Daily Maverick (DM): When did you first identify as a creative artist?

Aeiden Swan (AS): I only began to identify as an artist relatively recently. Although I have always been a creative, having worked as a couturier, baker and in various other creative trades, I fought against being an artist for much of my life. And even after I returned to art after a 20-year gap, I referred to myself as a painter rather than an artist for quite a while. I am a very earthy person and I’ve always fought against the pretension and snobbery that come with such titles, but I also struggle with the cynical — often for good reason — attitude that many people have towards artists. It’s only in the past few years that I have become confident enough to introduce myself as an artist.

DM: Outside of your medium, what branch of art most stimulates you?

AS: I work in quite a number of mediums, but outside of ink, which is my primary medium, definitely printmaking and performance. I do a small amount of both and am definitely going to be moving far more heavily into them in the future. I am also so inspired by photography, film and the written word.

Through the Ochred Wilds MED. (Painter: Aeiden Swan)

DM: Which artists in these disciplines have significantly inspired you, and why?

AS: In print, Diane Victor is the master — her subtlety of line is spectacular. Performance art is harder since it is so broad — everything from the band Heilung to burlesque and local performance artists Oupa Sibeko and Nandipha Mntambo… The why is that all of these performers speak to my root. In photography, Ben Skinner — his abstraction of form and conceptualisation of the body and its environment are sublime. In film, I’ll watch anything by Kurosawa and Jodorowsky. Why? They’re astounding!

DM: What, to you, is art’s most important function?

AS: I love the Banksy quote “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. That pretty much sums it up for me.

Empress & Ace of Wands Med res. (Painter: Aeiden Swan)

DM: Local creatives, in any medium, who currently excite you?

AS: Diane Victor, Ben Skinner, Buffy Braveart, Daniel Hugo, and Mr Cat and the Jackal.

DM: What specific work — be it in literature, music or visual art — do you return to again and again, and why?

AS: I do have a “habit” of listening to stuff on repeat endlessly. Each work has a song, and by that I mean that I listen to that song and only that song on repeat until I have completed that work. Sometimes it will be one song or a playlist of three or four songs for a body of work.

I love music with a very heavy slow beat and a drone — Heilung and A Tergo Lupi are my always-on-rotation faves.

Pangolin med. (Painter: Aeiden Swan)

DM: What are your thoughts regarding the current AI revolution?

AS: When I first heard of AI, I thought it could be a very good tool for artists — to help with layout ideas and reference images. However, as it currently stands, AI is morally and ethically bankrupt.

DM: Any current project you’re unveiling or wrapping up?

AS: My current project is the creation of a full tarot deck. Seventy-eight cards is a massive undertaking and I’ve been working on it for nearly three years.

Unlike most tarot decks, it features no human figures, only wildlife. Each card is dreamed, which means that some of the creatures and combinations of creatures are quite surprising until I’ve dug into their subconsciousness. It has an overall theme of symbiosis and finding our place in the natural world. I am so excited to complete it now that I see an end in sight, and it will be published when complete. I am showing cards as I finish them on my social media. DM

Mick Raubenheimer is a freelance arts writer.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.