Interview with Tern

The work of the artist Yuri (”Tern") attracted my attention 10+ years ago, when I wrote reviews for new reissues of ILDJARN albums for Riddle of Steel magazine. It was also my first acquaintance with ILDJARN, and I was greatly struck by how aptly the drawings of Tern conveyed the essence of Vidar's music (unlike the original covers). Then I started seeing his new works on metal album covers more and more often, but for a very long time I couldn't figure out who this mysterious Yuri "Tern" was. In the end, I came across his Facebook page thanks to a repost of one of my Ukrainian acquaintances. And only recently, having already conceived this interview, I suddenly realized that Tern is the author of many, without exaggeration, legendary covers drawn long before 2013 - which, of course, made our conversation more interesting. But, you'll read this below, and first, prepare yourself for a great feas of dark visual art.

Hails from Bagnik Zine! I think we should start, as always, with the traditional questions: tell us a little about yourself. What and when pushed you to the path of visual art?

Tern: Hello! No one and nothing pushed me on any path. You're either standing on it or stomping on its side of the road. And I don't do any art in the usual sense either. Rather, it is a kind of practice, where drawing is only a tool that highlights the farthest corners of the "world perception". This is what has a special meaning and value for me, in contrast to meaningless stories “about myself” and some empty biographical facts.

Do you have any formal artistic education?

T: After graduating from high school, I considered this option. But fate decreed otherwise, having pushed me to the door of the history department. Now I can only plan my further studies as an extension of the necessary knowledge in this area. I think the art of sculpture deserves special attention.

Your works are most often dark, mystical, sometimes even malicious; there are lean and sickly figures on them, the ones you can't expect anything good from. What inspires you to create such negative images?

T: As for inspiration, the source can be anything. From the roots of underground utilities in the Kharkiv Metro to the macabre shadow of a dead tree outside the window. How negative are they? Probably no more than a forest in November.

How did you got into metal music and its environment?

T: In ' 98, I graduated from the school and went to NOKTURNAL MORTUM gig. The first "Kolovorot fest", that was. It was the moment when the first connections appeared, which certainly determined the next decades. Kharkiv counterculture in its musical dimension was mainly formed within the framework of Black Metal. And all these years I've witnessed it.

Have you participated in any musical group as a musician or singer?

T: At the level of teenage amateur activity. Somewhere between reading Lovecraft and drinking alcohol in a forest plantation. I'm one of those people who mostly listens to music more than anything else.

The first music album you created a cover for - what was it?

T: I'm not sure I can give the right answer. Because there is a significant difference between “drawn” and “released”. And this gap can be as deep as a dozen years.

Name your favorite bands.

T: Well, it's more like bands whose music directly affects me and what I do. Eternal albums to which you return with an ardent constancy, again and again feeling the charm of touching sound as magic. The last time it was a wonderful Swedish LEKAMEN ILLUSIONEN KALLET, bought in the Kolovorot Store, now destroyed by Russian scum. The perfect combination of music and design, as for me. Then there were GRIFTESKYMFNING, HADANFARD, LONNDOM... Icelandic bands, plus always relevant Norwegian black metal of the magical 90s.

I first came across your work in 2012, when I was writing reviews of the promos of the reissues of ILDJARN, released by Season of Mist. As I understand, you've been recommended to the French label by the members of DRUDKH. Interestingly, almost all subsequent reissues of ILDJARN also come out with your artworks, regardless of the label. Did this practice happen by chance, or perhaps Vidar himself chose you as his ”personal" artist?

T:  I don't think that now it is possible to restore all the details after such an abyss of time. Especially when it comes to the agreements that do not directly concern me. I remember that the first illustrations made then quite satisfied Vidar, and it was decided to completely update the design of most of the discography. I've known ILDJARN since the late ' 90s, so you can say it was a two-way forest trail. Without any comments, adjustments, or suggestions. I did it the way I felt, and it can't be said that it didn't pay off. At least in my opinion.

Your artistic pseudonym - Tern. How did you come up with it?

T: Surely this is something undoubtedly significant. Exactly as many meanings can be put into a combination of four letters and their non-random sequence. When the customer called with a banal question about how to mark me in the booklet, I was far out of town. A minibus was passing by to an almost eponymous locality... I think this is a rather archaic way of naming :) And until some point I didn't care about this aspect at all. And even now, to be honest – not really. In the end, these four letters perfectly save printing space.

With a huge amount of art for music albums and merchandise behind you, you remain a very mysterious figure. Your name is most often not even mentioned in booklets, you don't have pages on the Internet media popular among the artists, like Instagram and Pinterest. You post your artworks only at your persona page at Facebook, which is impossible to find if you don't know who to look for. And even there, to be honest, there is no order at all :) I spent a whole week sorting through your drawings when I was preparing this interview. Why are you so careless about the results of your own work, and how do new customers find you at all?

T: For many years (especially early ones), I drew exclusively serving my self, where it was the only loyal customer. Covers and illustrations for Black Metal albums (often the first and sometimes free) were born from fanatical love for this music and affection for the people who created it. These were very inspiring times, full of indescribable meanings and bursts of creative energies. The publicity, either then or in many ways today, never was an issue that I cared about. Too many strangers – often superfluous and empty. If only the FB page was the only thing that connects me to them... :)

When you present new works on the page, you rarely write their titles. Are there many nameless ones among them?

T: In fact, they are all nameless. These often ironic comments do not extend beyond FB posts.

Do you often draw for comission? How much does a new custom drawing cost compared to a drawing selected from a portfolio of finished works?

T: Of course. Now it depends on my interest and (especially recently) the level of monetization. Open for commission.

Which brands of drawing tools do you use?

T: Doesn't matter. The ones that are at hand and financially affordable.

According to my calculations, colored are about 10% of the total number of your drawings. Everything else you do in dark monochrome tones. Why is the advantage of darkness so strong? :)

T: This comes (like everything else for the most part) from my personal preference. I think they are predetermined by time. Then the palette will change.

Name your favorite artists and, if it's not difficult, your favorite works of art - I'll insert them into the material.

T: I'm a big fan of Austin Osman Spare. I consider him the undisputed forerunner of surrealism and one of the most valuable artists of the twentieth century. Psycho-magical philosophy, The Cult of Zos-Kia, the atavistic Alphabet, The Theory of Sigils... special pagan perception of the world imbued with cosmosocentric attention to human physicality. It is the case where each stroke or line is the result of a deeply personal mystical experience. . His experiments on the edge of painting and magic can not leave anyone indifferent. I recommend his "Earth:Inferno“.

Are you familiar with the work of the famous Belarusian artist Valery Piatrowicz Slauk?

T: Of course! This is an incredible artist with a very deep and insightful perception of the other world. I think he feels reality and the life behind it. I could even call him a visionary, although it is quite possible that this is far from the truth. I would certainly like to see these paintings “live”someday. To look out of the window, as they say :)

I also noticed that you love the work of my other famous compatriot, the writer Uladzimir Karatkiewicz. Have you ever drawn anything based on his works?

T: I just hope that one day something will be drawn :) “The Wild Hunt of King Stach”, “The Black Castle Olshansky”... his works could not but make an impression on me. It is a pity that there are practically no modern translations (and indeed modern publications) of it in Ukrainian. He definitely deserves it.

In general, you are a great amateur of literature (considering that you used to work as a teacher, I would say that even a professional!). Share the titles of the works that you would recommend to me or readers of Bagnik Zine.

T: Well, I'm a history teacher, not a literature teacher :) However, books, along with music, make up quite a significant place in life. Among the things that have particularly impressed me in recent years, I can single out the Eugene Tucker trilogy, Reza Negarestani's "Cyclonopedia", Robert Kirk's "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies", Eduardo Kohn’s "How Forests Think", Christopher McDougall's "Born to Run", and the collection of Australian myths "Dream Time"... the list can go on and on.

Besides music, you also design books. Recently, an edition of Fredrik Eytzinger's "Uthark: Sigurd Agrell and the Swedish Runes" was published in Ukraine, where your drawings are used. You also made special illustrations for the book of Ivan Bagriany “A man runs over an abyss”. Have you designed any other books?

T: A few weeks ago, I finished working on illustrations for a historical novel. The first Ukrainian-language edition of Younger Edda is being prepared. In addition, two other interesting projects are under development.

Have you ever participated in any more extraordinary art projects (for example, art exhibitions, speed painting (greetings to Signor Paolo Girardi!), decoration of public buildings, etc.)?

T: Of course! I have worked on construction sites in the field of decorative painting for more than ten years. It's quite emotionally rich, exceptonally extreme and very diverse. You can say that all this time I was engaged only and exclusively in creativity. Most often, in someone else's. Fascinated by the aesthetic tastes of the environment. Life-size and sewer-deep art project, you know :)

Almost half, or even most of your works are devoted to the theme of Nordic mythology. Why does it inspire you so much?

T: Probably, in the beginning, there was a Myth. Broken down into racial and ethnic fragments of mirror images in the complex relationship of a person with the world around it. All of us, whether we like it or not, are immersed in it; in its language, we use symbols to interpret reality and create it. Myth is like frost that draws metaphors on the glass of an endless cultural code. The task of creativity is to remove these codes, interpret them, and create new ones. Answer the questions that the whole being asks or we constantly ask ourselves. It is an impersonal tool of suggestion, referring beyond yourself as a material object to the boundless world of metaphysical archetypes. Something like this.

During your life, you have drawn in different styles, and therefore, I confess, I was terribly surprised when I found out that some covers familiar to me from the old times (for example, LUCIFUGUM “Stigma Egoism” or HATE FOREST “To Those Who Came Before Us”) were also created by you, because they are not at all like your modern drawings. Your current and most recognizable style is distinguished, if I can name it that way, by "grids" that are woven throughout the entire area of the drawing and resemble capillaries or brushwood or flames or lightnings. It looks fantastic in every sense. How did you come up with this visual idea? :)

T: It came out of nowhere. I draw mainly to meet my personal creative needs and reflections. For me, the process is important as a meditative pictorial act, where the end result is not the final end in itself. I always use a pencil, so you especially feel the intensity and energy inherent in it. A kind of marriage of carbon and cellulose, in the two-dimensional world of my consciousness, with the sensory predominance of emotion over technical subtleties. The drawing should draw itself, like a blackboard of a medium making up a message out of that very nowhere.

Tell us about your collaboration with Konstantin of Warhead Art. To be honest, it's hard for me to imagine how it works. You make a drawing, and he makes his own branded color frame, or what? :) 🙂

T: The degree of participation in this experiment varies, like the degree of craft beer. Kostya usually adds vodka, after which even I see all kinds of devils. Of course, we don't push these evil spirits away - these funny entities are here instead of muses. Otherwise, I don't remember how it works :)

warhead_art_2

Image 2 of 10

ASTROFAES – Ancestors’ Shadows (2020 re-release, but maybe the original, too?)

ASTROFAES – Shu-Nun

AURVANDIL – Thrones

BEZWERING – Dodenkroning

BLOOD STRONGHOLD – Blood Spilt in the Earth’s Viscera

BLOOD STRONGHOLD – From Sepulchral Remains…

BLOOD STRONGHOLD – The March of Apparition

BLOOD STRONGHOLD – The Triumph of Wolfish Destiny

CHATEAU NOIR – Underside of Existence

DRUDKH – Forgotten Legends (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH – Autumn Aurora (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH – Microcosmos (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH – Slavonic Chronicles

DRUDKH – Відчуженість (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH – Вічний оберт колеса

DRUDKH – Кров у наших криницях (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH – Лебединий шлях (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH – Пісні скорботи і самітності (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH – Лебединий шлях (vinyl reissue)

DRUDKH / WINTERFYLLETH – Thousands of Moons Ago / The Gates

FROSTY TORMENT – Death in Icy White

HATE FOREST – To Those Who Came Before Us

HATE FOREST – Grief of the Universe (their side of split with LEGION OF DOOM)

HATE FOREST / ILDJARN – Those Once Mighty Fallen

ILDJARN – Ildjarn (2013 reissue)

ILDJARN – Ildjarn demo (2023 vinyl)

ILDJARN – Forest Poetry (2013 reissue)

ILDJARN – Strenght & Anger (2013 reissue)

ILDJARN – Minnesjord / The Dark Soil (2023 vinyl)

ILDJARN – 1992-1995 (2017 reissue)

Split LIK / MØRKT TRE (so far unreleased, but the cover was published a long time ago)

MØRKT TRE – To the Graves of Smoldering Time

LUCIFUGUM – Stigma Egoism

NOCTURNAL AMENTIA / UNDERDARK – Somnambula & Obscurantism

OLD GHOSTS – Old Ghosts

PRAGMATIK – Ghosts of Light

RUNESPELL – Aeons of Ancient Blood

RUNESPELL – Sentinels of Time

RUNESPELL – Shores of Náströnd

ULVEGR – Isblod

A compilation "Polska scena – Braciom z Ukrainy”

YGG – The Last Scald

ДО СКОНУ / NIEZGAL – Ветры Тления и Смерти

ЗАВОДЬ – Березоль

ЗАВОДЬ – Крізь коло і п’ять кутів

ЛЮТОМЫСЛ – Небосвод

СВАРГА – New Majesty

СВАРГА – Дух Земли

СВЯТОГОР – …Поступью Волчьей да Крыльями Чёрными

T: It seems to me that this list is very far from complete. I do not gather any collections of such images of my own, and therefore I have nothing to check with. These are all casts of different mood, times and and often other people's desires. The connection between them is extremely vague. And some things I would love to forget altogether.

Most of these releases don't mention your name, but they do mention Sir Gorgoroth, who usually does general graphic design. Because of this, the unknowing listener thinks that these works are actually Sir Gorgoroth’s. Doesn't that annoy you? :) 🙂

T: Nah, I don't care at all. Why should I be bothered by other people's mistakes?

The above-mentioned covers of DRUDKH albums are vastly different from any other options - the originals, the re-releases from Season of on CD, and so on. Did you draw them specifically for these releases, or were they selected from your portfolio?

T: No, of course not. It was so long ago that I could only guess at the meaning of the word “portfolio” :) Then, as a student, I was gnawing on historical subjects, and in between lectures I used pencils to dream about meadows and thickets. It was an easy way to go back to my childhood, which is still relevant for me today. Childhood as the antithesis of the disillusioned demyphologized reality that we plunge into with every second of our lives. At some point these dreams just crossed the borders of my notebook.

Before we finish, I want to ask about the topical: how do you live in a state of war, in conditions of incessant air attacks? Has it influenced your creativity?

T: I try to control my emotions as much as possible. Especially negative ones. There were attempts to reflect, but after a while I came to the conclusion that there are creators around me who will make it hundreds of times more convincing. Perhaps something will change over time.

And the last question is about the boring topic of artificial intelligence. Do you feel threatened by this new phenomenon, is there any fear that AI will take away your bread? :)

T: I have only optimistic hopes for artificial intelligence. Because the natural one definitely failed. And I do not know to what extent this is a joke, although in the cemetery I often see extremely elegant artificial flowers.

Thank you for the answers! I hope everything will be fine with you, and you will delight us with your dark masterpieces for a very long time. As always, I leave you the opportunity to tell a few last words to the readers of Bagnik zine or to share your thoughts about things that we didn't touch during our conversation.

T: I do not know anyone who will be on the other side of this text. So I have nothing more to say to them.

The artist's personal page: https://www.facebook.com/urge.feodor

While preparing this interview, I looked through absolutely all the materials on Yuri's page. In order to deprive you of the need to scroll through hundreds of posts on FB, I saved his numerous images in separate galleries, conditionally divided into categories, and wanted to add them to this interview. But it turned out that many of them were bought by the musicians and labels with the right of exclusive use, so, unfortunately, it is impossible to do this. Therefore, the only option to get acquainted with most of Yuri's work is to visit his FB page. Be sure to take a look!

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