The Absolut Art of Togetherness

Like many artists, Austrian-born Ju Schnee started exploring digital art and NFTs – which stands for non-fungible tokens and are an emerging currency transaction in the art world – during the pandemic. Now the multidisciplinary illustrator and visual artist, who’s based in Berlin, is one of four emerging digital artists featured in The Absolut Art of Togetherness collaboration, which showcases their work on the theme of togetherness (originals will be featured as NFTs on foundation.app). SLEEK spoke to Schnee about her inspirations, the challenges of adapting to a digital platform and why squiggles are so prominent in her work.

SLEEK: Your works are made of tubes, colours, futuristic and abstract forms. What inspired them?

Ju Schnee: The form came naturally a few years ago. It’s actually inspired by the very simple stroke you draw on the side when you’re not thinking, when you’re talking on the phone, for example. That’s when I noticed that I was always drawing such little squiggles on the side, and in fact, I found the same squiggles in my school books from back then. That was the moment when I thought, these shapes come so purely and naturally – and even though they are so banal and simple, I want to make them my main character. Since then, I’ve been using them to tell my stories, no longer gently and incidentally but big and loud.

S: How do you draw the shapes and choose the colours? What guides the aesthetics of your work?

JS: The shapes are always inspired by my natural momentum. I always draw them rough and mostly analogue before they are digitised. Then I play with the dimensions and the textures. I usually make the colour selection intuitively. It should convey the story of the image and strengthen the effect of the message.

S: After painting murals in several cities, you seem to be focusing more on digital art. Do you think this opens new opportunities for artists in general and for you in particular?

JS: Yes, I think it opens new worlds, and yet I still find the analogue component exciting and wouldn’t want to limit myself to one medium. Through the pandemic, many of my mural jobs have been postponed or cancelled. During that time, I focused more on digital art and explored NFTs for the first time. Nonetheless, I can’t quite do without the analogue world either. Personally, I’m linking my oil paintings to AR [augmented reality] – so I have both the analogue component of the painting and the digital art.

S: Are there any new techniques, ideas or ways of expressing yourself that you are currently exploring?

JS: I’m in the process of taking my sculptures to a new level. I’m playing with sizes and new materials, both in the physical world and in the virtual world.

S: You’ve said publicly that after having worked commercially for the past few years, you would like to immerse yourself more in the field of art. What does this mean for you? What will it change in your artistic process?

JS: Above all, I want to be able to work more freely – as freely as possible. I can only do that if I can decide all by myself what my work looks like. With brand collaborations, that’s often not so easy. But I’m not a fan of classic black-and-white thinking. There are so many paths in between. You can also work commercially and still be free. You can do collaborations, and the end result is still art. My biggest wish for the future: to be able to create my art independently and freely.

Visit Absolut for the complete virtual gallery.