| tejp
interviews |
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LADY
The
Method You need to put blinders on and just do it. If you let go of the blinders, then you will see the whole world is opening in front of you. If I commit myself 100% each day and just walk straight I can reach that point, and maybe even support myself. Why
take pictures of your work? What
is the relationship between your art {drawing and painting} and your graffiti? I think back to when I was when I was 19, I had wanted to become a real artist. I did 4 years of the pre art school and I still want to get my masters in art. But I keep doing graffiti... How
long have you been drawing?I’ve been drawing since I was
super small it’s kind of like storytelling. I have never looked at myself
as an illustrator, but when I look back at my diaries there are always
pictures. Even if you don’t want to see, you see it. If you cant be somebody in other fields, with graffiti, you can be somebody and put up your name, your work, you can freely show things to others. It’s a real dialogue. The dialogue between politicians and grafitti has been in the dark for a long time. For example with this exhibition I was a part of in Stockholm. There were 10 writers involved almost everyone did graffiti and I did too. The politicians tried to shut it down because of the 0 tolerance. They were not able to shut it down and it resulted in new discussions. Now politicians in Stockholm have been seeking new ways to put up legal grafitti again. A
dialogue between writers and the public, the police? When you first did graffiti why did you do it? When I was a kid I used to get harassed for being fat or ‘uncool’ but with graffiti I could go out and show them I was doing something. It was uplifting. What
is it about the love for letters and words? Do you have a crew or work alone? When
was the crew started? The style is inspired by Flying Circus Monty Python. For a while we called our style 'circus style' as a reaction against style like Picasso. I can do a wild style, any style, but I like the simplicity. People they used to think our style was fucked up but now our style is more the trend, its kind of funny, ironic. Who
else are you inspired by? Even though I am inspired by old school graffiti, I am still personal with my grafitti and I am always looking out for inspiration. I'm inspired by a lot of other artists like Basquiat and a lot of pop art. On battles Doing a battle, its like an old school thing to do coming from hip
hop culture amd the four elements. Each crew does a separate piece. In
a battle you have to dis the other crew. On Friendship and Grafitti Some writers take pictures of them, the FALCK security, but that doesn't come close to what the FALCK security does to writers. They will actually follow you from home. They take the law into their own hands "catch this writer 10 points." They play a very ugly game in Sweden. They had a register of writers which is illegal. Now, they have been sued, and fired and are awaiting a trial. At the same time, politicians decide how grafitti is going to be removed. They take away the big pieces leaving doodles, giving graffiti a bad name or they do hash marks over pieces claiming that they will come back and wash it away but they never do so the result is shit. They work against graffiti so that the community only sees the ugly aspects. Do
you mask yourself? What
happens when someone goes over your work? There are too many incompetent writers that don’t understand the level
of respect. It’s hard to go over a piece done by a writer (for me), so
you ask permission. Newcomers don’t care and they will just go right over
and that’s kind of stupid. Usually if you ask, you can either do something
together or they say just go over it. But sometimes. if it’s already falling
apart then you can just go over it. Expression
based on space? Legal
walls versus Illegal Walls And space invaders that’s great as well as Zeuz from France. He does outlines of shadows, this really amazing work in Germany when he cut out a piece of the advertisement {ie. cuts out space of a woman} and writes visual kidnapping. And BANKSY I didn’t realize how big he was. I love when he made the
stencil that said this space is reserved for graffiti. Its amazing and
its working the next day that space was filled with pieces. Does it have to do with control and controlling the public?Yeh the upper eschelon want to control the community and the public. Nobody should control anybody else you can’t say this is how its supposed to be or this is what you are supposed to do. Even art school is disliked by society as a whole. It won’t bring ‘work,' it wont bring ‘money.' Art works (in the classical sense) are maybe more accepted because art has been recognized as a part of society. It's strange how they can't see grafitti is art and is a part of our history too. Envisioning
a better world Instead of doing something in this moment, you can let it hold you back. Its right in front of you and you don’t do anything about it. I would like to stop the expansion of humankind in some respects. Instead of trying to make the world our own and taking up every possible space, I'd like to see ourselves as accepting humankind as part of the life cycle we are not the end of evolution we are not the highest terrestrial. Mankind has been thinking outside the life cycle since the revolutions
of the farmers. In the middle east and the expansion conquering the
land by growing it and killing every living animal in their way just to
have their own growth they {we} have gone outside the law of the big
picture. They break these laws and the sentence for that is death. Maybe
we are heading that way. Today
do you think grafitti has anything to do with the history of political
propoganda or even commercials? |
EMMI Do you have a message you are trying to convey?
Have you ever been caught by the local authority?
Do you have a crew or do you work alone?
Do
you think it has anything to do with the history of political propaganda? |
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