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1. How long have you been working with aerosol?
Since 1985. I started Writing in 1984 but I only used markers
for the first year.
2. Your work seems to have punk, Hip-Hop and d.j influences.
To what degree are you involved in any of these subcultures?
I've done a lot of work that references the Hiphop movement.
I was solidly into the whole culture from 1984 onwards, I've
spent time in the past writing about B-boying and set up and
made art for the magazine Big Daddy with my friend George
Mahoud.
We're currently about to release a new publication called
Grand Slam magazine which continues in this vein.
I reached a point when I wanted to broaden my subject matter,
and the Punk thing was a natural choice since the first
street artist who ever impressed me was a bloke that wrote
"Baz" with an anarchy for the "A".
Most of my personal figurative work now is based on English
street culture - bouncers, punks, mods etc. I have a whole
collection I'm working on at the moment that I'll release
later this year.
3. Do you prefer to work in collaboration
or as a solo artist?
The aerosol movement is unusual in that it places a lot of
emphasis on collaboration. I became interested in building
a more considered narrative between artists a while back.
I went through a period of working on a kind of holistic approach
to conceptual murals. However, it was pretty draining and
I found that I wasn't putting the energy I wanted into my
own parts of the painting, so at the moment I'm very focussed
on solo work.
I like to have the whole space to build narrative in. Its
hard otherwise, because there are so many visual languages
and statements vying for attention that it often becomes
a visual shouting match. I'm into collaborating with one
or two people at a time if something interesting might come
from it.
4. How much planning is involved before
starting a large piece such as a mural or wall? What is
this process like?
I actually really dislike planning paintings, although its
necessary to a degree. I've been drawing more or less every
day since I was able to hold a pen, but I need to have an
element of adventure and anxiety in a painting otherwise it
just gets boring to me.
One of the many factors that took me to my Organic style
was a need to get that planning stuff out of the way so
I could then use the framework to be spontaneous in. Its
like seduction: you might light the candles and cook the
meal, but you don't want to script the sex.
5. Tell us about the piece you did live
at the re-opening of the Marquee
Club last September.
Dave Stewart (ex-Eurthymics) is pretty adventurous: he just
gave me the space and trusted me to take care of it. It was
only a matter of hours before the event, so I had no design
and luckily happened to have paint with me.
It was a wild experience - I was working literally in
the entrance foyer opposite the VIP lounge. When the stars
arrived, the flashguns were going off and I was right there,
off my face on paint fumes and champagne. It was rough at
first though - a film crew started following me around when
I was getting ready to start - they were talking about capturing
the first stroke of paint and history being made, which
was a bit of a headfuck.
6. When did you start working in digital
graphics? Was this a difficult transition?
It was no problem for me. When I was 13, I had a Commodore
VIC20 and spent a lot of time making little fonts and sprites.
I started doing digital work from repeated requests for design
work, and eventually became interested in it as an artistic
medium in itself since I found that certain issues I was dealing
with in my other work were converging on it as an aesthetic.
For example, I was working on refining my interpretation
of a classic B-boy character style (not necessarily the
imagery itself). But when I started working with the Germans
a while back, they saw it as a graphic style executed in
aerosol and the clarity of execution appealed to them. It
was only after that that I started experimenting with designing
characters in vectors.
7. How much of your work is driven by a
need to express a message and how much is driven by a need
to create aesthetics?
I think both the Aerosol and Design scenes are overwhelmingly
concerned with appearance and I've been interested in pushing
elements of narrative, concept and symbolism in my work for
a long time now. My real concern is that people don't look
into the work far enough to see that: I think the general
feeling about Writing in particular is that it is mostly concerned
with style rather than content. So I have to resist overexplaining
the ideas and maybe pump up the intensity in the visuals until
it sparks. I love melodrama anyway- if I could achieve the
level of intensity of Morricone, for example, I would be happy.
Its hard though, because it has to be the whole thing: it
has to be in the line, the colours, the image, the execution,
the concept. I think the only way to get there is really by
just that intense in yourself. It can't be faked.
Pretty much everything I done for a while now is full of
hidden meanings and symbolism.
8. What can we expect to see in the SHOK1.com
retail section?
I'm currently working on my new collection and it will
include clothing, prints and original canvases. and hopefully
my first limited edition toy. I have a big backlog of original
product ideas, but I thought it would be wise to start off
with the things that people have been asking for.
9. If there was one person you could meet,
who would it be and why?
I would like to do some work with Futura maybe - myself
and a lot of the early UK aerosol people were very influenced
by him in the mid 80's, a long time before he blew up in
the design scene, worked with MoWax etc. We met a few years
back but painted seperately - nice bloke, no bad attitude
at all.
10. What was the last great movie you have
seen?
City of God. Its about life in the Brazilian ghettos -
70% of the actors were first timers from the street.
Keep up the incredible work ..... I can't wait to see those
canvases your going to put up for retail!
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