Felix Kubin

I'm sure that most people will already know of Felix Kubin, but following the recent intrerview in Wire, I've gone on a bit of a bender over his work, and felt it was worth sharing some of this unique genius. Half dadaistic performance art, half reductionist electro-pop, with a dose of character re-invention thrown in make for a larger-than-life artist who produces an utterly unique mix of videos, music and artwork; Imagine Marilyn Manson if he was raised on a diet of Gagarin, Kraftwerk and Daphne Oram instead of overdosing on sex, guns and Monroe.

Like all dadaistic work, Kubin's scattershot in his targets - some days he's evoking the retrograde technology of the cold war, exploring radio transmissions, dressing like Ernst Stavro Blofeld and giving praise to Gagarin, others he's playing Bowie and writing offbeat pop songs from the mouth of an alien. It's hard to tell if the fully-immersed characters he's created (and given interviews as) are intended a keen statement on the nature of celebrity, a la David Byrne, or simply Kubin childishly indulging his own fantasies. Either way, his art (most of which can be got from Itunes / amazon etc) forms a unique catalogue that I've been enjoying lately. A good starting point is the Matki Wandalki album, which contains this brilliantly bleepy cover of a well known classic.

There's also plenty of his video collaborations on youtube, including this Willie Wonka meets Cecille B. Demille one for Hotel Supernova... Brilliant.