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 THOMAS KUNTZ
and Artomic Design Studio
INTERVIEW BY MAX MICHAELS
A recent admirer of my gallery GROTESQUE played fate with my art and
brought it to the attention of another artist he knew may also
appreciate my style. He suggested I e-mail him and I did just that.
The artist is Thomas Kuntz. Born in 1965 in Phoenix, Arizona, Kuntz is
the youngest of four siblings. His father was a surgeon, and his
mother a folk artist and doll maker. Both gave him a "stimulating
environment" that nurtured his creativity. He is an artist on a
mission, as it is described in his bio: "Fighting to bring ancient
arcana and modern technologies together as weapons for aesthetic
enlightenment."
Thomas has been working constantly as a professional artist since
1986, though I had never heard of him before or seen his art---or so I
had thought. Though his name eluded me, I had indeed seen his
craftsmanship at least once before in the hands of former Skinny Puppy
front man Ogre, onstage at the Marquee here in Jacksonville. The mask
Ogre used at the opening of the show was one of many props Kuntz made
for him, not only for his solo incarnation but also for the stage of
the one-off Skinny Puppy show at DOOMSDAY in Dresden, Germany, 2000. A
well known fan of Skinny Puppy and Ogre's solo work as well as dark
art in general I was immediately intrigued by this artist and creator.
Shortly after we passed a few e-mail's back and forth and Kuntz sent
me samples of his works I was enthralled. Soon after that he sent me a
link to his web site that was finally manifest into reality after what
he described as a painfully prolonged period of time. Multiple
pictorial galleries display the ever growing collection of his clever
Conceptual models, designs, figurines and gear-filled ghoulies. There
is more in the works: most pieces are uploaded as soon as they can get
them shot. At it's most minimal form it is an amazing collection. In
full it is untouchable.
Kuntz is one of the great masters of our day, a designer, sculptor,
mechanician, automatist, animator, modelmaker, painter and
conceptualist all in one. Dada-surrealism, mechanical engineering,
architecture, atom-age kitsch, erotica, exotica, classical
renaissance, horology, anthropology, artificial life/androides and
anatomy all inspire his creations which he says are packaged with a
strong dose of "gallows humor" theatrics, propaganda, and magick. He
works from his studio ARTOMIC which he opened in 1996. His work has
been commissioned for projects in film, t.v., music video, museums,
stage and themed environments as well as creating products for the
model, toy, jewelery and gift industries.
It has been an extraordinary experience speaking with him and
discussing his craft and is an honor to have this interview in our
magazine. The following is an interview with this living legend as we
intrusively probe into his grey matter picking out some pieces for you
to nibble.
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What inspired you to art, and at what age?
I was communicating visually by drawing and
making messes from my earliest recollections. I was painfully shy and
always thought words weren't enough. My mother was a multi media folk
artist and showed me how to use various materials at an abnormally
early age. I still have drawings from age 4-9, mostly monsters and
warplanes.
What sort of schooling for art (if any) have you had?
There were no art classes in my elementary
school so I got in trouble for drawing a lot. Especially during math
the teacher was a tyrant who made examples of failure at the chalk
board, something that scares shy kids and makes them hate numbers. I
just slipped into a shell, drew instead, and nearly failed math.
Was sculpture your first choice?
Drawing was my first choice and still is at the
heart of everything I do. Then I took to painting, sculpting,
textiles, etc., and now I am obsessed with making it all move to tell
a story.
What did your first sculpture look like? Describe it.
My first sculpture was grade 3-4 and it was a
moving monkey in a diorama box. My first commissioned sculpture was a
model prototype of Pinhead from Hellraiser for a company called "Sreamin."
It was very successful at the time though I was a bit shocked to see
how production can change things around.
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Can you elaborate a little on how the production changed things
around?
The figure is molded then cast into a wax model
prior to the production molds.This can result in shrinkage,distortions
or artistic license from the waxing technician.
Are you a fan of all the films you do sculpts for (i.e. Nosferatu, Der
Golem, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) or are those more commisioned
work?
I feel very much at home with the old German
expressionist/Weimar republic era films. To me the Expressionists idea
of capturing "stimmung" (vibrations of the soul) rather than what is
generally accepted as reality is much more on target and runs deep
into the psyche. I chose to do these figures because no one else would
have dared such a gamble at that time. But then as now, I do things I
want to see done, not what I 'm told I should be doing. There were a
few of us at first then a whole industry grew from it until it finally
burst into the action figure market. For me at that time it was kind
of a low cost (no licensing ) D.I.y.DaDa experiment on pop culture. I
mean who would do a Golem figure!? 12 years later I see another
company's Golem in Kaybee toys as an action figure!!!! This happened
to Nosferatu and others as well. by that time I had already moved on
into mechanical animation.
How did you get into the "mechanical marvels" sculptures? Like The
Turk, Death & Resurection Show, The Berlin Couple. Do you only make
one of each?
I have always had a fascination with mechanical
things. I partially blame old WW1-2 movies like "12 o'clock high" and
"Blue Max" to name just a few. As a child I eagerly watched these war
movies and horror films which brings me to the the unforgettable
apparatus in Universal's and Hammer film's Frankenstein pictures.
I grew up a quarter mile in front of Falcon
Field which had a graveyard of old WW2 fighter planes and freshly
restored ones that I crawled all over photographed and played upon.
Disney played a part too. As a kid I flipped after seeing the audio-animatronic
figures and illusions in the Haunted mansion and Pirates of the
Carribean attractions. Little did I know in 1987 fate would have me
meet Verne Preston, a pioneer of mechanical animation and
audio-animatronics. He was in poor health and gave me a book, clipped
together and type-written that never got published called "Industrial
Robots." The title was misleading since it was all about making
humanoid animated figures for entertainment using mechanics,
pneumatics, hydraulics and electronics. I now had the technical
secrets to make the sculptures move. He offered me a job at his
company that made theme park attractions but I had to turn it down for
other pursuits. Since that time I have built a library of rare books
relating to automatons,androides, magical apparatus, artificial life
and robotics along with cross-over occult subjects which tie into the
history of the man-machine.
The animated machines I make are mostly one-offs but some are produced
in small numbers for collectors such as the Turk which is a small
static model. In the dimly lit 'spirit room' library these one-off
figures come to life to greet invited guests. Some are dark and
comical like the Berlin couple featuring a guy turning into a devil
while his date turns to sip a cocktail. The sorcerer is a little
magician with a Napolean complex that threatens guests with his dark
magick, while the death and ressurection show is a quiet and
unsettling take on the humorous victorian automata with Secret society
themes woven in putting it in an intirely different context.
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For the piece The Turk - how many were created in the limited edition
miniature line?
Fewer than 25 Turks will ever be made.
How much would one of those sell for and do you create them on request
or have you already produced them? Do you create each one yourself or
do have an assembly team?
The Turk is expensive,and made to order only.I
have no assembly team maybe one person helping on occasion.
How large are pieces like "The Feldhure." What inspired that sculpt?
The Feldhure is about a foot and a half tall. It
was designed to be made in Bronze but I couldn't resist seeing her in
color. The piece first came to mind to make use of a pelvic guillotine
I designed on paper (originally to be made full-size). Then the book"
House of Dolls" suggested the name. It is partly an excercise in
projection since her face is covered she can either be consenting to
the game or not, depending on the viewer’s own projection. Still the
key to it is the guillotine set to remove anything that passes through
it. Submissive but with a deadly result. |
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Explain the work you have done for Ogre and Skinny Puppy.
I met Ogre in the early 90's we had some shared
interests in film and art. At the beginning of a project he expresses
things in an esoteric way which leaves lots of room for organic
creativity. I did some minor work on Skinny Puppy videos during the
Process and fabbricated a Sadistic Jules Verne-esque torture chair
that was used for publicity shoots. Fittingly the sea took part of it
away during the shoot. I was to do art direction for the process tour
but the band fell apart. Shortly after that Dwayne died.
It seemed it was all over but then Germany requested the band for a
re-union tour in 2000, the Doomsday festival to be held in Dresden.
This time I did get to design set pieces and went along to oversee the
staging. My drawings were sent to German crews for the pieces too big
to transport. I built a full sized expressionistic 'Ogre' automaton
that was pnuematic/computer controlled and had other built in
illusions that unfortunately were spoiled by by too much ambient
light. Still the show was a success and the machine worked well and
had the desired effect. For the first "Ohgr" solo tour I built a hand
held "GlamPope" mask that opened into a devil 's face (made of of
fingers) with glowing eyes.
More recently I was responsible for designing the characters, building
the puppets, set pieces and doing animation for Ohgr's "magic" video
(supposed to appear on the new c.d) It was worked on for nearly a
year by Bill Morrison (director) and Myself between our own
commercial projects and was shot at my studio. From a creative
standpoint it was a very rewarding project with fun people to work
with. |
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What is the future for you and artomix? What are your future
plans/goals?
I plan on learning and creating until i'm unable
to physically do so. In the future, I will put together an exhibit
featuring a gallery of moving figures (haxanthrobotic performers) and
illusions incorporating technology normally used in entertainment to
tell a tale in a "no holds barred" fine art context. I also am in
development with film projects, my own product design and some
commercial work. The future already has its plans made for me! |
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Can you elaborate on the film projects or your product designs? What
sort of products?
I can only say the film project is an animation
feature,As for products, I piles of sketchpads filled with ideas
diagrams and breakdowns.Accoutrements for the parlor or den on the
lower end up to limited pieces of automata and sculpture. |
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Those interested in commissioning work or
purchasing a miniature should visit Thomas' web site:
www.artomic.com
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