The Psychotropic Internet GIFs of Peekasso

Put the internet, vintage TV, and C-SPAN’s funniest home videos into a blender, and what you pour out might look something like the GIF art of German-American artist Peekasso. A quick glance at his Tumblr melts eyes with an avalanche of strobing fluorescent colors, heavily Photoshopped cultural icons, and ideological statements that range from the subtle and thought-provoking, to the politically incorrect, over-the-top, and unabashedly honest.

Peekasso, whose given name is Peter Stemmler, immigrated to the United States in 1997, and started the successful illustration company Quickhoney with artist Nana Rausch three years later. In 2007, he began putting personal projects on a the Peekasso Tumblr, filling it with stylized memes of Spock, Mr. T, and then-Senator Obama. In 2011 he began experimenting with GIFs, “out of boredom,” he tells The Creators Project. Here’s his very first one. 

His frenetic GIF art style has developed over the last five years, through hundreds of graphic experiments mixing corporate and political branding, pornography, and nostaliga into a miasma of inside jokes and discomfort that reflects the miasma of online culture. “I like to see myself changing,” he says. “I don’t mind my old work, but now I’m faster, more secure in my decisions, and more political.”

Cultural moments like #CallMeCaitlin, the Republican primary debates, and the advent of Minions have become vital to online literacy, so Peekasso’s work not only acts as his reaction to an oversaturated market of #content, but is a twisted catalog of happenings across the web. As he puts it, “I’m the internet, the internet is me.” His hot (psychedelic, strobing) takes on the issues are thoughtful meme-ifications of complex issues, or absurdist images that double as metaphors for the problems of society.

“Somebody said, an artist should bring out the mystic truths,” he recalls, attempting to explain the ethos behind his work. “Or maybe a different perspective on life.”

One thing’s for sure: our perspective will never be the same after seeing his Mickey Mouse/Travis Bickle mashup.

See more of Peekasso’s GIFs on his website.

Related:

A Guide To Enjoying (And Making Your Own) GIF Art

This Code-Based GIF Art Replicates Nature’s Natural Algorithms 

Evan Roth’s Wikipedia GIFs Are Morphed, Multiplying Found Art 

GIF Artist Peekasso Puts a Psychedelic Spin on the American Flag