ON MY last meeting with Fin Macrae and Al MacInnes (DUFI), our dominant point of identification was a frighteningly similar taste in new music.

SO IT was somewhat fortuitous that when I recently caught up with the Highland-based artists, their current exhibition examining the relationship between Street Art, music and childhood, Teenage Kicks And Other Works, had just opened at Timespan in Helmsdale. With this work initially forming part of the Wall Works exhibition at Eden Court in 2008, I began by asking what had prompted them to re-visit the work in 2011.

Fin Macrae: Well, the gallery don’t usually have a show at this time of year, but they have the Ruscha exhibition at the beginning of March and they thought Teenage Kicks would tie in nicely with that. Obviously Ruscha has influenced a generation of artists, us certainly, and they felt there were some strong similarities, so although it perhaps wasn’t the best timing for us, we were really excited to revisit the work.

Al MacInnes: Yeah, the piece was originally a commission for Eden Court two years ago, essentially examining the link between Urban Art and music. We were really interested in the response you have to the music you listened to when you were growing up, and especially the idea that, although you may like to pretend that all you listened to was Run DMC and The Beastie Boys, the reality was, there was a lot of other music which probably wouldn’t be considered so cool being played around the house too.  With us for example, things like Runrig, The Alexander Brothers, John Denver, and a whole host of other stuff, so there is a lot of humour in there too.

Teenage Kicks & Other Works (Image by Frank Bradford)

Fin Macrae: So, the main installation has remained as it was, a living room environment, with an old record player, an arm chair and twenty two wall-mounted records from our youth; and the idea is, visitors select a record, sit down and listen through headphones. We really wanted to recreate that feeling of listening to records on your parent’s stereo with the volume cranked up, and them not really knowing what you were listening to.

For me there is two ways of listening to music – one is as part of a community, and this can mean several different environments, a gig, party, etc, and the other is private listening, which can be a very different experience; especially when you put headphones on, the dynamic changes completely.  We also have a mirror positioned at head level, so you are sitting there slouched like a teenager on the armchair looking at your own reflection, and this generates an instant connection with the past and the present. So really, we wanted to take a very simple idea and create an environment which would help stimulate a response and prompt reflection.

The Doors- The Doors, Teenage Kicks & Other Works- Screen Print (Image by Fin Macrae)

Alexander Smith: How have you developed the main theme, and what additions have been made to the current exhibition?

Fin Macrae: Well, something we have wanted to do for a long time is get into the studio and do some screen printing, and this exhibition provided us with that opportunity. We really wanted to expand the theme further, so we worked with Highland Print Studios on a series of screen prints focussing on the albums we thought best represented that period in our lives.

Al MacInnes: Yeah, the screenprints are really the music we would associate ourselves with, so we eventually settled on five albums from a final list of around twenty and designed a poster for each one, with the artwork based around a key lyric from each album.

Alexander Smith: What albums did you eventually choose?

Al MacInnes: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, The Doors by The Doors, Nevermind by Nirvana, REM’s Out Of Time and Heartland by Runrig.

Alexander Smith: That’s an interesting choice, defining nineties guitar albums, classic rock and a Runrig  record, especially considering the type of art most people would associate you guys with and how strongly it’s tied to hip-hop?

Fin Macrae: I guess so, yeah; but there were quite a few hip-hop records in our top twenty, and there was perhaps an element of wanting to avoid that stereotype, but ultimately, we just wanted to end up with a genuinely honest representation of that time.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, Teenage Kicks & Other Works, Screen Print (Image by Fin Macrae)

Alexander Smith: There are also some pretty dark themes running through those final five albums?

Al MacInnes: Absolutely, and that kind of surprised us, totally unintentional, but we certainly picked up on that yeah.

Alexander Smith: People tend to have a really strong attachment to the music they were listening to at that stage in their lives, and hearing those records instantly takes you back – do you think music’s power to do that is diluted as you get older?

Fin Macrae: Well, that is something we were trying to tap into certainly, that strong response to those albums, that sense of nostalgia. On the topic of nostalgia, we have even sourced a selection of retro food, like Creamola Foam or Creamola Fizz as it’s now known, Black Jacks and Fruit Salads.

Nirvana - Nevermind, Teenage Kicks & Other Works, Screen Print (Image by Fin Macrae)

Alexander Smith: All this talk of nostalgia and the music of your youth, is this DUFI reaching a stage personally when the world is no longer wide open?

Fin Macrae: (Laughs) No; I certainly don’t feel that, I don’t think. I mean, I don’t feel I have to keep looking back to a certain point in my youth and think, they were the golden days, if anything, these are my golden days, this is the best stage of my life right now, so I don’t think it’s a yearning for the past.

Alexander Smith: What about the workshop which forms part of the exhibition, Music: Response For People Aged 18-80?

Al MacInnes: Well, with the exhibition being concerned with response to music and how music has inspired us, the idea of the workshop is really to get members of the public to bring in their own music and open up discussions on the music that was important to them at that stage in their lives, so the retro sweets, etc, really just serve as an aid to stimulate memories and help open up the conversation.

Alexander Smith: Moving on from Teenage Kicks, you recently completed a project transforming Westburn Underpass in Greenock entitled 3573 Oak Leaves. What has been the response to that?

Fin Macrae: The response has been great, really positive. We were fortunate with that job as we didn’t actually apply for it, to be honest. Initially we were asked to come on board as consultants to undertake a feasibility study,  then we were  asked to be design consultants, and from there we ended up getting involved in the fabrication and installation, it really was a great job to be involved in.

Alexander Smith: It appears like a really ambitious undertaking, did it feel like that?

Fin Macrae: I think a couple of years ago it certainly would have, yeah; but I think we have steadily taken on more ambitious work, so it felt pretty manageable at this stage if I’m honest.

3573 Oak Leaves (Image by Fin Macrae)

Al MacInnes: I think the key for us, going right back to our early stencil graffiti work, is that sense of exploration and wanting to keep developing, so whether that is working in new environments, or with unfamiliar materials or techniques, we look at these things as avenues for being creative and a means to keep developing as artists. So, although we haven’t worked with COR-TEN weathering steel before, we conducted a process of research, spoke to the right people and it became another material to be creative with.

Fin Macrae: With that work as well, it serves a purpose, it has a function, and that is true for most of the work we do, we don’t tend to create something for the sake of it, we might do that in the future, but most of the work we have done has tended to serve a purpose, whether that’s way-finding or helping to direct people through spaces. The Greenock piece was really about unifying three spaces and design problem solving.

3573 Oak Leaves (Image by Fin Macrae)

Al MacInnes: Yeah, and the idea was not only to create a solution which was robust and secure, but also to try and generate a sense of local ownership and pride in the space.

Fin Macrae: A real highlight of that project was the opening night, standing there with the Provost, the architect and the client just listening to the public’s comments, they were just so enthusiastic about the space, which was just great.

Alexander Smith: There have also been some changes from a business point of view; you guys have consolidated you individual practises, Moose 77 (Al’s graphic design company) and Fin Macrae Photography under the umbrella, DUFI-ART Ltd. How has that changed things – I presume it’s a far sleeker way to operate?

Fin Macrae: Yes, it’s certainly a far sleeker way of working, that’s for sure.

Al MacInnes: It’s definitely changed the way we work; we had our individual businesses, and DUFI the partnership, so essentially there were three sets of everything.

Alexander Smith: So managing diaries was an issue I guess?

Al MacInnes: Absolutely, it was becoming more and more complicated as DUFI grew. I mean, we were collaborating so much we were losing sight of what was a Fin Macrae job, a Moose 77 job and what was a DUFI job, so there were some real crossover issues.

Fin Macrae: It’s also brought us into the same office space and studio which has really aided creativity. Also, it’s helped from a professional angle, too. I mean, for example, we now have weekly production meetings where we sit down together, examine the job list, and set priorities, things like that have streamlined the way we work.

Alexander Smith: Was DUFI starting to take over?

Fin Macrae: Exactly, DUFI became bigger than our individual practices, and we were taking on bigger and bigger contracts. We both had very successful businesses as individuals, but DUFI was growing and growing,  and the kind of work we were getting as DUFI was becoming more interesting and diverse, basically, exactly what we wanted to be doing, so it just made sense to consolidate.

Alexander Smith: You guys have also added another member to the team, what’s his role?

Al MacInnes: Yeah that’s right, his name is Jonny Sherlock and his official title is Project Manager, we really needed someone to help coordinate work.

Alexander Smith: Does he have any creative input?

Fin Macrae: He does yes, but his job is primarily to manage us, which is working out great, he’s really helping us find the right kind of projects.

Alexander Smith: DUFI are obviously really busy at the moment, and it seems like you guys have made really steady progress over the last nine years or so. Has this progress been aided by the general growth of urban art and graffiti art, highlighted by artists like Banksy, JR, C215 and major companies like Sony, for example, hiring TATS CRU for marketing campaigns? I mean, this is big business?

Fin Macrae: Oh yeah, its very big business and we have watched all that happen over the years we have been working as DUFI, and it’s funny in a way, because when we were getting into Street Art in the beginning, we were really into guys like Banksy, and hardly anyone knew who he was.

Al MacInnes: You could only read about these guys in certain creative journals. Now, if you asked most teenagers, even in the Highlands, they would all know who Banksy is, but we haven’t had Sony in touch yet, however.

Fin Macrae: We have actually Al, I just didn’t tell you. (laughs)

Alexander Smith: As you guys move towards nine years of DUFI, what has been a particular highlight?

Al MacInnes: Well, a real highlight was being part of Rough Cut Nation, a collaborative exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last year, that was great.

Personal Jesus, from the collective exhibition, Rough Cut Nation at the The National Portrait Gallery (Image by Fin Macrae)

Fin Macrae: Yeah, that was a really fantastic experience. On the opening night of that exhibition we also found out we had been awarded a major commission in Derby as well, so that was particularly memorable night.

Al MacInnes: I also withdrew my last tenner from the bank that night as well.

Fin Macrae: What, you’ve never had any money since then, Al?

Al MacInnes: No, I’ve been stretching that tenner out ever since. (laughs)

Fin Macrae: Another key one for us, especially in terms of our development was Imagining The Centre in 2006. This utterly amazing girl called Evi Westmore came over from the US and began to devise an arts strategy for Inverness, and to give you an example of her personality, someone was telling her about the graffiti problem in Inverness, and her response was, great, let’s go and have a look at some, but she couldn’t find any. Just by chance I met her at a function and told her that we were graffiti artists and we ended up getting involved from there. That was an amazing experience, a real learning curve, and perhaps more than any other project, being involved in that really opened things up for us.

Alexander Smith: What about 2011, what’s coming up?

Fin Macrae: Well, we have some individual projects, but as DUFI we will be doing some work in The Victorian Market in Inverness, some installations and some stencil works, so we’re really looking forward to that. We have also been asked to curate a project up in John O’ Groats, we will probably work with three or four other artists on that project, and that environment should be really interesting to work in.

Alexander Smith: What about other artists, who’s getting you excited at the moment?

Al MacInnes: We really love The Small Stakes, an amazing print artist from the US, he’s awesome.

Fin Macrae: There is also a really cool website called OMG Posters which gathers together some great work. Screen printing is really back in fashion, and a recent example which I love is the poster for Aronofsky’s The Black Swan, it’s just beautiful, really simple, powerful imagery, we really like that.

Al MacInnes: And perhaps unsurprisingly we are back to where we started, as we have also been listening to a lot of great music recently which has been inspiring us.

Alexander Smith: Who are you currently listening to?

Fin Macrae: Bands like Yeasayer, Frightened Rabbit, we can’t seem to get away from The New Pornographers, and Al is quite into his bearded singers at the moment.

Al MacInnes: Yeah, especially William Fitzsimmons.

Alexander Smith: That’s a pretty trendy taste in music, guys?

Fin Macrae: Aye, not too bad for a couple of old boys, eh? (laughs)

Teenage Kicks & Other Works is at Timespan until 27 February 2011

© Alexander Smith, 2011

Links

• DUFI-ART
  Timespan