Davey Hooligan

Always looking for cool new artwork to feature here at Voltcase, we stumbled across Davey Hooligan and his stained glass skulls on the big ol' 'tinternet a few months back.

As you can imagine, stained glass mosaic artwork isn't something that we're used to covering here at Voltcase - as highlighted by the fact that we still didn't know what we were on about when we wrote the interview! Anyway, to check out more of Davey's amazing crazy skulls & crucified dogs (!) track him down here!

VOLTCASE DAVEY HOOLIGAN INTERVIEW:

Hello there, and a big welcome to the almighty Voltcase! How are things?
Well… Hello almighty Voltcase! Thanks for having me… things are, eh… things are well…

How would you describe yourself to a stranger in just three words:
Cuts.. on.. fingers.

We think your stained glass / mosaic stuff kicks ass, where did the initial idea come from??
And i think that you kick ass for thinking so!

In 2004, a hurricane hit the city that i was living in. The storm, which was… about a category 4, demolished a lot of buildings in the downtown area. A few of those demolished buildings where churches… I didn’t know what to do with all the stained glass that I salvaged off the sidewalks but I took buckets and arm-full's of it to the apartment I was living in, and … didn’t know what to do other than glue some glass to the bedroom window… eventually, this art form came out of it. I love the medium. I’ve always been about ‘transparency’… windows at night, lit up vending machines, sheer curtains, store signs, just anything that has something to do with light shining through something _ even, the way that the sun shines through the little plastic dots on a 7up bottle… I’m really into transparency…

So, do you do any normal artwork as well or is that just too boring?
Normal art work like… butterflies and things?

Well yeah, I’m not opposed a particular subject matter (well some... but not many)

I’ll try and make anything using glass… just for practice… just to do… but, I don’t make ‘normal’ art in order to sell it in ‘normal’ galleries… cause you’re right, I’d just be bored... probably fuck it up pretty bad actually, hiding dicks and pentagrams that weren’t hidden that well … so… no, i can't see myself being a successful stained glass lighthouse maker...

There seems to be quite a rock n roll and horror type themes running through your work, are they your main influences? Or is it just a matter of whatever pops into your head?
Ah yeah, the horror in my head pops out. you got that right.

Pretty sure that my art reflects the comics, album/flier art, skateboard graphics and tattoo flash that I’ve always thought looks so bad ass/learned to draw by looking at… And y’know… I like the horror themes and the ‘rock’ stuff in a medium that is commonly reserved for dead jesus’s and saints…

Are there any hidden or subliminal messages within the artwork, or is it purely 'what you see is what you get'? Or, to put it another way, are you expressing any of your own personal opinions in your work that might not be obvious at first glance?
I’m opinionated about everything… so, all my ideas, even what I eat for lunch, gets filtered through my special brand of rabid idealism… but, I don’t know which opinions are expressed with intent, and which opinions seep out with creation. I feel that, generally, the artist/observer relationship is flawed at it’s inception … I can’t create art from anywhere other than my perspective, and, likewise, I cannot present art beyond the perspective of the observer.

We consider ourselves to be quite 'alternative', but drawing skulls onto stained glass is one of the most alternative things we've stumbled upon in a while - do you have any trouble explaining to people what you do, and is there a huge demand for it?
Thanks! ha ha, well, I guess I’ve had trouble explaining to ‘you’ what I do… they aren’t drawn onto stained glass.. they are made from stained glass… I cut and grind pieces of stained glass and mount them onto other glass, and then I grout it… say, like, you would a tile bathroom. The finished products are these rather solid mosaics… a few of them 6 ft by 4ft standing on their own, and I do have a hard time explaining what I do… if I say ‘stained glass’, people get in mind the fragile leaded windows. If I say ‘stained glass mosaics’ there is a particular blank expression that I get back… if I’m in a position where I can’t just show my art… I’ll just say something like ‘I salvage windows out of dumpster's and mount stained glass to them’ …. actually_ I’m not even sure that people understand what they are looking at when they are seeing my work in a gallery - there is a kind of ‘what is it made out of?’ dialog that happens from time-to-time… I’ve been very fortunate for the opportunity that my art has provided me to get out and meet a lot of interesting people who think that I’m making interesting art… I’m having more success at this than I could have ever imagined… everything is really going incredible…

Loud punk rock n roll plays a big part in our lives here at Voltcase towers, does music influence you at all? Any artists in particular that you fancy namedropping?
Ha yeah, at a loss for a stereo system, i rigged up these two crate amps in my shop - hung em’ on the wall, they look good up there and are LOUD. When I’m working i have to blast away all the other thoughts that aren’t 'art' thoughts. lately, the music rotation in the glass shop has been… uhm… lots of ‘cattle decapitation, and ‘deviated instinct, and oh yeah, I’ve been on a Flux of Pink Indians kick past few weeks… (this is the shortest version of the answer)

Why should the the lazy general public make the effort to check you out, and what are your plans for the future?
Because every computer monitor benefits immensely from a stained glass ‘crucified boston terrier’ desktop background…

At the moment, I’m having a blast getting my art into tattoo studios, and bars, and galleries… and just wherever it’ll go. The future is going to have a lot more of that kind of ‘having a blast’ in it…… and some day, I’d like to do a massive plate-glass window… 10ft square or something just ‘stupid big’ like that.

And finally..... what does the word 'Voltcase' mean to you?
Wait. a voltcase isn’t a box where electricity is kept?