Ers and Gilbert’s serendipitously met at a late night after party in London, where the latter was DJing. Although prolific in their own practices, their shared humour drew them together and their partnership began in 2016 out of Gilbert’s studio in Seven Sisters. Both have degrees from Central St Martins, where Ers studied fashion and Gilbert fine art.

The duo reminisce on the creation of their name, mentioning sinister means ‘left’ in latin, and the left side of the brain is responsible for intuition. They note that people can see intuition and intuitive actions as suspect, because there isn’t a factual or rational explanation behind them. Subsequently they came across the similar-sounding word ‘synastry’, which is the comparison of astrological birth charts of two people to determine their compatibility in relationship, which resonated within their practice.

Gilbert’s long standing multidisciplinary bodies of work, centred around investigating altered states, re-embodiment and the esoteric alongside Ers’ exquisite techniques and couture fashion background, where the perfect alchemical cauldron to create a new practice infused with primordial energy, mystery and symbology.

However, the duo stress that humour and word play as a crucial element, a sword of truth that has the ability to cut through complex issues and offer a more playful way of seeing and feeling the world through their work. Before each new body of work begins, a manifesto is created, that the subsequent works narrate.

Their process involves exchanging each others energetic interpretations eventually merging together, similar to the game of Exquisite Corpse [the collaborative drawing game invented by the Surrealists in the 1920s].”