From Love Island Pingu to Hip Hop Tarot Cards, artist Ben Gore creates his own toy stories

Folkestone artist Ben Gore (@bengoreartist) started his career as a photographer before going on to experiment with a variety of mediums including sculpture, collage, illustration and, most recently, bootleg toys.

Inspired by everything from classic cartoons to highbrow art, he has been known to blend pop culture with traditional art and even founded a small arts publisher, Blue Monday Press, that he uses to publish and sell his work. We have been fans of his for a while and caught up with him to find out more…

HOW DID YOU GET INTO ILLUSTRATION & ART IN THE FIRST PLACE?

I’ve always loved making things, but I was never particularly good at art at school. I studied photography at uni because I didn’t think I was good enough to get on an art course. At uni, I started making, swapping and selling zines and that was the first time I realised people might actually want something I made. I moved to Brighton after uni and was just shooting photos all the time. I set up a kick-starter to self-publish my first photobook and managed to get it funded. That helped me learn how to plan, do, sell and market an art project. I love photography, but it’s very hinged to where you are and what’s around you. Shooting for the book burned me out on photography a bit, so I started taking drawing more seriously and just really enjoyed being able to flex my imagination more. I drew and released the Hip Hop Tarot, a Tarot deck with rappers reimagined as the characters, not long after. It got an amazing reaction and I’ve just kept making things since.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO BOOTLEG TOYS?

I think I first came across bootleg toys via Dano Brown. The figure that hooked me was a figure he made of Master Hand from Super Smash Bros. I messaged him to ask how he did it and he very kindly shared some tips. I started off repainting Poundland action figures and just went from there.

I explain in depth in my book The Bootleg Bible, which is a guide to some of the best bootleg toymakers from around the world, the full process of making them, but for the shortened version to start I buy cheap bundles of old unwanted action figures off eBay. I figure out how I could use a certain figure, then sand down unnecessary details, sculpt on top with epoxy putty, paint the figure and varnish it.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE TO PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN IT?

That’s a tricky question. I’d say it tends to be silly celebrations of my favourite things in pop culture, whether that be cartoons, films, musicians or art. I like making in a variety of mediums. I draw, I paint, I make books, I sculpt and I make toys. It doesn’t always have to be funny, but one of my favourite reactions is when someone sees something I’ve made and they laugh because it’s just caught them off guard.

YOUR WORK IS BASED AROUND POPULAR CULTURE - HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHAT TO CREATE?

It just depends on which pop culture I’m enjoying at the moment. With the figures in particular, it’s a way to celebrate something I love that wouldn’t get an action figure under normal circumstances because it’s too niche. I think of it as a way to pay tribute to my favourite paintings or films or characters. Often it’s a case of what figures I have to hand, how I think I could use them, and what would be fun to make. I also really enjoy the process of translating a 2D image, whether it’s a painting or a photo of a person, into a 3D object. So it depends what I think would work in that form.

YOUR PIECES COMBINE TWO WILDLY DIFFERENT SUBJECTS, LIKE LOVE ISLAND AND PINGU. HOW DO YOU PAIR THEM UP?

It’s anarchy, to be honest. I keep loads of notes of ideas on my phone and in notebooks. It depends what pops in my head. With the Love Island figures in particular, my partner was watching Love Island this year and I just really didn’t want to get dragged in to watching it, but it got me thinking, what if there was a dating show for childhood characters? There’s a very Love Island look and it made me laugh thinking of all these children’s characters being all jacked up and hairless, so I just started making the characters I thought would be funny. I make a lot of things, so it’s more of a shotgun blast of lots of ideas than waiting for the perfect sniper shot of one. I like keeping the momentum going.

ARE YOUR PIECES DESIGNED TO BE BOUGHT? OR DO YOU KEEP THEM?

I only make things that I enjoy because there’s no guarantee anything will sell and I don’t want to get stuck with something I didn’t enjoy making and it doesn’t sell. Saying that, I’d love to sell everything I make because once it’s made I get bored of it quite easily and I want to be on to the next thing. Also it’s nice for these things I make to go and brighten up someone else’s space, rather than me living in a museum of my own creations. The dream would be to be able to make anything, in any medium, and it immediately sells to someone who would appreciate it. Selling stuff also just gets me excited to make more. It sometimes feels like a bit of a burden to have boxes full of your own art.

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ARE THERE OTHER ARTISTS WHO INSPIRE YOU?

A lot of artists inspire me. I love just absorbing visual art in all its forms. I’ve skateboarded all my life, so artist-skaters like Ed Templeton, Pontus Alv and Mark Gonzales have had a huge influence on me. With Ed Templeton and Pontus especially, I feel like they’ve deeply weaved their art and style into the companies they run and that’s very inspiring. Of course, I love all the artists in Evergreen Fantasies, my recent book about Simpsons-inspired art, especially Lee Hardcastle and withapencilinhand, and all the artists in The Bootleg Bible, too, especially Dano Brown and The Sucklord.

WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE BOOKS, TOYS AND ILLUSTRATIONS TO CREATE?

Are you allowed to have favourites? Isn’t making art like having children? To be honest, my favourites are usually the thing I’ve made most recently. One of the pieces I’m most proud of is my figure of the devoured son inspired by Goya’s painting Saturn Devouring His Son. That had a great response and really excited me to make more figures. I love blending high- and lowbrow art and that really hits that sweet spot for me.

WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT SO FAR AS AN ARTIST?

Man, that is a very hard question. I have a very bad memory and I much prefer looking forward to looking back. I’ve had my work featured on a number of arts websites and blogs that I was very excited to be included on, but some of my favourite moments have been when the people I’ve made art about have reacted positively. Killer Mike and El-P of Run the Jewels liked and commented on a drawing I made of them a while ago and that really got me stoked. I love Run the Jewels. To be honest, I’m probably most proud that I’ve managed to get away with making art full-time this long. I work super-hard making things and I wouldn’t want to do anything else.

INFO: bengore.co.uk