In a short film premiered exclusively on AnOther, the Iceage musician and American portrait artist reflect on their friendship at 222 The Bowery in New York
In 2012, the artist Elizabeth Peyton met Elias Bender Rønnenfelt backstage at an Iceage concert in Leipzig. She felt drawn to something – “it was so off, yet so right” – in his music with the incendiary Danish punk band, and wanted him to sit for a portrait.
Those portraits – displayed as part of Peyton’s Aire and Angels exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2019 – became a “foundation for a friendship to flourish”, says Rønnenfelt, who remembers long afternoons drinking wine and eating almonds and chocolate while the artist painted.
“Elizabeth holds a very pure ability to convey her subjects,” says the frontman of Iceage, whose preference for waifish rock-star types has seen her capture the brooding charisma of Kurt Cobain and David Bowie on canvas, among others. “You can gaze into the eye on the paper and feel like it holds actual life.”
Last September, Peyton and Rønnenfelt sat down for a conversation at 222 The Bowery, New York City – famously dubbed “the bunker” by William S Burroughs, whose stay here during the 70s brought a who’s-who of talent to the door including Patti Smith, Susan Sontag and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Rønnenfelt recalls being “consumed” by the Naked Lunch author’s work after stealing one of his books at a library as a young teenager, and was thrilled when Peyton suggested the venue to tease songs from his first solo album, Heavy Glory, released in November last year.
“222 Bowery was also the home of [poet and Burroughs collaborator] John Giorno and still houses his poetry foundation,” says Rønnenfelt. “I met Giorno a number of times in New York, but the last time I saw him was at the very same Copenhagen library where I pickpocketed that Burroughs book when I was a kid. So when Elizabeth mentioned the possibility of hosting a show at the bunker, I was over the moon. [It] felt a coming together of things in a pretty grand way.”
On hand to capture this collision of artistic worlds was director Jacob Bixenman, who pairs footage from the interview and performance with rapt scenes of Rønnenfelt roaming the city at night. Premiered exclusively by AnOther here, it’s a revealing glimpse into the pair’s friendship and a first sign of things to come from Rønnenfelt, who has new music on the way in the summer.
