FFG - INTERVIEW #4 - CUPCO

We had a chance to repsond with the very good and great doll maker CUPCO.
Please Read:



FFG: Einstein, Zombies, Vikings, Frankenstein, Bikers, Native Americans, Gandhi & Chinese Army Men: what do they all do which appeals to you at Cupco? What brings them together? if anything? How do you go about choosing your subject folks?



CC: you forgot suicide bombers and terrorsits and members of hamas and jesus and the devil and fidel castro and osama bin cupco. i usually choose people or subjects that i admire visually and/or politically. there are some subjects that id like to do which just wont work visually within the template that i work with. the basic design i use is pretty constrictive some people or characters are just not doable. there are other people i would never do because i hate them. i dont want to make george bush because he is a cunt and such an easy target and totlly overdone. really ill make any person if they have a distinctive look and i like or admire them.



FFG: Werewolves. Please pass on your thoughts.



CC: of course i love werewolves. who doesnt? i also love penguins. ive never made a werewolf but i have made a wolfman and also a loarge sized limegreen radioactive wolfman. whats the difference between werewolves and wolfmen you ask? wolfmen wear pants.





FFG: When did you make your first stuffed doll? How did it feel holding that first finished doll in your hand? It has been said that with many creative souls, when the first of something artistic is finally done or made that it holds a certain spirit in it. Did you sense anything with your first doll? Where is that doll now?



CC: i made my first doll about 2 and a half years ago and im up to about 150-170 now. ive totally lost count and various dolls have been sold and lost and given away around the world. the first one i made was a little evil cowboy and then i made jesus and the devil. and then i wanted to make more and more some evil ones and some cute ones and some ordinary ones. i realize at that time that if i wanted to make some kind of extreme dolls like suicide bombers and terrorists that it was necessary for me to balance those dolls with more cutesy and mundane dolls. that way it puts all the dolls in a certain context and they are all a big family. also, for that reason i didnt sell any dolls for a long time and hoarded them all together so for my first solo show in australia i could show all the dolls en masse and people could understand the whole dealy a bit better.





FFG: The CupCo Taxi Driver set has to be the best best dolls we have seen in a long while. Any interesting stories on this project/idea? Specific scene in the film which really effected you in a powerful/meaningful way?



CC: ummm. the taxi driver doll kind of looks like me a bit because ive been rocking he travis bickle mohawk for a few years now. also the medallion around the neck of the pimp (sport) is a very special medallionn that i got from the kyoto tower. when i gave it to the doll it was very tough for me! the movie was powerful for me because it was on of the first films id seen when i was a kid that seemed to treat violence in a very real way. i remembered being shocked that there was alot of blood in that movie. once i saw a man being stabbed in the paris underground when i was about 6 years old. that was scary too.



FFG: Tell us more about the world known as CupCo, new projects? next steps? future fun times?



CC: i just finished the CUPCO WORLD SAFARI here in sydney which was a big success. lots of people came and money was made (which is very rare in the world of CUPCO!) so we will be doing another safari next year at the Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern, Sydney. The next project is a show at the Super 7 store in San Francisco which is a city in the United States. That show will possibly be called "the Seven Sins of Cupco"and will start from September 1st. Im currently working on a
series of seven samurai dolls taen form Akira Kurosawa's classic "Seven Samurai". Check out Super 7 here:
http://www.super7store.com/ These dudes will be super detailed with cool swords and whatnot. The first Cupco! vinyl will be out in the near future through RedMagic: http://www.loveoriginal.com/index.jsp


photo by vinylpulse.

FFG: Do you rememeber how old you were when you saw your first real horror movie? How did it change your life, if at all?



CC: I remeber i saw someone get stabbed with a pencil in the achilles tendon in an evil dead movie and i was very scared and i ran and slept in my mums bed.



http://www.cupco.net/
http://www.cupco.net/cupcodolls.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cupco