Sam Octigan 'What You Can't Forget'

Just Another Project Space presents 'What You Can’t Forget', an exhibition of painted works on canvas by Melbourne artist Sam Octigan. The exhibition opens tonight and if you live in Melbourne do yourself a big favour and get out to it. Sam is without doubt a favourite of ours at Pilerats. A well rounded creative who over the years of following his progress has never rested and has always pushed the boundaries of his style. Way back in Issue #4 we featured him, his work and had a chat about a bunch of things..

 Briefly explain where your from, what you do and the last thing that you purchased? I’m a visual artist from Melbourne, Australia. The last thing I purchased was a book titled ‘Further’ on the work of Mars-1, Damon Soule and other artists.

 Who or what are your biggest inspirations/ influences? I don’t have one or two main specific sources of influence or inspiration but I’m always attracted to anyone who is able to create their own path, who has a vision for their work and life and are able to make it happen through hard graft. Also artists that work in a range of disciplines, that even late in their career, experiment and push themselves and never lose that creative interest.

  Off the top of your head favourite 5 musical releases ever? Hard to narrow it down to 5 but you’d probably see: Metallica – Master Of Puppets / The Verve – Northern Soul / Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness / Cro Mags – Age Of Quarrel / Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

  In my opinion you are always pushing your aesthetic and developing it, never sitting on the one style. Is this something you are consciously doing or is just a natural progression? It’s a bit of both I guess, I’d say I naturally like to try be constantly trying new things but am also conscious of not letting my work become stale or overly comfortable.

 Do you think it important for artists/ creatives to really push their own boundaries? Absolutely.

 I look forward to the album art on IRON MIND releases just as much as the music itself? How is it designing for you own band and puling inspiration from your own lyrics? Is it more difficult than doing a project you are not personally involved in? It has it’s own challenges for sure. On one hand I’m able to run wild with it, which is great, but when you have no limits or boundaries it can be easy to get carried away. The artwork for Hell Split Wide Open took me a long time to complete and delayed the release… only slightly though, haha. To keep things interesting the art for Iron Mind’s next record will probably be completely different again.

To read and view the full feature/interview check out Pilerats Issue #4 HERE

Samoctigan.com   'What You Can’t Forget' Event   Just Another Project Space