We recently connected with Louis Grau and have shared our conversation below.

Louis, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I always went back and forth, and still am, between wanting to persue a career in scientific research and the arts. The decision to start in fashion and costume design came in my final years of school – believing that if I wouldn’t do it now it would be harder for me to convince myself to do so later in my life.
Now I am slowly realising what maybe I always knew deep down that both can be possible and those two fields are always interconnected.
This is what I focus on especially in my theoretical work: finding common ground in the artistic process and scientific research. I deeply believe both are different ways of understanding the world around us and therefore serve the same purpose.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a Berlin-based designer with Thai and American roots. My main focus lies in the textile exploration of historicism, nature and technology and shared research goals of art and natural sciences, as well as story telling. As an alumnus of the Weissensee Academy of Art, which uses a Bauhaus teaching approach, my work is primarily inspired by interdisciplinary art. Additionaly I am mostly influenced by following the ideology of the Arts and Crafts movement, combining sustainabilty, uphold of traditonal handcraft and the persue of design and art for everyone.
My brand HERON MORTUUM is the combination of these influences and currently trying to establish a multi-disciplinary collective and place for discourse of like minded people.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think this is the very core of my work, having always felt a gap between creatives and non-creatives. To me the two biggest reasons for misunderstanding lie in not sufficient art knowledge and understanding taught at an early age and the diffusion and complexity of many art discourses happening within the art world. Simply put, many people don’t understand contemporary art anymore and feel as if anything could be declared art as long as there is a buyer who believes it.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The biggest impact on me for what my entrepreneurial goals were had a book about William Morris. Philosophically I discovered Rosi Braidottis and Donna Harraways books about Posthumanism during my uni studies and always admired the thoroughness and logical way of thinking of Immanel Kant.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @heron_mortuum
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-grau-a1423729a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app

Image Credits

Models: @ariesuil , @zaidibangz , @hexeelili , @karlhirschberger