The ROX-TV “Artist 5” series is back with the exclusive interview with England’s own Omar Majeed
We’d like to welcome the readers back to the “Artist 5” on ROX-TV. Tonight we will be catching up with a good friend of mine from across the pond. None other than Omar Majeed. We are happy that he was able to take time to sit down with the readers at ROX-TV for a few questions. At ROX-TV we dig music and art. The Artist 5 series is aimed at exposing people to new forms of expression, besides an entertaining article to read and enjoy. So whether you like art or have never really pondered it…take the next five and check it out. To me, art, music, expression, individualism, and healthy rebellion all meet somewhere for drinks in the underground. Lets come together, if only for the night. So without further to do, lets get to it….
Omar, it’s always good to hear from you. Like with my music interviews, I am intrigued when the artists first come into contact with their weapon of expression, in your case, amazing art. Can you tell the readers when you first realized that art was going to be something that spoke to you and if there was a specific influence that brought about this path for you?
Hi Mike. Thanks for these considered questions. I will do my best to answer them with reciprocal thought. I suppose the biggest influence was being fortunate enough to have parents who were willing, able, and had the cultural foresight to take me a lot of places when I was younger and see a lot of galleries. My parents are doctors, which I mention to explain I grew up in a household where academic application was highly prized with a view to working in one of the professions. I knew I didn’t want to be a doctor, so chose architecture as a compromise between my duty towards having a “respectable” occupation that also indulged my creative temperament and proclivity for invention.
Thanks to a failed Cambridge interview where I told them “I’d rather be a writer but writers don’t earn anything”, and what was labelled as a cannabis psychosis in 2001 (actually a cocktail of influences including the unfortunate prescription of an anti malarial drug called Larium and an adverse reaction to an antidepressant called Fluoxetine- which led to a gradual but eventually florid break from reality with anxiety and paranoia shifting through sleepless mania to experiences of supposed time travel, shifts in gravity, messages from beyond, paranoia that I was being pursued by an enemy, codes written into everything, and a symbolic religious drama in my parents living room) anyway I tell you this because it directly led to me studying photography instead of architecture on the basis I enjoyed it and was now too burnt out to read academic books.
I treated college like a playground. I had been a depressed and isolated teenager and had finally found a whole gang of outsiders to belong to. Some lovely memories of student house living room guitar strumming sessions, psychedelic kite flying (in suits!) and other whimsical transgressions. I think it was through meeting punk artist and anti-illustrator Russell Taysom that I even heard of zines, though I previously read a small photocopied publication called Backside (about skateboarding in Derby, UK) I also had the pleasure of teaming up with then editor (now theatre director) Anthony Stones ruining the once prestigious school newspaper at Hereford Cathedral School called The Wallpaper by turning it into a Dadaist joke full of shopping lists, photocopied Tazos (a sort of Pog that came free in Walkers crisps in the 90s that we fictitiously interviewed ) short stories about alienation based on the work of Hubert Shelby Jr, and a popular interactive feature that led to the headmaster censoring the proposed front cover called “10 sexiest teachers” – the cover had an MS paint drawing of a ripped beach bod with our chemistry teacher’s spectacled grimacing face pasted on.
I also at school made a lot of experimental music but there was no scene at all just a cool guy we knew as DJ unfriendly who owned the local record shop and spun hip hop in the jailhouse on a Friday. The jailhouse was the only club we wanted to get into which was good because it was the only one that would let us in with IDs made on photoshop and wrapped in sticky backed plastic like on that childhood tv show Blue Peter.
I guess I always made art but never thought of myself as doing anything other than pissing around or “goofing off” as you might call it. I studied graphic design in Kingston upon Thames and it was my housemate and friend Christian Matheron (a curmudgeonly by affable and intelligent chap) who said I was “absolutely an artist; the most an artist out of everyone he knew”.
Previously I had thought of artists as qualified as such by some kind of external validation but I think it’s more of a temperament thing like being a schizophrenic or a homosexual (I joke). Joseph Beuyes famously said everyone is an artist and since Duchamp exhibited his friend’s urinal and Eggleston elevated photographs of brick walls to visual poetry, it seems everything is art as well, which is kind of the same as saying art doesn’t exist, surely. I realize I’ve been writing loads and this is question one but it’s worth mentioning, to go back to sixth form, that I took an art class to learn to draw for architecture school but succeeded only in painting expressionist portraits for needed therapy. I believe that just an artwork having therapeutic value for the artist doesn’t negate its ability to communicate or reflect meaning, quite the opposite often.
I enjoy the arts, and that includes almost all forms. Whether it is music, paintings, literature…..I believe these are the foundation blocks for a healthy soul. Can you tell the readers tonight, what is your preferred method of painting or perhaps a certain “style” that you create in more than others? If one speaks to you more than the others, what is it and why?
I have developed an approach to art that perhaps constitutes a style in relation to the aforementioned playful riot of Dadaism, the expressive verve of Expressionism, the vivid psychic outpouring of German Expressionist painting and Fauvism in France, the whimsical meditations of art informal, the inclusive anarchy of Art Brut and the automatic revelations of the unconscious from surrealism. I call it Anti-perfectionism and it is definitely less than the sum or it’s parts but it is a helpful strategy to use chaos, intuition, improvisation, and I judged belligerent amateurism to basically make whatever art your deeper self wants to make as quickly and expediently as possible without hesitation or censorship. I see my “oeuvre” more as an ongoing sketchbook of an evolving work in progress than a body of work as such. Maybe I should have mentioned this often takes the form of oil painting and there are techniques I use and an increasing degree of refinement but it essentially is a DIY punk attitude of give it your best and it’s good enough. Phil Parker said perfectionism is the best way to take the joy out of anything you do, but I will admit there is a balance to be found.
What is the art scene like at your current location? Please include the city that you represent or identify with and of course, your country, since you are one of our friends from the other side of the globe. I feel that getting ROX-TV readers different perspectives from different parts of the world is vital is forming well rounded opinions or at least a unique sliver of entertainment.
Here in Hereford, England, we have a sleepy community that often feels like it’s stuck in the last millennium. Saying that before the pandemic more indie businesses were booming and I’m part of a studio called Market Arts Collective led by genius painter Philippa Anderson, who paints beautiful half-remembered landscapes in acrylic and achieves a misty precision despite or because of painting without a brush. Also in the studio is Johnny Burrage my buddy and collaborator who has a unique vision and is basically a law unto himself. Lorna Brown is another pal at the studio, an artist working primarily with photography who did a very powerful installation reflecting the male gaze. Too many other great artists to mention. It will be nice when we are able to have a show. I suppose the first will be Hereford Art Week (hArt) in September.
Can you tell the ROX-TV readers about your Zine that you produce? Where can ROX-TV readers get a copy and what kinds of things are included in each edition?
I’ve done loads of zines over the years and a lot of them were one offs. The longest running was Gravity which ran to eight issues over as many years not to mention the pilot issue which was called Gravity Serpent, conceived after my good friend Stu Bryan and I watched the Baader Meinhof Conspiracy and stayed up all night planning some kind of praxis. The connection with Mike came through politeness when Stu thought of using the awesome song title Gravity Serpent as a zine name we asked permission of Medusa Cyclone and ended up getting a creative contribution or two for the zine and other future zines! Good to make connections of fellow creative souls.
What is your personal take on “art” as far as how it has benefited you as a person or shaped who you are today?
I think sometimes art brings things to light that might be buried somewhere in yourself and allows you to work through them. It also provides a more enjoyable identity than “mental patient”. I explored this “identity praxis” on my MA study course at Hereford college of art.
What are some of the more recent projects and pieces you have been creating in your studio? Perhaps the motivations behind these pieces as well?
I consider publishing to be part of my art practice and put a lot of energy into designing the cover of, laying out, and promoting my friend Gareth T Postans first book of stories Dark Tales. He wrote it in a month. We almost sold out from Kickstarter pledges and smashed the target. I’ve still got a few copies in the Desk Publishing shop. Now my wife and I are blessed with a baby daughter I don’t get out to the studio quite as much but still paint at home. I really believe in taking apart your barriers to creating and just getting stuff out there.
How are the art museums in your area? Any that you would recommend? If so, why?
There is an amazing gallery in the county called Canwood Gallery. It’s a way out in the countryside but has Carl Andre’s infamous bricks there as well as a lot of better art by people who aren’t famous. I’ve got no problem with the bricks for the record.
If you had to name a favorite piece of art that really inspires you….what is it? Who made it?
When I saw Rothko’s work in thé Rothko room at Tate Modern it blew my mind with its grandeur and sparse poetry. It was like a religious experience really.
What does the future hold for Omar going forward in 2021 and beyond as far as art is concerned?
We just did an album as Majeed Family Band (Home Recordings) check it out on bandcamp and Spotify. It’s a really experimental record particularly the first track which is a field recording of us talking to our daughter as she bangs the microphone in an exploratory way with her tiny cute hands. Elsewhere on the album we have hidden some tunes that the guy who mastered it complained were firmly lodged in his head! We want to do an album as a family every year. I’d like my sister Nadia to dust off her old flute. We might get a bit fussier with the recording but want to keep the DIY freshness. I’m almost ready to print T-shirt’s with Chris Joyce at Market Arts Studios for Le Shit. I want to keep evolving and I’m not against developing expertise totally. I also am finishing off another book.
Any news or updates you’d like to tease out to the readers tonight on ROX-TV?
Keep and eye on www.deskpublishing.co.uk and leshitskate.co for literary output and wearable art respectively. Also stuff happening at Omarmajeed.co.uk and on social media always. And the record I mentioned earlier is our big news. John Rose just played it on his last Flam and Flange podcast he’s got a solo project called Pink Drone and is in a three piece psyche band called Pablo Alto. We have started sending each other stuff in the post because we miss the olden days! And it’s fun to compile and receive post
Shout outs: This is the place where you do it. Who are you shouting out tonight?
Big shout out to my favourite bass player and wife Bizzy Majeed. You are a fantastic companion, lover, and bandmate. Lots of love to baby Charlotte who is already teaching me things about the keyboard and reluctant lessons about responsibility. Shout out to visionary artist Daryl Waller who put out our record. Maximum respect and hugs to mum and dad. Love and gratitude to the cosmos by whatever name. To Jensen Turbo who is the best sculptor you haven’t heard of yet – further! Regards to Raymond Gordon who’s painting is almost as good as his record collection. Hope I can sit in your patio again soon for a game of chess. I think I’m getting carried away but I don’t want to leave anyone out. Love to all the ancestors Celtic and Arabic. Rock on to neighbor Marc and family. Rock on Seattle. Peace. (Jeez does this guy think he’s won a Grammy or something? Better than that actually! Thanks for the questions hope it was interesting sorry about my verbal diarrhea I’m just gonna take a linguistic Imodium!)
I’d like to thank Omar Majeed for taking time to sit down with ROX-TV, our friend from the other side. I appreciate his art and his contributions to making his world a little brighter through his work. I hope to hear from you soon and please come back and visit us again. To the readers at ROX-TV, have a great night.
