"Creating a pause for reflection": an interview with Michael Pederson

Before we turn the page on our August issue, we want to celebrate our featured artist, Michael Pederson. Our art director Denise Weber “loves that he's doing street art that would be almost like augmented reality if you encountered it in person.” He recently took some time to talk with us about the dark sense of humor in work and his approach to street art:

1. How did you get started making street art?

I started out primarily as a painter, but the idea of doing something in public space had been somewhere in the back of my mind for a while. Sometime around 2013, I became a little disillusioned with painting and began experimenting with street art as more of a side project. The pieces I started making were small, and I liked that a passerby might discover them out of the corner of an eye. There is an element of surprise in public space that is hard to replicate in a gallery, and I’ve been drawn to making urban interventions ever since.

2. According to your bio, your works incorporate humor, but also "they sometimes hint at the loneliness and anxiety of public spaces." Do you think there is an intersection between humor and loneliness/anxiety? How do humor and this kind of loneliness or anxiety play off each other?

I think there is definitely an intersection between humour and loneliness/ anxiety. In this context, I think laughing is cathartic and laughing at the same thing can mean we’re less alone. Not that I consider any of my work “laugh out loud” funny, but there is an attempt in some of the pieces to foreground otherwise hidden anxieties and at least cause a passerby to smile.

3. Your piece for Split Lip, "Notification," as well as others in your portfolio incorporate familiar images of technology, like the alert box, in surprising ways. Can you talk about your process with these pieces? What draws you to these technology-based forms?

I’m probably drawn to these forms because they are ubiquitous and probably not really thought about. Placing these reimagined “alerts” and “notifications” in unexpected locations is my attempt at creating a pause for reflection.

I often play with public signage in my work. As technology-based forms often contain directives and instructions, it also feels like a natural extension of my signage projects.

4. Creating installations in unexpected locations can lead to unexpected reactions. What's one of the most memorable responses to your work?

I don’t often stick around for long, but there have been many interesting reactions and funny responses to my work. Recently I was installing a miniature piece in a laneway opposite someone’s house. A car pulled into the driveway, and a mother stepped out of the car and came running towards me with her two small children in tow. I thought I was in trouble, but it turns out she was intrigued by the piece and wanted me to chat to them all about it before I disappeared.

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View more of Michael’s work by visiting his Instagram: @miguelmarquezoutside