Meet Alistair Palmer – a man of substance… a kid who engages with Cape Town, both the city and her people

Meet Alistair Palmer – a man of substance… a kid who engages with Cape Town, both the city and her people. Just like a kid making a mess with finger paints, Al embraces the innocent joy of creating art. It’s about leaving behind all that hedonistic talk of trying to make sense of everything and is instead about looking at something and getting an honest, happy feeling out of it.

An entrepreneur who is off to the Okavango in Botswana next year, Palmer is hungry for success and loves to pitch himself in the deeper end of things. In a world segregated and fuelled by monotone dialogues, I’m backing Al in his belief that “colour [can] bring the world together”.

Tell me a bit about yourself…

A young man with lots to learn. I like making stuff I can see and hold. I freelance doing graphic design and illustraition.

What inspires you?

Objects and colours. Travelling any distance and seeing what I come across on the way. Picking things off the floor

What decorates your room?

Lots of plants, a tide chart and Paul, a blow-up moose head.

What’s the first thing you do after completing something?

Stand up.

Why do you love Cape Town?

I am just lovin’ the quality of life. I love doing things all day without spending a cent.

So we know your weak point is nicotine, what else is there?

Umm, driving drunk in CT is not as fun as it used to be.

Well, Arrive Alive tell us it is speed that kills, so just keep it slow my friend.
Tell me something I can share with others….

Do it with love.

Any projects you are involved / looking to get involved in at present?

I just finished a project for Niharika Hariharan, its called Wandering Geography and its about exploring your city and illustrating this onto Bokkie boots, its her graduate project for Central Saint Martins.

So, what comes next?

2010

I always cringe when asking an artist for some form of structural breakdown & the ‘deeper meaning’, but some part of me always gives in. It depends on the artist and his/her work I guess. I think some work needs to be explained, or at least should be if one asks kindly. Al’s reply has to be my all time favourite thus far though. What a humble kid. His reply: “I just try to make people feel good and make them smile”.

Al’s work will keep taking us by the balls, making us smile completely absent from any arrogant bourgeois bullshit. Check out his flickr stuff, and get in touch.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alistairpalmer