Bill Noir is an artist and editor living in Strasbourg, France.
TWS –How are you doing in this covid 19 pandemic?
BN –Weird! By chance, I’m lock down at a friends place in the countryside. My trip stopped in the middle, in the south of France near Gaillac. Unexpected and refreshing for me.
TWS –Are you being able to telecommute / work from home.
BN –On my way upstream, fortunately, I bought a few books at flea markets before the world ended… A beautiful magazine called ‘ballet’ from the 50’s and others, which still allows me to work away from home and my studio.
I’m setting up a little ephemeral office here.
TWS –Did the lock down affected your creativity and art making? How?
BN –Because of my limited material and an even more restricted chromatic range, I feel like I’m going straight to the point. I don’t ask myself too many questions, and keep a spirit of playfulness and pleasant improvisations in the daily 2/3 hours of collages, just to deceive the anguish… I focus my series on the portrait, both for ease but also because I want to evoke a part of psychic mind, of contemplative introspection. The good thing about this ‘Ballet’ is that many of the characters are very pensive…
TWS –Are you able to track positive moments or things that happened during this crisis so far?
BN –Because of my isolated conditions and the possibility to walk on the surrounding paths and forests, I am really lucky to be able to rest my mind and calm down the roller coaster that animates my thoughts. It is a perfect time to ask questions, whatever they may be. My hopes are mostly for the world not to be choked with its own fears…
TWS – What the first things you would like to do when we can get back to normal?
BN –I’ll still try to go back to Strasbourg at some point. Re-appropriate my workshop and my bike. But I think above all I’ll try to have some outdoor activities, pinhole or whatever, aiming more at nature than at the city centre.
