15 FOLDS COLLABORATES WITH ABSOLUT

Absolut has always been a class act when it comes to collabs with creatives. I'm still thinking that maybe I should have banked Gareth Pugh's 2011 bottle design for the brand rather than downing it in six but, hey, life is full of mistakes. At least, the launch party - attended by Pam Hogg, Stephen Jones, Gary Card and Matthew Stone, during which I attempted to interview Gareth in the bathroom - was suitably riotous. Now, Absolut teams up with another iconic East London presence to launch its Andy Warhol Edition. The limited edition bottle celebrates the brand’s iconic collaboration with Andy Warhol and calls on the services of 15 Folds to do it justice. For the launch, the online GIF art gallery - creative baby of Margot Bowman, Sean Frank and Jolyon Varley - created “15 GIFs of Fame” (geddit? I didn't - not at first), a series of digital artworks inspired by the idea of Fame. It's a rich subject, suitably richly mined by 15 quite outstanding creatives.

This is them, a Who's Who of future talent: Bobby Abley, Fred Butler, Lotte Anderson, O Thongthai, 15 Folds, Margot Bowman, Sean Frank, Digi Fairy, Gordon Magnin, Ignasi Monreal, James Kerr, Mehdi Lacoste, Naomi Shimada, Nimrod and Tessa Edwards. The creatives looked at Warhol's crazy, crazy life and are by turn funny, disturbing, sad, silly, you name it, it works. Take time to read the artists' written interpretations of their work: just as wise and clever as you'd expect. Fred Butler uses the quote: 'His inability to feel at times verged on the sociopathic; he was incapable of any felt, authentic connection to other people' in her GIF.

The specially created artworks will be entered into The Andy Warhol Art Exchange by Absolut, the world’s largest online art exchange at absolute.com/artexchange. Using generative art tools, anyone can submit their own original work. All participants will receive an artwork from the exchange in return, with a chance to receive artworks from the 15 Folds artists or even an original Andy Warhol work.

And more on 15 Folds: the collective offers a monthly GIF art gallery with creatives responding to an initial GIF created under a theme. These works are then published on the Tumblr-based platform. Contributors have included architects and rockstars, graphic designers and sex columnists, from Boston to Brazil. Notable names have included the multi-talented Quentin Jones (read my interview with her here), conceptual artist Kim Assendorf, artist duo Reed & Radar and sex columnist Karly Sciortino.

See the GIFs here www.15folds.com