New Population

March 18, 2019

In this modern age where everything risks exposure at the hands of social media, the pressures of expectation can be crushing, and excitement for the unknowns in our life has all but dissipated—we can’t seem to shake the urge to label, to put things in a box, if not for our own sanity, then to protect ourselves from the hypocritical BLANK of society. Nosslo-Grebnellaw Aniluap is flipping this script and fully embracing ambiguity, oddity and a lack of definition. For this artist, it is this very fear of the unknown that generates the thrill of her work.

Using her electronic music and performance art project, Grebnellaw, to create a movement of a 'New Population' of imaginary beings, the Swedish visual artist, performer, and singer/songwriter has created her own fantastical world.

Interview by Simone Nystrup-Larsen
Photos by Johnny Kangasniemi
Makeup by Alice Lönnblad

In inflatable red and white costumes, these surrealist characters are slowly taking over the underground scene in Stockholm with a project that merges different disciplines to create something we've never seen or heard of.

With the slogan, "Not Art Not Music Not Fashion Not Performance," it can be hard to define exactly what Grebnellaw is. But office sat down with the brains behind the operation to learn more.

Tell me a little about yourself—how did you become a performance artist?

I think by accident. I started out making music because it was always easy to find dancers but there was always problems finding musicians who wanted to play. Then it gets a little bit more complicated than that because I’m also a visual artist and I wanted to create. So, basically what I did was that I planted the ‘New Population’. Grebnellaw for me is a population and it’s a performance art project. Really, I play God and I create these beings—I just want to have millions of them everywhere. We are very far from that right now, but maybe the technology will help us somehow in the future.

Is that the concept behind your creation of the ‘New Population?'

Yes exactly, those were the first ones that I did. Now I make the Grebnellaw characters red and white but basically it was just because I was a little bit lost in my own creation. Everything was all over the place and I needed to have something that brought everything together. So, I was noticing that a lot of things were actually red and white and I needed something—You know when you go into a place and there are just so many choices and it’s just overwhelming—I just wanted to reduce the options and make it more easy. I stock to red and white and I’m coherent with that because everything else is not. The people who perform with me can do whatever they want on stage, I don’t care as long as they wear red and white.

So, you don’t prepare a specific dance for each performance?

They have their own practise. The Grebnellaw’s can be dancers or performance artists but they have their own practice. I try to give them a space where—I mean this is so cliche because no one is really free—but I think I give them the freedom to do whatever they want. If freedom is possible.

Do you always perform together as a group?

Yes, but it’s always different people. There are people who have performed with me for quite some time now, but the way it all happened was actually a self creation, I didn't create it myself. I just did it towards some people and then they came to me and said that they wanted to be a part of it the next time. Then the whole thing continued growing and more creative people with different skill sets joined. Then I started to make more costumes because that was the way to become a part for it.

What goes into the process of creating your costumes?

I’m just really obsessed with inflatable things and I really like the feeling of being big and powerful and take a lot of space. I imagine preparing to be in outer space or even in subatomic space inside atoms with a soft armor around you that makes it possible to float on water. Sometimes, I also perform almost naked. I’m either half naked or I’m just completely inflated—not so much in between.

So, you dress after how you feel that particular day?

It’s just a feeling you have. Today I want to be naked or I want to be inflated. I think the official costume is almost like a uniform. So, in the performance somebody always has to wear the inflated costume or else it’s not a proper performance.

What are you trying to express through your art?

It’s almost like a fertility ritual. I have a narrative about us coming from subatomic space and a seed. But the seed is also a subatomic particle and it’s also sperm because all of those three things are kind of linked. So really, what I do is that I just want to give birth to my population like in a fertility ritual where you dance to have a nice offspring. You dance and the seed sprout and gives birth to new plants and forms and beings.

So, that’s how you would define what you do, if it’s possible to define?

I think so yes. It’s a fertility ritual so that the cosmic seed will sprout and give birth to new things. But it’s also linked to nanotechnology. You know, in supertonic particles in nanotechnology there’s a lot of hope for mankind. Because when we build with these elements, we can create new materials. Even potentially have air filters that can soak up smoke or pollution. I’m not saying this is now but I think it’s a world that is unexplored. I think that there could be solutions to our problems.

Would you say that your work addresses contemporary issues in society—if so, what’s the message you are trying to send?

I don’t think that is actually that. I think it’s about something else, but I’m not really sure—maybe I should go to therapy. No, I think if I knew what it was maybe I wouldn't be doing it. Maybe I’m doing it to find out exactly why. It’s not something I can really say. It’s like when I was a child I didn’t have one imaginary friend, I wanted to have many, not just one but 100.000 of them. But it’s a little bit like imaginary friends. It has been with me always.

Where do you usually perform?

I would say it’s quite underground. When you think about Stockholm, you think of a clean and minimalistic city where everybody is well behaved—that’s a little bit true. I haven’t been traveling for a year but usually I’m travelling a lot and I have been in Asia. Outside of Sweden I kind of feel a little bit more home. At the same time it’s a crazy thought, I live here so I should be able to do something. But here in Stockholm I mostly stay underground but I also perform at bigger things such as galleries and museums. I like another type of feeling from my performance, so at our performances we always come out as a surprise. Sometimes it says my name but we always appear out of nowhere. I don’t like too much to be on stage, I like to be straight on the floor.

I guess it also the thrill of the unexpected.

Yes I think so. I wouldn't think it was fun if someone had to introduce us. I like to just come out do my thing and sort of leave. When we perform in clubs you can really get the feeling that you are immersed with your audience in a way that you can’t have in a theater—there’s no expectations.

How does performance art connect with your personality?

I think, for me it’s a lot of organization really. Which I don’t know if i’m actually so good at. I love to be around people and I love to collaborate. I think collaboration is probably one of the best inventions. It’s always fun.

What’s your source of inspiration?

I have so many. I’m inspired by science, my friends and virtual.

Who’s the first person that comes to mind?

Oskar Schlemmer! He was a costume designer from Bauhaus and he made an oprah called the Triadic Ballet in 1922 with very amazing costumes. He was also a big inspiration on Leigh Bowery who was a big inspiration to the Tranimal drag movement. I’m also a big part of the drag scene here in Stockholm. We don’t have a big drag world, but together with two others I organized the International Drag Festival called STOCKWIG which was initiated by DJ, George Chamoun. We filled up a very big venue which was amazing, I couldn’t believe that it could happen in Stockholm. There was so many people who came from all over the place because we had the euro pride here. We also did a big new year’s eve party and we will do a big festival this summer, as well.

Can you walk me through your creative process combining the elements of art, pop music and performative elements. How does it come together?

I’m going to do a performance soon where we are going to be nine people in a space in the meatpacking district at a venue that kind of looks like a church. To this, I have a violinist, and I have four people who we are making into otherworldly type of Grebnellaws—and then we are going to do it all live. So, the dressing is not going to happen before, it’s going to happen during the performance where they will create each other directly on the floor. We are going to build each other. I always sing at the performances. I produce the music. I write all songs, but I never release the material. I have written so many songs, but I work in a more site specific way so I change the songs all the time. Like gabber music which goes from 300 bpm and up—so it goes so fast that I can barely sing it. But it makes it very crazy.

It’s not like that all the time, but with this performance I took a song that was slow and made it very fast. So, I change my songs all the time which I also do with everything else. There is never a point where I go like ‘ok now I am going to sit down and make an EP’— I’m always performing live. That’s what I like to do. So I have a lot of songs, but you actually have to come to the performance to hear it, because you can’t hear it anywhere else. Everything is unique. It’s always one time and it will never be repeated the same way. You can’t say if it’s good or bad. Sometimes it’s good sometimes it’s bad, it depends who is on stage and how everything came together at that time. You don’t know exactly what's going to happen.

Follow @officebeautynyc for more interviews with our favorite artists, Instagram beauty gurus, club kids and inside info from our office Beauty Committee.

Models (aka Grebnellaws): Nosslo-Grebnellaw Aniluap, Butcher Queen, Karolin Nyman, Elsa Binder & Adele Marcia Kosman.

Beauty

Kindred Black: Love for Our Mother

Throwing factory-produced recipes and excessive packaging to the wayside, the ethical beauty and scent brand collaborates with herbalists, farmers, and expert perfumers to create sustainable perfumes and cosmetics — while also marrying the worlds of art and beauty through their one-of-a-kind hand-blown glass vessels. Because beauty is truly an art, and we should decorate ourselves as worthy canvasses. office sat down with Kindred Black’s co-founders to discuss their unique process below.

What originally spurred you both to introduce a disruptive, apothecary-esque brand to the beauty scene?

Alice— I think it’s kind of age-old: I had this need in my own life and couldn’t figure out a way to fill that need in a way that aligned with my values. We’re both makeup and skincare lovers but with packaging being what it is, there was so much we didn’t feel right buying. We wanted an alternative where as much thought is put into the packaging as it is in the ingredients, where every single element of the line is considered.

Jen— We always said we’re not going to be the “please recycle this plastic bag” type of company — that’s such BS! Companies need to invest in alternatives so the public isn’t left guessing how to make their products more environmentally friendly. We spend a lot more money than we would have to if we just mass-produced bottles overseas and bottled up some pretty skincare. But we’re super anti-greenwashing — we want our behind-the-scenes to be 100% true to the ethics and values that we put out there to our community.

Your packaging — artisan-crafted glass bottles — really takes thoughtful production and consumption to the next level.

Alice— When we initially set out to design the collection, we envisioned a vanity with beautiful vessels, no branding, just pure oils and scents in colorful shapes and silhouettes. Life is already so cluttered; we think of the beauty routine as a quiet time, a private, sacred space. The entire line is plastic-free and every single item in the collection comes in an individually handblown glass vessel. Behind each bottle is an artist blowing out the glass, one by one. They’re not producing mass quantities; everything is designed to be treasured.

Tell me about the Kindred Black community. Not only do you work closely and travel to meet farmers and herbalists, but you also partner with artists and artisans for your one-of-a-kind glass bottles. What does this community mean to you?

Jen— They’re everything for us and we couldn’t have such a special line without them. We’ve met such extraordinary people doing this — a chemist turned perfumer who only creates using ancient methods of extraction with the flowers and plants that she grows. An herbalist that specializes in Sonoran Desert flora. Glass blowers from all over the country who show their work in museums and create our bottles one by one like unique sculptures. Even a collective in Mexico that creates bottles using glass from residents and restaurants because there is no municipal recycling. They all have different specialties, but our community shares a set of values when it comes to our planet.

You also mentioned that the brand is historically rooted. How does the past inform every scent, cosmetic, or rich skin serum?

Alice— We’re both hugely into history and just curious people. When you start to look into it, some botanicals have been used for thousands of years to heal and scent the skin and as primitive cosmetics and ‘medicine,’ dating back to the earliest civilizations. People have always used what’s around them for beauty. Our formulas all start with who used this plant, what for, and whether or not there is a good reason to still use it on the skin. For example, our Aker Fassi lip and cheek pigment is a recipe that makes use of a dried poppy flower that North African Berber women have used as makeup for centuries. It’s a beautiful, flattering shade of berry red and we were just so taken by its place in history.

What is your favorite scent you have created to date?

Jen— This is hard — I love Earthly because it’s just so different from anything I’ve ever smelled. It’s like grassy damp moss and violet leaves but also has a lot of lilac enfleurage in it. Not many people use real lilac because it’s incredibly difficult and time-consuming to make and has a more subtle scent than say a jasmine or a rose. But real lilac is incredible and complex.

Alice— Delta Dawn is my current favorite. It's a classic floral rose but has real depth to it — an underbelly. The star ingredient is a night-blooming Damask rose that’s harvested before the sun rises. You can smell the cool night air, but also the warmth and muskiness of the jasmine oil, known as the perfume of love.

How does art play a role in Kindred Black? Many of the handmade bottles sold are antique or vintage-inspired. Where did that shared interest spur from?

Alice— We’re both big collectors, verging on hoarders, and have shelves and boxes full of trinkets and treasures we’ve picked up over the years — everything from piles of shells and rocks to antique Lalique perfume vessels, antiquarian snuff bottles, folk art liquor jugs, and on and on. We often find ourselves using an old glass piece as a jumping-off point — or a piece that we’re lusting after in an auction or Museum catalog. The halls of The Met are filled with incredibly beautiful glass perfumes and cosmetic tinctures that have survived millennia. Pre-plastic everything, in the early 20th century, many cosmetics were refillable and came in the most exquisite packaging — lipsticks in sterling silver canisters, blush in bejeweled compacts. They were practically pieces of jewelry. We like to think of our bottles as precious objects that people will hold on to and cherish as the years go by.

You just launched your refill program. How do you hope this sways the wider beauty industry?

Jen— We were really excited to start doing refills for our skincare — like I said, our bottles are like little, individually made sculptures. We chose aluminum for the refills because the necks are wide enough to clean the bottle out and aluminum is the most easily recyclable material. We’re hoping that if a tiny company like ours can spend the money and do it, more of these million and billion-dollar brands will start paying attention to their footprint. They have such power to create real change, it’s heartbreaking so many of them choose to sidestep the opportunity.

Tell me about one of the strangest ingredients you have worked with.

Jen— We made a light summer perfume and skin treatment once to benefit the Ocean Conservancy and infused the ingredients with sea salt from the Sea of Cortez. Not a strange ingredient but it definitely gave the scent a unique profile. We once gathered large sacks of rose petals from the world’s largest rose bush that sits inside the courtyard of an old hotel in Tombstone, AZ. We had a lot of grand ideas for it but the petals couldn’t be cleaned well enough to be made into anything marketable, so we had to give up on it. Sometimes these experiments fail!

Alice— Maybe the strangest right now is quite widely used for cosmetics by everyone from Chanel on down because it’s a safe alternative to chemical dyes. The rich berry red of Night Venom is from a pigment that is made from the cochineal beetle, an insect native to parts of North and South America. It’s actually a stain that has been used for centuries – Cleopatra is said to have ground up the beetle in beeswax to achieve her renowned red lips. The Aztecs also used the pigment for dyeing and painting, and it was then brought back to Europe with their Spanish colonizers.

You just celebrated eight years. What do you hope is in store for the next few and how do you hope to continue revolutionizing the beauty space?

Jen— We’re always looking to make things less wasteful in everything we do. There’s always room to improve. We’d like for our line to be 100% refillable and are working on bottle design tweaks that would make that achievable. We’d also love to expand the glass operation down the road and begin recycling our own glass. Our mantra is “love for our mother” and it informs everything that we do.

Beauty

It's Good, it's Weird, it's GoodWeird

December 04, 2023

It’s Silly Bandz, Japanese denim, Maui Punch Pixy Stix, the model "dressed as the giant fur ball at the Christian Cowan show,"; it’s the highest compliment. Founders Jon Wormser and Stephen Yaseen have coined the term “Good Weird” to celebrate the beauty found in being athentically and uniquely yourself, as out there as that may be.

From the “Back from Vacay” bronzer to the “Balmy Weather” stick, Good Weird understands that beauty can be defined by universal experiences rather than conventional standards. Creative direction by Maui-born skate icon Evan Mock ensures that the brand takes a genderless, inviting approach to cosmetics. In our conversation with the trio, we delved deeper into what makes something truly good and weird.

Interview by Soph Lucina
Photos courtesy of GoodWeird

Sophia Lucina— Hi, I’m so stoked to have you all here. I’ve been loving your brand for a minute now. So, give me the rundown.

Stephen Yaseen— Yeah, well I’ve always been super into skincare, and on the beauty side, one of my first favorite products was this tinted sunscreen. It kind of introduced me to the idea of having a beauty product that also acted as a skincare item, something with immediate payoff. That was my conduit into me realizing that beauty doesn’t need to be reserved for a subset of people.

Jon Wormser— I’ve always been one to experiment with beauty products, which meant stealing products from my mom’s makeup … I was always wearing things incorrectly [laughs]. But that led me into this world we’ve built where beauty doesn’t need to fit the heavily pigmented, complicated product … something that doesn’t require a bunch of tools to use. Good Weird was founded out of frustration with the current product offering.

Evan Mock— For me, my earliest memory of using beauty products has to be when I was growing up in Hawaii and applying Shiseido sunscreen before going surfing and being on the beach.

SL— I think one thing that immediately stands out to me about you guys is how you’ve infused pop culture into your brand approach. What’s that been like for you?

JW— Well, obviously when we’re serving consumers like Gen-Z, it would be remiss to leave out pop culture. I think some people might see our branding and ask, “Why are there skateboards and surfboards?” ... for me, that’s the antithesis of mainstream, we wanted to emphasize that Good Weird is all about embracing your own shit, not letting societal structures and norms set expectations for what you should do.

SL— For sure. I can tell you bring in a certain crowd of people, and it’s dope. If you could tell me, what was the first idea you had for Good Weird?

SY— Yeah, so we wanted to go forward with this idea of minimizing the footprint of a product by combining a bunch of steps together, so it’s the concept of infusing skincare and low-pigment beauty, for a “beauty routine in a bottle”. Operationally, that concept didn’t actually work at first, so we ended up focusing on the “white space” in the beauty world, for people who are curious about entering a world that might not feel so welcoming.

JW— And that’s been the fun part for Stephen and I. We’ve gotten to experiment with how much pigment goes into a product, how much of a serum goes into a product. We’ll chat like “Well, I didn’t see much of [blank] at the store,” or “I like [blank] concealer, but it’s really intense,” and be able to share our ideas towards creating something new. We really jive when it comes to product development.

SL— Especially because you guys don’t have a precedent to go off of. You’re building something that we don’t see.

JW— Right, we’re trying to create a new lane. If we’re going off the beaten path, then it’s important that our products reflect that.

SL— How has the process of creating a “genderless” beauty product been? Why is that important to you guys?

EM— There really aren’t any other options for everyone that exists, until now with Good Weird. It's important that all aspects of life are inclusive to all, but also, who doesn’t want to look good?

SY— I think that the products that are super pigmented, part of “transformative” routines … don’t necessarily have to do with gender, even so we wanted to make products that anyone can feel comfortable using. With anyway you identify, from a gender perspective, everyone deserves to have beauty products that are accessible.

SL— I see. A less intimidating approach, so to speak.

SY— And of course, historically, the cohort demographic for the beauty industry is overwhelmingly female. So it’s really about giving everyone an intuitive, simple product with a low barrier to entry.

JW— A big barrier to entry for me growing up was having to use all these tools. If you look at our products, there are no tools required. Additionally, the way we’ve named our products — yes, “Back From Vacay” is a bronzer, but the name of the product is more emotive. It’s less intimidating to tell your friends, “I use this Good Weird product, called 'Back from Vacay’, instead of 'I use this bronzer.'"

... historically, the cohort demographic for the beauty industry is overwhelmingly female. So it’s really about giving everyone an intuitive, simple product with a low barrier to entry.

SL— For sure. These experiences “Balmy Weather”, “Back From Vacay”, aren’t gendered experiences. You’ll see other beauty products be labeled “Pure Seduction”, “Afterglow”, which evoke these sensual, intense, suggestively feminine experiences.

JW— And it’s not that we don’t like those words. But it’s all about making our products less intimidating. All of our stuff is buildable and sheer, so it can be another step in your routine, or it can be the main star.

SL— Evan, you’ve partnered with Jon and Stephen on creative direction. What's that been like?

EM— My job is to give the people what they want — do it with excellence and have fun doing it along the way. It’s been a great few months with Jon and Stephen, and the word is traveling fast.

JW— Evan was a muse to the brand before we even started working with him. He embodies the whole concept of “Good Weird”, he’s someone who can skate all day then wear a corset to a fashion show later that night. He also holds an amazing place in fashion and culture, and we wanted people in those spaces to feel open to trying the world of Good Weird.

SL— He’s someone that I can actually see reaching for these products, too. As the creative director, are you frustrated with any aspect of the current beauty climate?

EM— Yes, I think the general public’s view of what beauty is, needs to change. People need to realize that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes; it's also subjective.

SL— Subjective, yes. My last question for all of you — what’s something you’ve been recently thinking of as very “Good Weird”.

SY— Oh, yeah, let me think. Definitely what we’ve been posting on Instagram, the 90s vibes are very Good Weird, like those AI-generated yearbook photos.

JW— I’m trying to think of any moments from fashion week that stood out, even.

SL— The model dressed as the giant fur ball at the Christian Cowan show is very Good Weird, the smiley Collina Strada show — all of it.

JW— Exactly.

EM— Japanese denim, pickled mango … eating sunflower seeds with the shell still around it.

SL— Yes, heavy on Japanese denim. Even pickling your own vegetables?

JW— Any brands that feel like a nod to nostalgia. JNCO for sure.

SY— Anything that brings you back, anything that feels welcoming.

JW— Dippin’ Dots!

SL— Oh my gosh, and those spiky, jelly pens. I just saw a ring that was made out of that rubbery, jelly stuff. Well, you guys have created this great community, and I’m so excited to see where it goes. Thank you for taking this time.

SY— Thank you!

JW— Thank you.

EM— Thanks!