This guy managed to hit Snoop Dogg with the Mandella effect, his scissors are just that sharp. The elusive VEMIX carves up old photos and places artists juxtaposed in a happenstance that never happed in the first place. A bizarre ruse for the internet savvy but he pulls it off more often than you might imagine. Artloft got a chance to fire some questions at the hoaxster and here is what he had to say.
ARTLOFT: Vemix, you cornered a niche style here. The cropping together of adored public figures who either never met or in some cases weren’t even alive or popular at the same time. Why is this a passion of yours?
VEMIX: I really don’t know, man. It’s just something I started doing and never stopped. I tried to stop a couple times, but as soon as I get the clicks from the pics, its on like cocktail sauce on a prawn. It’s more of a burden sometimes, when they line up and I can’t find the time to mash them. It’s relief after I have brought them into existence and I can move on to something else.
ARTLOFT: Are the artists you pick personal favourites or is it more about the juxtaposition? As in unlikely bedfellows. Or yet still are they people whom you think might have got on swimmingly despite their different styles?
VEMIX: It’s a little bit of everything, with a lotta bit of Kurt and Pac lol. One, because they are my favourite musicians and two, there is just so much material to work with. I draw a lot of my inspiration from peanut butter and jam samiches. Sometimes those unlikely combos just slap. There definitely appears to be a heaping helping of juxtaposition up front, but if you look just past it, you’ll see the common ground. They’re all just people. Regular ol humans with the same basic wants and needs, with more similarities than differences. The opposite of juxtaposition I guess. Whatever the word for that is.
ARTLOFT: Tell me a little bit about your process. I see from one of your videos that you don’t appear to be using photoshop or some digital program but rather an exacto knife and ruler. Respect Vemix, respect. Why do it this way? Is it out of love for the process or do you find it ultimately gives it a more realistic finish?
VEMIX: I do both. Originally it was all made on a computer. I still really have no idea how to use the ancient program I use besides the basic eraser, copy and paste and layers. I feel real fancy when I’m adjusting contrast and brightness or saturation on there lol after a while I guess I felt a bit of imposter syndrome and challenged myself to do more and create something tangible. So I started chopping shit up. Some pieces require too much tweaking to work out in analog and have to be digital, but a lot of them naturally fit together so it’s just a matter of printing them out the right size and slapping them together.
ARTLOFT: What is the hardest part of the process? Is it finding the photos with a workable background or getting the additional profile to look organic? Or something else even?
VEIMX: If it’s hard to do I ain’t doing it! Lol it’s really quite easy. They tend to make themselves. I guess overtime my mind has trained itself to store a ridiculous amount of pictures in there somewhere and just instantly know what fits with what when I see it. Which is strange because I can’t remember what I did today or a number over 3 digits without reading it number by number lol. I never sit down and intend to create something. I’m sitting down to try and get it out of my head because it’s already done in there.
ARTLOFT: Just how long have you been doing this for and how did it all start?
VEMIX: Sometime in 201? I quit drinking and was just looking for stuff to do and found myself at the computer one day plopping my face in old band photos. I did a lot of swapping my face for DJ Yellas in old NWA photos and I would post them on my Facebook for my friends and family to get a laugh out of, then I felt like I was imposing so I took it over to IG went incognito, whipped up a little name and logo and been fucking up history ever since.
ARTLOFT: Who would be some of your biggest artistic influences visually or otherwise?
VEMIX: I don’t really have any. I made a conscious decision to not follow any sort of remotely similar artists or many artists at all for the first few years in fear of subconsciously bitting someone’s style or ideas. I didn’t want any flavours in my work but my own and that was a good choice because you can’t compare me to anyone. I stand alone. I honestly didn’t even know who Banksy was until someone jokingly asked me if I was him in an interview and I googled him afterwards lol.
ARTLOFT: I see you’ve been having some legal troubles with the cyberpolice down at Instagram. Just what is it that seems to be their main issue with what you’re doing. Is it misinformation or something more along the lines of a copyright issue?
VEMIX: No legal issues, just ridiculous and unnecessary restrictions and impeding my growth. I have unfortunately been caught up in the innanets fight against misinformation. I have had many pieces go viral and make it to the stage of needing to be clarified by a major news sources which in turn gets added into some sort of A.I skynet scanner that searches social media for these images and flags them for misinformation and triggers a strike against the account that posted it. And I have had a lot of these which led to my reach being restricted down to double digits for many months at a time and my name being removed from search engines. They actually created an “Are you sure you want to follow this account?” pop up window that you had to click before you could follow me if you somehow were able to reach my account. The crazy thing about it is that in every one of the fact check warning disclaimers added to my work was a link to articles where I am clearly listed as the artist who created the images. And of course Meta is a sealed up echo chamber unwilling to correct their mistake. Anywho that’s enough of that, gets me a little worked up lol.
ARTLOFT: I love a good ruse, what’s the farthest one of your photos has gotten in terms of being believed or taken as a historical document and what is the worst trouble you’d say you’ve gotten over one of these?
VEMIX: Oh man there’s been a lot. It would have to be Snoop thinking he actually smoked a doob with Kurt. He went as far as adding a backstory to the image in interviews. He still claims that it’s real lol. One of the best parts about being anonymous is control. I don’t get in trouble. Many people have tried to get at me over the years, but they’re swinging at the air. You wouldn’t believe the amount of death threats I received the first few years.
ARTLOFT: When these publications latch onto your work and splash a story out of it, how do they find out they’ve been had? Do you ever contact them or do you just leave it to somebody else?
VEMIX: I used to frantically be heard by anyone that would listen, but over time I learned how to just let it run its course. The longer it goes unchecked the farther it goes and the probability of wackiness is multiplied lol. Also, I’m well known enough by now that most people know which direction to look for their answers.
ARTLOFT: What are your thoughts on censorship in general, artistic or otherwise?
VEMIX: It just straight up doesn’t belong in any form of artistic expression. As long as it’s within the lines of the law*.
ARTLOFT: What’s next for Vemix? Do you plan to work primarily with photography or are you interested in venturing out into other mediums in the future?
VEMIX: I work in all different types of mediums with their own aliases and styles. I like to keep them all separate so it doesn’t get confusing and they hit the right audience. I am new to painting. I’ve done a few paintings so far and really enjoyed it. I already have a few more in my head, waiting to get out, in between the mental VEMIX rolodex. Wow, I really started every sentence back there with “I” like a 3rd grader lol Anywho, I’ll see you around them innanet skreets.
