Brendan Huntley and the art of “making do”
Whether painting, sculpting, or singing in garage-rock band Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Brendan Huntley’s practice has an energetic impulse.
In almost every interview you do, people link your music and art practice. I was thinking how Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and much underground music, is a music of ‘making do’ with what you have. And I thought about how you make marks on your canvases and ceramics with sometimes rudimentary tools—it’s also a sense of ‘making do’. But when that happens for 20 years, does the naivety still stay there, or do you have to cultivate it?
I’ve been thinking about that lately because Eddy Current has been jamming more regularly again— although we kind of go in and out, we still have our sound. Some bands make a conscious effort to change their sound, but because we’ve always kept it so stripped back, the rest is about how strong you can make the music, the lyrics, and the delivery of those elements. That’s on the human. And, like you say, it’s how I make my artwork too; there’s a simple frugalness to it. Not necessarily with the quality of the tools and materials, but more about keeping it stripped back. Using those simple rudimentary tools and materials cuts the fat away. It’s not necessarily cultivating something raw, it just is raw. Keeping things stripped back also leaves plenty of room for accepting accidents—and the ability to see them with clarity. It’s knowing the difference between good accidents and bad accidents, and having the confidence to follow the good ones.
Published on 31 August 2023
Words by Tiarney Miekus
IMAGE:
Photograph by Andrew Curtis