Because of the positive response the artwork for TO NO AVAIL has been receiving, I invited Sarah Sitkin to an interview. Sarah and I have been friends for years and I’ve always admired her work. The colors of her photographs are so vivid and the sets so intricate, fun and creative - but I always was drawn to the darker side of her art. Sarah’s had a few notable subjects including John Frusciante, Venetian Snares, Alessandro Cortini, Otto von Schirach, Captain Ahab, Drumcell, Baseck, and more…
The interview was previously planned as a typical question/answer format but Sarah sent an interesting e-mail so I’ll leave it as it is.
Sarah Sitkin
I currently live in a log cabin in the redwood Forest above Santa Cruz, California. I took all the photos for To No Avail inside the house. Before I took over the cabin a paranoid schizophrenic was living there, and before that it was a workspace/living quarters for a mad inventor of sorts (upon his eviction the landlord found 5 frozen cats in his fridge). There was an overwhelming feeling of something dark, potent, and ultimately undefeatable lingering inside.
When I moved in, I was possessed with a manic compulsion to transform the cabin. It had soiled carpet, no heat, no hot water, doors without hardware, rags and plastic bottles stuffed into holes in the walls. The surrounding land was overgrown and was littered with decrepit machinery. I cleared the land, hauled away the garbage, tore out the carpet, removed the doors, patched the walls. I found an 1800’s wood burning stove, a chimney from an old schoolhouse, a parquet wood floor from the 20’s, and mahogany doors from a movie prop house… It all came together so effortlessly, It was as though the structure itself and its residue of madness was guiding me.
When the To No Avail project was presented to me, I immediately knew I had to take on the assignment. I hadn’t produced any new work since I had moved in, and the work on the cabin was nearly complete. My aesthetic was evolving with the new influences surrounding me, and I was brimming with ideas. My house was packed with objects, relics, bones, and pieces that I had been collecting - waiting for the right project to come along to put them to use.
I have always been searching for some kind of meaning behind my intuitions and (when I can choke down my crippling skepticism) I’ve found answers through occult studies. It is a difficult thing to transcribe an understanding that exists as a geometrical diagram into a coherent sentence- so I won’t- but, I was looking for a way to embed that invisible geometry into imagery… and it seemed eerily harmonious to the music of the album - indiscernible lyrics housed in music that reflects the intent. I live my life and execute my creative endeavors from an intuitive place. I try not to think consciously about why I am doing things. I find I have the greatest understanding when I don’t force myself to understand it.
When a musician asks me for artwork, I saturate myself with the music - keeping it on loop for hours or days on end. Isolated in my house, writing down pieces of lyrics over and over again until I fall into a trance, and the soul of the music overtakes me. Then I know I am ready to create. I try and be a medium, a conduit, or a surrogate of sorts. In particular, the imagery for To No Avail was unlike anything I had done before. The unfamiliar territory brought out dormant parts of my self that I struggle to keep out of the light.
Since the To No Avail project, I did some images for Alessandro Cortini (Sonoio), a documentary project called Population 1, and currently I am working on my first short film. There is a still a lingering darkness that casts a shadow onto my current work that I attribute to working on To No Avail, and I have to say - I hope it hangs around for a while.
