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| Caves is the brainchild of Mahesa Almeida and Niken Dayu, a husband and wife duo whose background include music, visual art, video, and fashion design. They combined their multidisciplinary background into Caves, an amalgam of all the mentioned mediums, creating an act whose character is entirely their own. Heavily influenced by pop-culture, particularly Japanese, their visuals recalls a modern Asian metropolis at night time; dense, full of bright pulsating neon lights, romantically detached. Combining their visuals with electronic music whose sound is minimal, synthetic and undulating, Caves becomes a group whose value lies in the relationship between the different art-forms they practice. W_Music got the chance to interview the couple about their work, influences and future plans.
W: After watching your videos, listening to your music, and observing your artwork (particularly the installation at 7%: Home Exhibition), I must ask, what exactly is Caves? M: It’s a multidisciplinary artist unit, the members are me and Niken. W: What inspires Caves’ work? M: Almost all things we’ve known in life! Internet, junk shops, variety stores, comics, toys, stationary, clothes, food, records, monsters, houses, eateries, machines, Jakarta, Tokyo, Berlin, pop culture, sub cultures, useless things, et cetera et cetera. W: Since Caves is a multi-disciplined group. How did Caves as a unit begin? Was it originally a music, video, or still images project? M: For years both of us have been doing random projects individually. It was around September 2009 when we’re still living in Tokyo, I got an offer to do a live music and visual performance. First I’m not sure I can do both because of not enough time for preparation, and that’s when Niken is “officially” started to collaborate with me, providing visuals for my music. I think that is how Caves were officially born. The live show was a success and we’re addicted to work together again. It never occur to us before that the work can become much easier and the result can go beyond our expectation. W: Very apparent is your repeated use of Japanese pop-culture elements in your visual work. How did this reference become so dominant in your work? N: The way they infiltrate our works is an innate trait. They have visual feast that is highly addictive, bizarre yet attractive, and it’s easy to feel connected because both of us grew up with them. They’re just a part from Caves’ universe, but their influence is big. W: Another very dominant theme in your work are these neon, unnatural multi-colored, often signal-like visual and audio glitches. What made you so fascinated by these modern media phenomenons? N: Their quality of being generative and open-ended is what makes us fascinated. W: Now that you are based in Jakarta, are there any local content that has inspired you or you see incorporated into your work? N: One thing that obvious is the Jakarta’s slum houses. Alpine Meadows Club installation is designed based on some themes combined with hints from Shinro Ohtake’s works. But when we’re setting it up for the first time, it looks like a cheap imitation of his works in a very, very bland manner. Digging more ideas was inevitable. So we decided to take a look around the city to get inspirations straight from Jakarta’s slum houses or rumah bedeng. We don’t try to glamorize poverty, but they have almost the same aesthetic values with our installation. They give inspirations and lessons that can’t be found anywhere else. We were able to reform the installation and satisfied with the result. It still looks like a cheap imitation of Ohtake’s works…but now in much nicer way.
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W: Your music is very raw and minimalistic in its use of electronics; sometimes the samples sound like its stripped down to its fundamental form. What influences Caves musical direction?
M: I think the answer is same with the first question, but this time especially the machines...music machines! Synths, drum machines, sampler, effects processor… I’m attracted to their sounds and what are they capable of. W: For us that are curious about your musical endeavors, where can we sample or purchase your music? Any plans to release an album or single? M: For now people can check our music via our website, and also our soundcloud Yes, we’d like to release an EP someday. W: Now that 2011 is upon us, what should we be expecting from Caves this year? Any future plans/projects you can share with us? N: Hopefully this year we’ll be able to start a regular internet radio program! W: About your involvement in 7%, for us who are not aware of the collective, can you explain to us what 7% is and how this collective came together? M: 7% is an illustrator collective formed in 2009, initiated by our friend Eric Liem. It’s a collective of people who do illustration, professionally or not, so we can collaborate to display or publish our works more publicly, and hopefully in more interesting ways. Initially Eric asked some friends to join in, and they asked another friend who seemed interested to join the group too. W: Last but not least, is there anything else you would like to convey to our readers? Thank you & peace! - interview by: Ken Jenie
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