meet the artist making memes in real life

This article was originally published on i-D Germany

There are days when we feel blessed, our creativity is next level, and every trivial idea seems to be a life-changing one that will finally make Tabi boots affordable. On others, we stare into the void of our screen and nothing seems to work any more. When this happens, there are several options. You could a) feel sorry for yourself, b) call it quits, or c) look to see what the internet has to offer, a.k.a. procrastinate until you get hungry.

In fact, option c) does not always have to be a negative thing. “I call it positive procrastination, a term I probably came up with to get rid of the guilt associated with wasting time,” explains Belgium-born meme artist Tom Galle. Galle has already worked with clients such as Nike, Netflix, and Google, and is (internet-)famous for his approach to hyper-digital nowness. After living in New York for about five years, and bringing Tinder IRL with an art performance, he recently moved to Berlin.

i-D Germany had a look at his Instagram bio -- "takes good photo once/original internet content maker/meme artist/internet advisor" -- and put together an interview inspired by it.

Who is this Tom Galle and what does he want to achieve with his work?
I’m a conceptual artist who uses memetic language to make work about a variety of subjects, such as digital culture, contemporary branding, corporate culture, and the effects of technology on our society. My work purposely has a viral or sometimes even clickbait side to it, as it's intended to travel around the internet and be absorbed into different subcultures.

"I travelled a lot to Japan back in the day, and took inspiration from the culture there. There were a bunch of references I was playing around with, and I liked the idea that the Japanese ‘Geta’ could be turned into these tech fetish objects."

@tomgalle

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