Adrian ‘ADi’ Brierley is an Australian artist primarily working in the mediums of painting, sculpture, street art and design. He first came to our attention thanks to his False Idols series of wooden sculptures – pop culture figures re-imagined as pagan like idols.
(A Ronald McDonald False Idol can be seen above.)
Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, ADi first got involved in art through the burgeoning hip hop and graffiti scenes of Melbourne.
With ADi elaborating,
“From about 11 years of age the Hip Hop scene broke out in a very underground way.
I was brought up in Elwood and there was a hub of really great breakers, writers, DJ’s around the place so I spent these years completely obsessed with this scene. I started breaking but pretty much immediately moved into graf as soon as I saw the Future4 & Magic4 styles around 83-84.
I… became close with one of the main figures in the graf scene Batz, he kind of took me under his wing. We would meet nearly every afternoon and go over outlines, talk graf, go over pics, talk new pieces on the line, prospect trains/yards and just got busy doing heaps of stuff on our line.
It was the insemination of the hip hop culture, a really small tight community of writers across Melbourne… Everyone was just doing their thing, it was exciting, a very crazy time to say the least.“
Wanting to know ADi better, we sent him some questions to answer over email.
You can read our interview with ADi below…
Getting Acquainted
Name + D.O.B?
ADi
1973
City, State and Country you currently call home?
Melbourne, Australia.
City, State and Country you’re from?
As above.
Please describe some memories from key stages of your life: concerts, art, toys, romance, comic books, hunting, school, politics, crime, religion… ANYTHING really!
* Age 5 – beginnings:
Splitting my corduroy pants in Prep when I went to stand up and everyone putting shit on me and laughing, was really bad, probably my first good mocking from society…
* Age 10 – continuations:
From about 11 years of age the Hip Hop scene broke out in a very underground way.
I was brought up in Elwood and there was a hub of really great breakers, writers, DJ’s around the place so I spent these years completely obsessed with this scene. I started breaking but pretty much immediately moved into graf as soon as I saw the Future4 & Magic4 styles around 83-84.
I was living in Elwood which was a hive of this activity and became close with one of the main figures in the graf scene Batz, he kind of took me under his wing. We would meet nearly every afternoon and go over outlines, talk graf, go over pics, talk new pieces on the line, prospect trains/yards and just got busy doing heaps of stuff on our line. It was the insemination of the hip hop culture, a really small tight community of writers across Melbourne.
We would meet at the bench in those days which was Richmond Station on a Wednesday night, different crews and writers would turn up.
Everyone was just doing their thing, it was exciting, a very crazy time to say the least.
* Age 15 – getting serious:
Still caught up entirely in Graf scene.
* Age 20 – young adult:
Stopped writing about this time and begun painting more seriously on canvases with a mashed up style that was heavily graf influenced, very illustrative, colourful and in a way comical.
Also around this time discovered an English artist called Patrick Woodroffe.
His work totally blew my mind and I became quite fascinated with surrealism and the likes.
* Ages 25 to 35– adult mode:
These years I spent working, painting from my studio at home and spending most weekends in the mountains fishing and hiking.
* Age 35 to 45 – meanderings:
Moved into Blender Studios in Melbourne’s CBD and then got much more serious with my practice – this was when I moved to oil painting which proved quite successful with my Symbiosis series of native Australian mammal paintings.
Was a really great time at Blender, a good crew of artists.
Really great times.
* Age 45 – middle age approaches:
Moved into a new studio in Richmond run by GT Sewell and Ben Frost, this was a good change – VS Studios, smaller group of very focused and successful artists.
Also had a gallery where I did my first solo show of False Idols.
Art Questions
When and why did you first start to make art?
Always have from as long as I can remember.
There was not a particular reason for it, it is just what I did.
Please describe the usual process involved with producing your various art
Initial ideas come from a more philosophical sensibility one thing very naturally led into another.
The paintings of native animals led into several years of working in a paste up style that still focused on the Australian extinction crisis, however with a designer aesthetic and often applied to discarded objects. This is where I began experimenting with the idea of totems in 2D formats.
I found something special in this totemic work and pursued 3D sculptural pieces of these. Then tightened up the totems focusing on the brand recognition that is so common in pop culture and that’s when the false idols came into play.
– your sculptures?
Concept, digital design scaled to size/colour ways, experimented with and then into production, hand building/painting the idols and constructing.
– your paintings?
The paintings are from another place, these talk to the destruction of the natural world, focusing mainly on native Australian mammals as this was my field of expertise and I have a deep love for the natural world.
I very rarely paint these any more.
I created a large body of work over a 5+ year period that juxtaposed native animals with product harking on the human element destroying the natural world. I quickly noticed that people seemed to be buying the pieces due more so to the product aspect than the mammal aspect which kind of annoyed me.
I then focused on a series that looked at extinct mammals that were museum specimens, taxidermy which is where I finished up with this body of work.
Favorite other artist(s)?
I actually really love ancient art – Hopi, Egyptian, Peruvian you name it, the older the better.
Got to call out an Australian artist, Nic Ives, I think his work is simply amazing. He has something of his own going on there and is a really interesting dude to talk too.
Any projects you want to hype?
I jhave put together a body of work for this years’ San Diego Comic Con with DKE Toys again representing me currently working on a limited False Idol release with the crew at 1X Run in Detroit.
If people wanted to work with you, have a chat or buy something – how should they get in touch?
www.adiart.com.au or email adi@adiart.com.au
Odds and Ends
Care to explain and elaborate on your interest in the occult and magik?
… and how does the occult influence your personal and artistic life?
I am very intrigued with mythology and the connection indigenous peoples have that we seem to have lost with our disconnection from land.
When I was younger I was quite intrigued with the occult, more so from a research point of view and was not actually practising, however as time went on I personally found that what I was trying to resolve required an understanding of the occult and its many rituals.
If you could live in any place, during any historical era – where and when would that be?
…and why would you choose that time and place?
I would like to have witnessed the meteor impact approx 11-13,000 years ago that wiped out most of the mega fauna around the globe.
Imagine witnessing such absolute annihilation and so unexpectedly, myth is built on these moments in time.
What role did toys play in your childhood(s)?
Lego, Star Wars, Nintendo – loved them!
Drugs – waste of time or gateway to the universe?
Certain drugs are definitely a gateway to the universe, like everything though too much becomes abuse and reliance, this is not good and will create delusions and not grant the best outcome artistically.
That’s what I believe anyway.
Who was your 1st crush and why?
Winona Ryder – always was, always will be.
Does sex change everything?
Yes & No.
What are the top 3 items you own?
Copy Cat.
The arcade game Gauntlet.
In a fight between the two iconic Australian monsters: Humphrey B. Bear (who debuted in 1965 on Children’s TV show The Channel Niners) Vs. Plucka Duck (from Hey Hey It’s Saturday, and debuted in 1990) – who would win and why?
The bear of course!
Please describe your last dream in detail…
My dreams are so ridiculous I could not even begin to describe and make any sense of them.
Of everything you have done what would you most like to be remembered for and why?
I would like my son to remember me and think I was a worthwhile human in his life.
Links
- Adrian ‘ADi’ Brierley – Site
- Adrian ‘ADi’ Brierley – Instagram
- ADi’s Street Art History Photo Archive – Instagram
