An interview with SwS (Pirate Sheep and Flufflord) by a Computer

An interview with two sisters – Pirate_Sheep and Flufflord – about their collective digital art practice for the SuperRare Editorial.

SWS:​ We wrote our introduction using random computer generated questions.

Computer: What’s SwS about?

Pirate_Sheep:​ As I often work hand in hand with my sister Tea Strazicic aka ‘Fluff Lord’ we co-created SwS aka Schwestern Sisters art collective that focuses on digital visualisation, animation and a/v performances. In 2020. We got introduced to the cryptoart scene where we are actively involved.

Flufflord: ​Working with my sister Marta as Schwestern Sisters feels poetic. Our minds work as clockwork and we rarely, if ever, get angry or waste time on pointless arguments. SwS is a safe place to experiment on big projects that would be hard to encompass and imagine as one person. Jokingly, SwS is kind of like the cute version of Borg from Star Trek. We started SwS in our teens, as a 2D comic book project, that slowly turned into a digital collective as Marta started her 3D studies and raised the interest and knowledge to a broader spectrum.

Computer: What drives your personal projects?

Pirate_Sheep:​ My long term ambition is finding creative solutions of portraying the complex insect biodiversity. I am obsessed with the idea and possibility of their bodies trespassing from natural habitats into the cybernetic world of machines. Digitally, through physical simulation software like Houdini, I simulate their mesmerising ecosystems in VR. By focusing on insects, robotica and VR I am discovering the intimate side of my relationship to nature. Best presented in projects EVGENIA308 and in an ongoing project still in process ​‘I want to make a garden and yet I am so far from it’.

Flufflord:​ My official profession is an animation director, but I like to keep fluidity of medium as my priority in order to curveball artistic direness and live my life organically, nonbinary. So far it worked out amazing on all the fronts. I’ve been modeling fantasy characters for DJ’s and contemporary operas, sculpting monsters for my gallery exhibits and recently designing monster ​footwear collection with​ ITCC​loud and SHCR from Shanghai on ​Taobao​.
Being versatile but precise with my online output and medium is what keeps me interested in creating content that requires long term dedication, such as scriptwriting a space saga, on which I spend the other half of my time on. For example I find great creative drive in modeling characters and giving them background stories that belong to the same ‘universe’.

Computer: Where can we see your work offline?

SwS: ​Since last year we have been touring with Flufflords partner and musician @baojiaxiang as a AV + game engine team on international art festivals: Sonic Acts, Creepy Teepee, ​Supynes​, Ekstravagantna Tijela and Progress Bar. We also exhibit and screen our work internationally. ‘FiDi Arsenale’ screened our ‘Renegade NPC’ video in New York a month ago and we took part in the​ ‘Whale Fall’ Curated by Most Dismal Swamp​ at Gossamer Fog last year in London. During ​‘Dance WIth The Devil’​ with Ittah and Yoda (show about impending social collapse curated by Lovro Japundžić at Močvara, Zagreb) SwS constructed an endless runner video game surrounded by ‘Arctic frost’ and customized gaming equipment. ​In collaboration with FormatC, we organised VR-inc residency in Croatia for 2018. and 2019. You can read more about the project here https://formatc.hr/VR_inc/​. ​In terms of commissioned work Marta worked with Ittah Yoda​ for an VR installation for the exhibition in Tokyo while Tea assisted Katja Novitskova​ for her show at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.

Computer: Do you have a special project you’re currently working on?

Pirate_Sheep:​ Yes! And it is an exciting one as I finally managed to organise my time to work on it in great detail. It is still in early stages of development and it is called ‘​I want to make a garden and yet I am so far from it​’. I am researching and slowly building up on the narrative. Some of the pieces from the project are tokenized on SuperRare with a detailed description, must say I am thrilled with how successful they turned out, cheers to that.

Flufflord:​ In 2020 I was a 3D character designer artist on ​‘QT UR EA’​ a real time CGI spectacle in ​Trauma Bar und Kino​. I share a studio inside the clubs complex with my colleagues Lukas8k and Baojiaxiang, supported by amazing Trauma staff and we are actively involved in their multimedia programm.

Computer: How did you get into Crypto?

Pirate_Sheep:​ Makersplace reached out to me actually, since then it has been a ride. Before I knew it I was a part of MachiX, had a store at SuperRare and did a collaboration with CryptoBaby I am super proud of. Now I am participating in IOCA at SomniumSpace, hosted by Museum Of Crypto Art. As anything I put my heart in, it does take a good amount of time to manage so many new things, but it is something I strongly believe in and have a growing love for, so it will naturally balance out.

Flufflord:​ My intro to crypto was via VJ-ing and LARP-ing on the ​CryptoRAVE hosted​ ​by ​Omsk Social Club​ at HKV Berlin. That was pretty insane, an organised sub-rave via blockchain – CryptoRave used mining as an entry point via friend2friend networks.

During pandemic lockdown I stopped with raving, and Marta told me to go and explore cryptoart on SuperRare as she referred me to the platform. It is a quite liberating activity that would hopefully empower me to continue my creature making practice without compromising my income or integrity of my work, as it is sadly often a case with traditional art systems and commercial projects. It also reminds me, nostalgically, of Pokemon collecting <3

Computer: Are you currently going through any type of phase?

Flufflord:​ I’m still into NU Metal.

Pirate_Sheep: ​I run marathons.

SWS:​ Thank you all for supporting our art!

SR: https://superrare.com/pirate_sheep https://superrare.com/fluff_lord

SWS SELECTED PRESS:

Adult Swim​ Off Air TV special, Short film
VICE – ​https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wnpbew/schwestern-sisters
VICE – ​https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vvkw39/rihanna-tweet-inspired-this-demonic-digital-art-felt-zine Sonic Acts – ​https://2020.sonicacts.com/artists/schwestern-sisters-sws-bod
AQAB – ​https://www.aqnb.com/2019/05/09/schwestern-sisters-x-ittah-yoda/
FL INTERVIEW ​Coeval-magazine.com

Web: https://teastrazicic.com/

Page: https://www.facebook.com/schwesternsister/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/flufflord/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/pirate_sheep/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/pirate_sheeping
https://twitter.com/Fluff_Lord