Interview with illustrator Eno Swinnen

by Ellen, visuals by Eno Swinnen

Eno Swinnen (25) studied animation film at the KASK in Ghent but his portfolio does not contain any classic animation films. What we see is an eclectic collection of gifs (moving images), videos and illustrations. Eno made this .gif about Selena Gomez' new album:

It's a marvellous example of his very particular work. It isn't easy to describe. There's a lot of analogue drawing and animation, balanced with geometric, obviously photoshopped shapes. Manga meets color field meets classic drawing meets old school Photoshop. You could call Swinnen an illustrator but that would devalue his video work. You could call him a video artist but that would devalue his .gif creations. To simplify matters let’s just call him a net artist because of the major role that Internet plays in his work. Mixing and matching is his thing. 

An interesting contrast

That's why we interviewed Eno last year for the Mix Match chapter of our trend report Bright Undergound (download a free chapter here), wherein he describes his creative proces. 

The flagship of his artistic output is without a doubt his Tumblr account, where he displays new work and makes and maintains contact with other net artists. "In fact I unwittingly ended up in a circle of internet artists."

This is only part of the interview, and though the rest is even more interesting it was way too long for the internet.  If you'd like to read on, send us an email and we'll transfer the whole transcript right away. ​

video animation by Eno Swinnen for Meishi Smile