of the 80's most important pop art cult figure, Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Known as "The Black Picasso", Basquiat would incorporate the Art Brut style and make them "arty" and revolutionary, while proving, like Picasso's most personal and meaningful work, subversive and shamanistic - very much in keeping with his artist cohort, Andy Warhol and Warhol's influence on Pop Art.

In its comics version, Art Brut would evolve further to our times with infusion from another strong influence, Mark Beyer. Beyer's Art Brut comix characters, Amy and Jordan would be animated and popularized through a televised series on MTV's early and popular animation programme, "Liquid Television".

"Someone's In The Wolf"

To understand Riana Møller from Copenhagen, Denmark, and her incredible illustrations, which I see as a form of comics graffiti in her stylized and unique contribution to Art Brut alternative comix (they have appeared in Cartoon Network) is to realise the history of her art form and that it is cutting-edge street, highly artistic and definitely arty.

It explains her perfectly as a free spirit that must gravitate and give reign towards free art, and the freedom of expression. It speaks to a significant segment of a mass audience that refuses to bend to conventions without examination. It questions leaders and their decisions and caricaturizes global issues and concerns to indicate the mass, and the streets of humanity are peopled by living emotion-sensing, truth-seeking beings.

Riana is an artist who has arresting style and an undeniable statement to make. She is one talented fearless spirit you cannot ignore as her illustrations scream for attention and stamps raw, emotional, honest opinions right in your face. She is the voice of youth and her times and its trend, music and mindset.

Her sharp, contorted, highly original and garishly cute characters draw you to wondering where the heck did she come up with all these beguiling nightmares and imageries of poetic visuals? I have to add here that if all my nightmares were like the illustrations Riana brings out, I, too, would be fearless in time. Her illustrations and art are great reasurrances that you have within you the ability to confront your inner fears.

Riana defines herself as a "macabre artist". Her central comic characters infuse a page with checkered lizards, three eyed stuff toys, bouncing pandas, octopuses with pink spots, anime-eyed jellyfishes, armless dolls with blood splattered lips, all coloured soft pastels belying their strong messages against the use of guns, against war, CNN, and unwanted pregnancy. Her heroine wears these characteristic black and red striped wooly cut-off sleeves and is reminiscent of British Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin's cool, anarchic, teenage punk brat, Tank Girl, without the sharpness of Tank Girl's lines. Hewlett, by the way, is also the character designer of the pop virtual band, Gorillaz.

Asking Riana the following questions here brought out a very individual person, intelligent, funny and straight-forward - enjoy her art and her response:

How long have you felt the interest in drawing?

Riana: I think the real obsession with drawing began at age 11, I did wish to be a horror writer before that age, but when I started drawing covers to my own stories, I quickly put writing more and more to the side. Although I must say concept and script-writing still interests me a lot.

"Inspiration"

What were your early influences, and who are your current influences?

Riana: Early on, my inspirations where based on horror books and movies. I read Dean Koontz a lot and his description of bad guys and monsters were often clever, "beautiful" with their own issues and reasons. Those are still influences for me. The ability to look past the ugly to see the unique is a great theme in my gallery.

I later fell into the early anime trap at age 14, and my style was very influenced by that - big swords and pretty bad guys where all over the place for like one to two years - but I luckily recovered and now I find myself embarrassed that I fell for that crap, so these days, I’m just trying to obtain real drawing skills and a personal style. I mostly get inspired nowadays by great anatomy, good composition and nice designs, and of course, my all time inspiration - music.

"Look No Hands"

Do you feel you have an established "style" or "trademark"? What would it be?

Riana: I think I have a style for sure, but it still needs a lot of care to become a 100% trademark style. The style is the unrealistic stuffed images, characters that seem taken out from the extreme key frames in animated movies and a lot of times they are either political or social issues or the total lack of them. Typical Danish humour.

The only real trademark I can think of is my avatar, the way I draw myself with the pointy hair, people recognize that instantly. It's a bit like the Mickey Mouse logo in some ways.

What kind of people do you think your art attracts, and why?

Riana: I think it attracts what I call "the ugly, dumb and deadly".

By ugly I mean unique, the weirdoes in the classroom, but not in that new "popular" way weird, but the ones no one talks to because they wear their panties on their head and drink milk through their nose because of some weird illness.

The Dumb, because I think my art is often retarded, and I'm a real stupid person for liking it, so it must be funny for the low IQ people, bless those.

And deadly, hmmm.. people who masturbate to gore sites. They come in all shapes.

"I'm A Worker"

What do you feel are your best works, why? And what were the inspiration behind them?

Riana: The image called "I'm a worker" is my current favourite. It's very nifty and looks like it's made by a pro even though it's very cartoonie, and it has a style I want to get more into after I've studied more art skills. The inspiration was street art and a Japanese band I enjoy a lot called Polysics.

But also my political images please me, because they don't even try to be that pretty, just strong in style and opinionated. The inspiration in these are just issues I think off and twist over and over in my head, and then I just draw like I feel, often listening to one single song that inspires me and one I repeat.

"The End"

Do you feel that the art world is highly competitive? How do you see yourself within it?

Riana: Hehehehe, indeed it is, it's extremely competitive, and I enjoy that so much, gives me the kick to become one of the best, to be one of those jerks that your boss would tell you to study and draw more like.

I see myself in it, just outside that inner circle, moving closer as I progress.

To flatter the art community, I must say it's very superficial. And yes that's good! They only need you when you're one of the best, they don't question you or what you could achieve later, they just browse your art and judge everything upon that. They tear open your mouth to study your teeth and grab your ass to see if it's sloppy, and if not you're hired.

Your visual portfolio is everything. I've learned the lesson that "good ideas" aren't to be included in your letter when looking for a job. They don't care, most of them have ideas themselves, they want skill. If you really have good ideas, the only way to bring them out is to get a job and spam other people with them when you're inside the warmth.

What are your visions and hopes for the near and distant future?

Riana: To study hard while I have all this free time on my hands after quitting my recent job. Create a super portfolio and get to work somewhere where I actually like the product I'm working with. Yep.

"Chillout Paranoia"

Riana is the type of creative spirit who should be given free reign to create what she is inspired to bring out of her from the recesses of her wildly infectious imagination. It should be a fascinating process to observe the creation of the creatures and visuals as she draws them from within her inner self - creatures and visuals that have the ability to command attention.

So far, her images have not failed to draw my attention, and willing admiration.