w4: neil, you are a multimedia and performance artist. what is that and what are you doing?
I try to connect different media. I don't want to work only with paper or color, I want to connect media. for example: I make music, performance, paint, use computers, use the intenet. I want to combine all those media to one unit, to one art-unit if you want to say so.

w4: some people surely wonder why you speak german but your name sounds english. where do you come from? and why are you called neil curtis?
I live in vienna and I call myself neil curtis because I think that neil curtis just sounds good!

w4: that's true—sounds good! btw: how can one stand out as an artist in vienna?
I started working on the project "neil curtis" about 4 years ago, but long before I have already made music. and how do you stand out? well, you stand out by telling people about your project, by doing your thing and not hiding yourself with it.

w4: true, and about one of your projects I want to talk now: canvas, a project that's already known even across the borders of austria. I found lots of infos about it on your website. where is your website btw?
the url of my site is www.neilcurtis.com

w4: very good. I heard that your site has already won a few prices, didn't it?
yes, I won two web-prices, one was a competition of the german private tv "pro7", I was voted 3rd best homepage out of about 2000 entries.

w4: sounds like you seem already have some fans, don't you?
yes—fortunately, even fans in rio and australia.

w4: shortly we will talk about the "canvas" project and what's behind it, and to give you a little hint, we tell you that it's about nude people...
yes, but to correct you: it's not only about nude people, it's about nude men...!

w4: ok, what's behind all that—and it's nothing sleazy—you'll hear it after this song...

w4: ok, you are working on a project called "canvas"—what does that mean?
canvas is english and similar to "painting surface". the basic idea was to paint, but as the surface I didn't want to paint on an ordinary canvas, but the human skin.

w4: and you paint on the skin? what do you paint on the skin?
that's an abstract way of painting, it's mostly about colors, but I have to also say that it's only one part to paint on the people, another part is to alter the pictures on the computer and change them, for example the color range. when I do this, completely new colors appear, completely new looks. part 3 is of course the exhibition, the surrounding, and it's an unusual sorrounding where I want to exhibit...

w4: aha. ok, we'll get to that a little bit later. tell us how you paint on the people—you mentioned that they are nude...
yes, they are nude because I think that if I "use" people as some kind of painting-canvas, underpants would be in the way. art needs to be so much freedom that this should be possible.

w4: and where do you take the pictures of your session?
the paintings and the photosession takes place here in my atelier, where I also live.

w4: ok, I am going to "out" myself now, I admit that I have already been painted for a canvas session and have been painted in the nude by neil curtis! you will not exhibit those pictures one day, will you?
of course! if the results were good—why not? I ocassionally do new sessions, and if the results are good, they become part of the project, will one day be used on my website and if possible: they will also be exhibited one day.

w4: you should really see that, here is the url again, it's www.neilcurtis.com. type it in, have a look at it, and then you'll see that it's nothing "dirty" behind it, it's all about the visual effect about it.
I have to admit that at the moment there's not much to find about canvas on the page, but I did this on purpose, because I want to surprise the people even more when they see the real results of the sessions. at the end of the project I hope to be able to produce 32 pictures, huge posters, but I don't want to say too much at this moment, but you can see a few pics on the site already, and the interesting thing about those pictures is, that they have been painted live on tv.

w4: true, you have been on tv and introduced this project at the "kunststücke" where you held one session. and after the break we will talk about your future projects and that's all going to happen after this pause!

w4: but isn't that very time-consuming?
of couse, but it gives me the possibility to release creative energy and therefore it's no problem for me. it's also a good thing to get so much feedback.

w4: how many people see this project?
there are about 16.000 theoretic viewers that could watch it during the night. because every series is on air for 2 weeks, the program could theoretically reach a few thousand viewers for each series..

w4: and what comes after the CANVAS project? how does this continue?
officially I only work on canvas at the moment, but there will be paralell projects, for example a project for which I will paint people in black.

w4: interesting—completely black?
yes, but in this case it's more important to make pictures of skin structures, or shadows.

w4: talking about websites: have you already seen our own website? what do you think about it?
it's wonderfully blue and green!

w4: ok, we'll put a link to your page on our homepage and we'll also put this interview on our page for download as well, to also make a little bit of multimedia. I hope you'll have lots of success with your work and with your projects and whatever you'll do in the future!
thank you!