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I started out with ink and paper, working as an illustrator, I found the sense of freedom fascinating. Since that time I stumbled upon many artists creating digital illustrations but The Unividuals is one of my favourites. The details in their work left me stunned.

We collaborated on a hibachi grill restaurant piece that also counts as one of my favourite collaborative pieces. I also managed to arrange an exclusive interview with them for the Octulos interviews

Can you tell us more about the history of the Unividuals?

 The Unividuals started out as a series of one page comics that basically served as inner dialogue. About a year after it was suggested that we make a separate project out of it with a separate Instagram account and so The Unividuals was born, the series of drawings didn’t have a name before that.

Then to promote the account we made a sticker to spam the streets with, influenced by the likes of Shepard Fairey and his documentary ‘Obey Giant’. We discovered the sticker scene and that was it, it became a sticker project.

From there it evolved to what it is now, a philosophy that tries to explain itself through stickers, plaster casts, animation, music and soon, storytelling.

Where do you get your inspiration regarding your artwork?

From a lot of places things that are soaked up by the brain. Like: pop culture, culture in general, modern art such as paintings, statues, religious iconography and stories, the ancient civilisations, philosophy, the animal kingdom, nature in general, the human condition, some anime and of course all mixed with the old imagination.

We always try to make things our own, think of some kind of twist so that it’s not just taking someone else’s work.

I have seen more than just digital arts en stickers. I have seen you making and spreading your homemade statues and tiles. What's the story behind this art?

The intention behind the tiles and the 3D pieces in general is to tell more of a story in the outside world.

We’ve always been fascinated by ancient temples and their respective art styles but even beyond that how they stood the test of time for so long. How these civilisations created things that we have destroyed in order to create this society and that we now revere.

We wanted to create a similar idea, to give more meaning, weight and depth to the project by striving to create an experience in the real world that would give people a sense of mystery. Perhaps get people to, for a moment, forget the absolute cultural bankruptcy of our modern western lifestyle, the lack of wonder and adventure that is served to us in films, and other popular pop culture mediums. We, as a society, are thirsting for that depth and an escape from monotony.

We are definitely not saying that those statues and tiles are the antidote for it, but if it could do that for someone for even a few seconds, then it has served its purpose.

What tools do you use to make these homemade statues and tiles ?

The first step is making the piece out of polymer clay, all of the latest moulds you’ve seen were all taken from a polymer clay model, it’s great because it’s reusable, so you never have to go out and buy new unless you want to go bigger ofcourse.

Next is using a container of the right size to pour some rubber on top and give that time to cure and that’s basically it for the creation process. After that you can use them with all kinds of stuff but we usually use just basic plaster.

What can we expect from you in the future regarding your art and collaborations with other artists ?

We’ve been working on getting original stories out for a while now and it’s a slow process.

There’s been a script for a comic in the works for what seems like forever. Ever since we released the comic with Nicholas of the stars, we wanted to create one that was completely ours, so that’s to come at some point.

We are also working on a collaborative project, right now there are 7 artists working on it. It will be a story that will be brought to you in audio form. There are many moving parts to it so it’s unclear when we are going to release it. Even working on it has been a great learning process though.

In the meantime our door is always open for collaborations. Usually we find a concept and try to tie it to something. We do need to kinda feel a connection to the project we’re working with, if not that lack of spirit will translate into the eventual piece.

Having said that, collaborations are one of the great things to do in this community so we’ll definitely continue doing that in whatever way we can.

What do you like most about what you do?

The best thing about it is that it keeps you growing in what you do. The concept you’re working with expands, your understanding of it changes, obviously your skills improve over time even though you often don’t really notice it all that much as you’re going along.

If you keep working at a single project it becomes a part of you and to see it get a sort of reputation out there is a lot of fun too.

But yeah at the end of the day, the journey of self-understanding and self-improvement is what’s best about it. Using something you’ve come up with to better to see what you’re made of will always be the best way to travel

Does your art have a deeper meaning to you ?

To say yes to that question may suggest that it has meaning for us beyond just the fun of it or beyond the face value and in that case it certainly has but creating things, thinking of concepts, you know creative practices, come as naturally as breathing and feel just as necessary to do.

So even if there wasn’t a deeper meaning, we would be right here doing it.

Like stated before it’s a journey of self-discovery and to do that with a single set of visual markers challenges you to get the absolute most out of them.

You constantly think of ways to renew the way you see them and try to broaden your understanding of your past self. Why a zigzag, why the symbol etc. We sometimes use books like dictionaries of symbols and other volumes dedicated to the meaning people attach to certain symbols, animals, colours and so on.

From there you try to see what you’re doing in a larger narrative.

We are built up of small stories because the world is built up of stories and together it tells the tale of us and It is together that it has the most value, because only then can the full picture be seen.

This project is nothing more and nothing less than just another story trying to add a perspective that hopefully will prove to be useful to someone, even if it will turn out to only be useful for ourselves.

Got anything more you want to say?

Thank you for the questions, they forced us to think a little more about what we’re doing and why. It will probably continue to change but it's great to have the opportunity to write it down somewhere.