Talking to Fredrik Andersson aka Freddelanka, it soon became clear that we shared more interests than what lay under Ray Winstone’s canary-yellow Speedos. ‘My goal is to make lasting objects to sit in people’s homes that expresses some form of queer agenda,’ he says. ‘Actually that goes for all of my pieces nowadays. Because after all I am queer and I want people to know that I am here.’ We couldn’t agree more. We caught up with the man himself to talk about his exclusive Loverboy heroes collection and what the future holds.

Hey Fred, thank you so much for doing these pieces for us. Can you tell us about how you went about painting them?
They are a set drawings featuring a few of our favourite Loverboy heroes. In my illustration work I have an obsession with the intimate. There is something very personal about getting that up and close and it is when we do this that we can learn about one another. So for this project after I chose my subjects I researched them and picked the visual parts that caught my attention the most.
For example we have Lil Kim´s boob, an iconic piece of clothing that is now so heavily related to her that you do not even need to see her face to connect the dots, this was a very brave fashion statement at the time, a statement that says a lot about her as a person.
Another example is your very own Francois Sagat shoot where the interesting, mixed energy of the feminine and masculine. As a person that has a huge following of muscle queens, Sagat shows by playing on this that he is in fact more than just a hot bod.

Do you have a favourite?
From a sexual point of view I would have to say Ray Winstone´s bulge from Sexy Beast. I mean who does not like a hot bulge on a warm summers day?
Jokes aside…

Who’s joking? We’re crazy for Ray in Speedos. #Zaddy.
Haha….well I also feel that 80s Storm is my favourite, I hold her very close to my heart. As a kid I grew up with the comics and cartoons and I have always thought that Storm was never given enough attention or treated properly in the films. My gay child’s heart was hoping to see the badass, mohawk-rocking, leather-strapped, punk leader of the X-men that I got to know from the Secret Wars graphic novel up on screen and instead I got Halle Berry. No offence to Halle. In the comic she gets abused by the Patriarchy (aka Xavier and Cyclops) when they take control over her group of X-men from under her feet, being a strong feminist she is not afraid to verbally express her outrage over this, something that always made me respect her.

Can you tell us about your interpretation of the Grace Jones’ Island Life image?
Grace Jones has always mystified me. The first time I laid eyes on her was in A View to a Kill. Who was this femme fatale? And out of all of the imagery that was created for her this, according to myself, is the most iconic. When I first came across it I wasn’t old enough to understand that it had been heavily manipulated. But now that I’ve gotten older, I have realised more about the damage faking body Image has on people. So with this image I wanted to celebrate Grace as the queer icon that she is but also comment on the problems with the original imagery by exaggerating the more ”inhuman” aspects from the photograph.

What do you normally paint?
My personal work is heavily tied to my own life, so most of the time it revolves around sex and intimacy. Looking at things that I am attracted to or exploring a curiosity towards a certain kink. So naturally the imagery that I create feature men, some from my own life and some drawn based on pure fantasy. But in recent days as a direct response to Trump winning the election I have made a conscious decision to feature more women and people of colour in my work. And despite my massive obsession over hairy men I will never get to sleep with I must remember that the people that have made me into the person that I am today are mostly women. I have also realised that as an artist I have an opportunity & responsibility to  express my wish for equality in the world as loudly as possible. So I was really happy/grateful for this opportunity to show some appreciation for some of my favourite female role models.

Is paint your only medium?
Haha I wish, I think my life would be easier to plan if it was. I tend to dabble in a wide range of mediums. I go back and forth as my interest runs dry and I will have to leave it for a while and come back to it. For the past year my practice has had three cornerstones – illustration (Digital and analog), ceramics and writing. I go in rotation with these week by week or even day by day. I used to think that I wanted to become a comic book writer, but I discovered that I have more  freedom to express what I want with text rather than with imagery, as my drawings are quite humorous in their style, feelings like sadness and anger comes across as more sincere in my written work.
My ceramics is the newcomer of the bunch, but by far my most popular pieces. At the moment my most loved piece is a small plate with a pink butt on it. I am working really hard to push myself to learn as much as I can about this craft.

What’s your favourite piece you’ve created so far?
I wrote a short book about my two siblings. For many years I had felt that we never communicated in the way that I wanted us too. Frustrated that I never got a chance to talk about how they made me feel, the book openly talked about my anger and my guilt for the things that we do to one another. I gave them both a copy to read, I was so terrified that they would hate me for talking about our family so openly. After reading it, my brother gave me a big hug and told me that he had cried while reading it, and my sister laughed and told me it made her realise how differently we see things. So out of all my pieces I think it has had the biggest impact so far on me as a person.

What are you working on at the moment?
So on top of my more traditional illustration practice, that I am always working on improving and changing. I am working really hard to finish writing a series of short autobiographical stories about sex and intimacy, that I have been collecting for about eight months. The plan is to have the book ready by summer. Thankfully I have two close friends that are helping me out to speed things up with design and editing.
I’m also close to finalising some designs for my ceramic work as well – my goal is to make lasting objects to sit in people’s homes that expresses some form of queer agenda. Actually that goes for all of my pieces nowadays. Cause after all I am queer and I want people to know that I am here.

Finally we are named after the infamous song ‘Loverboy’. What is your favourite Mariah song?
‘Emotions’, there is nothing that hits home as much as that high note <3

Find out more about Fred at www.freddelanka.com and Facebook or Instagram.