Having met at art college, collaborative artist duo and power couple Dabs Myla have never been apart for more than a few hours since 2009. Their make their bright, cartoon-like paintings and installations side by side, evolving their joint style into a unique and successful aesthetic which has drawn over 170k followers to their Instagram. Relationship goals, right?
For their latest exhibition, New Cosmic, Myla and Dabs invite you to step into their colourful, utopic world inspired by moments the two have shared travelling together. The interactive installation reflects on two particular experiences when the couple felt truly cosmic, the first at an 18th century sundial, Jantar Mantar, that they visited whilst in India and the second at The Joshua Tree Integration in California’s Mojave desert. On both occasions, Dabs Myla shared the same moving moment of revelation that influenced their direction.
Deciding they have more than enough love and creativity to go around, the two chose to share their magical experience with the world, recreating an environment inspired by these two places in an immersive, three-dimensional wonderland filled with sculptures and custom-made furniture pieces in collaboration with furniture company Modernica. The exhibition is part of Viacom’s Art At Viacom project in which the company choose an Artist-in-Residence to transform their New York office lobby into exhibition and gallery space that in Dabs Myla case invigorated the Times Square space with an electric energy and rainbow spectrum of colour. We had a catch up with Dabs Myla to find out more!
Explain some of the thinking behind the exhibition’s name, New Cosmic?
MYLA: A lot of this new installation is based around two moments in time in two separate places and the connection between the spaces and ourselves as two people creating art as one. One moment in Joshua Tree in California…and one moment from a recent journey through India, specifically one moment in Jaipur at a place called Jantar Mantar. It is a very cosmic place built hundreds of years ago to measure time, space and the celestial altitudes. This influence of India, Jantar Mantar and the Zodiacs really came out visually and also conceptually in this installation so the title New Cosmic restates to this as well as the cosmic connection between the 2 of us.
How does working as a duo enhance your creative thinking?
DABS: Being able to work as a duo is the absolute best. To be able to share the one thing that we each love and work together to create a shared vision is so amazing. And for us I think it really enhances our creative thinking! We feed of each other’s ideas and it’s so great having someone that has such a complete understanding of your vision and can work and help push that concept or idea beyond what you could have alone.
How would you best describe the Dabs Myla world?
DABS: It’s definitely an extension of our personalities and experiences as a married couple working living together. We are so happy in our life everyday and really positive people and that positivity comes or in our work. We hope that stepping into an installation we create is like not only stepping into an immersive experience of the the images we create but also stepping into our state of mind and our love for each other.
What were some of the main themes you wanted to explore in New Cosmic?
MYLA: In our artwork and installations we take a lot of influence from our lives as a collaborating married couple and are documenting our lives together. A common theme in our work is about our shared energy, the experiences we have in our lives, the places we travel to and the people we meet. So when we travelled to India at the beginning of this year we drew a lot from the inspiration we felt at Jantar Mantar in particular and also from a similar cosmic experience we had a year earlier in Joshua Tree in California.
How long did the project take from start to finish?
DABS: It’s hard to measure how much time was spent on the whole project between designing, painting the big installation pieces, paintings, animation pieces and then the smaller details like the hand painted books and records. We probably spent a solid month working on the two paintings we have in the lobby…and another two-three months on the rest of the installation.
What do you think some the main benefits are to bringing creative ideas to corporate spaces like with the Viacom project?
MYLA: The Art at Viacom project is amazing as they invite different artists from different disciplines to recreate the lobby space. Not only does it transform the space into something completely new for the thousands of employees that go through the lobby space everyday but for us we were struck by the massive amount of creative energy created by the employees that we felt from the first time we visited the space. There are so many people creating amazing things within the building and we felt as though we drew inspiration from this energy for our installation.
Art At Viacom Presents: Dabs Myla from Viacom on Vimeo.
The project is open to the public, does having a larger audience for you work interest you?
MYLA: We love working on installations and murals which are viewed by the public. Interacting and talking to people while we are working is something that we don’t experience as much while we are working together in the studio so it’s great to be able to work in public spaces and connect with the viewers.
What is your favourite part of the exhibition?
DABS: For us it really was such a trip to make the animation piece and then to see that on the billboards in Time Square. It’s hard to have a favorite part of a project that is this size…but the animation was something new for us so we had a stronger reaction to it I think.
What would your be your dream space to transform?
MYLA: Most the installations we have made have been inside. We love transforming spaces and creating our own world. When we created the stage set for the MTV movie awards last year we really got to create something on such a large scale that it really felt like stepping into another universe. I think it would be so great to have the time and resources to work with a small town and customize everything. From the outside of the houses to the all the stores, public spaces..everywhere!
Credits
Text Lynette Nylander
Photography Charlie Rubin