We would like to invite all art lovers to come along to Cargo on Thursday the 17th of december, 7pm until 12pm,To see all new art work inside the venue and outside, featuring hot London, contemporary illustrators, Fine Artists and Sculptors. Dj Jess will be spinning some funk and soul to entertain us all
See you folks there.
Our artist of the month: David Le Fleming
I grew up in a small New Zealand town called Ashhurst which is in the North Island district of the Manawatu. My dad was a taxi driver in nearby Palmerston North and my mum was an insurance agent/squash club manager. I have an older sister by the name of Josephine and a younger brother called Andrew. Interests as a youngster included model trains, skateboarding and collecting beer cans. We used to go away as a family with our caravan to various beaches and such like. Most other kids would be playing games or fishing or something whereas I was sure to be hanging out at the local dump hunting for beer cans. Then came the collecting bones phase. Parents started to get worried when I had amased a collection that included: 8 deer skulls with antlers, 1 mountain goat skull with twister horns, 6 sheep skulls, 2 hawk skulls, 4 possum skulls, shoe box full of mouse and rat skulls, horse skull, about ten cow skulls with bottom jaws also. My grandparents ran a dairy farm so the trophy piece came in the form of a full cow skeleton which I marked the spot of when it was buried and then I dug it back up two years latter at the age of ten. Collection is now gone but probably planted the seed of my now being a vegetarian.
INTERVIEW: David Le Fleming
So David, tell us a little bit about yourself, how did you get into the art Game?
Erm, lets see. I took up art as a subject in my second to last year of secondary school. I wasn’t that bad really and so it stuck. I was also interested in joinery at the time and had an apprenticeship lined up but, fortunately for me in retrospect, the business went bust and so I had to re-evaluate. At 17 I enrolled in a one year foundation art course in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand, tutored by Trevor Morris & Heather Busch (Why cats paint). At this point I had decided that art was my bag and wanted nothing more than to go on the dole and paint full time. Trevor had other ideas however and argued that design school in Wellington was where it was at. I sifted through my four years there with little enthusiasm. I was more interested in playing in a rock band and my part time job sculpting for a special effects company. I did however take a keen interest in typography which is what I ended up building my thesis around and is now a component of my art. I tried working a few jobs as a designer after graduation but found myself fighting the office environment. In 1999 I rented a communal art studio in downtown Wellington with a group of friends and from there started exhibiting as an artist.
What is the Cargo’s wall that you have just painted about?
I wanted to do a piece that was essentially positive in nature. It’s a logical stance for street artists to be critical and to pitch a superior stance over their subject. I myself went through a considerable chapter of being anti consumer culture, exploitation and being critical of the system etc. It is the good fight and there is still a fight to be had there, but for me now I’m more interested in portraying ideas that evoke positive sentiments. The main character in the piece I’ve done for Cargo is an elderly woman weaving a thread. A few people commented as I was working on the wall that she looks a bit like Germaine Greer the feminist. She was supposed to be just an anonymous lady but I quite like the idea and it’s actually quite fitting so lets just say that it’s perhaps Germaine Greer in twenty years time. So anyway, she’s weaving a thread with her eyes closed. The figurines on either side are touching her arms as if they’re some sort of spirit guides. I thought about having the thread becoming something, but then that would make it advertorial. It’s a stronger message I feel left as it is as it encourages the viewer to think.
Where and what was the first mural that you painted ?
My first wall I believe was in 95 which was a reproduction of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus onto a couples bedroom wall with their faces interchanged with the floating two on the left. It was quite an abomination as I recall. About the same time I painted the entire inside of my Cortina which kinda counts as a wall. Door panels, dash board and inside roof.
What artists do you admire and who has inspired you in your creative work?
I really like Mark Ryden’s stuff, he’s amazing. I’m probably more directly influenced by artists that I know and have shared studios with. I have a running dialogue with a friend of mine by the name of Reuben Sutherland about linework. He’s of the contour line persuasion whereas I’m more for standardised line breadths. We can talk for hours on the subject. We worked on a wall together earlier this year along with Arran Bolders called ‘cluster fits’ and our linear approach kinda merged. (http://www.spip.co.nz/gp_clusterfits.html) Another friend of mine, Maori chap by the name of Paul Vincent is a master line worker. Not an outliner like me but more for working the softness or harshness of a line edge. Quite a phenomenon in his own right.
What is your favourite colour and why?
Black. Has to be black. White a close second. Having a palet that works for me is dependant on it being offset with a certain amount of neutral filling, especially if you’re using bright colours. I use black lines to punctuate my characters and define what I call a linear footing. My gallery work tends to look best hung on black walls also. I read somewhere that scientists have proved that there’s such a thing as black light, not just black being the absence of light. Black actually omits it’s own glow or something. Crazy eh?
Your painting at Cargo is compositionally central.is this intentional ?
Indeed, yes, but only because I measured it. I usually have what you might call a compositional drift at play in my work. For instance, if I try to pin point the centre of a page or a wall, it will always be slightly to the right. I’ve got the wonky eye syndrome. It’s an integral part of what I do tho and so I try to encourage it, even in the details. Like when I’m doing the eyes on a portrait, they’ll be couched in one direction, which can sometimes create the illusion that they’ve been twisted or something.
What do you think of street art going into galleries?
I don’t necessarily have a problem with it if it’s done in the right context. Artists need to be wary of the transparency of motivations when it comes to exhibiting street art. Putting a guilted frame around some freestyle can work isn’t keeping it real by any means. I think it’s ok to reference street art, like in some of my driving scenarios I’ll mimick street signage and sometimes graphiti to set a stage. I guess the key is to treat the gallery space like one would the street and not conform to it’s clinical cleanliness. Let the paint spill over onto the walls and urinate in the corner if that’s what you’d do in the street.
How does your work differ from working in a gallery to working on the street?
I approach each treatment quite differently. The time difference is considerable. The wall at Cargo for example took me four days to complete whereas my average car bonnet painting would take between two and three months, working on a few different pieces at any one time. A wall painting for me is mostly foresight and planning, the painting part is simply working thru the motions. My gallery set pieces are more tentatively worked out. I need time to familiarise myself with my subjects and so I’ll often redraw the profiles several times before even starting on the final artwork. The paints are different also, acrylic for wall art, out of consideration for other artists and the environment, and oil based paints when painting onto steel.
Pro’s and cons of stencil art ?
The thing that bugs me about most stencil art is that the approach is often similar and everything ends up looking like a Banksy. Ie. simplifying and cutting out the shaded areas. Stencils are perhaps derived from techniques such as screen printing and there are loads of ways of manipulating them. Paper stencils are brilliant for transferring graphical elements and typography that requires a certain tightness. I like the effects artists such as Jonathan Darby get from layering colours up through typographic stencils, they’re a lot more interesting than simply spraying a single colour and filling in the tags. A usefull tip for artists using paper stencils: Once you’ve cut out your image, allow time to paint the stencil all over with an oil based enamel. This seals the paper and stops it from going soggy and distorting when using acrylic paints.
Where do you think the London art scene is headed?
Phff, dunno. The thing with the London art scene is that it actually has a substantial audience that’s interested in what’s going on. Pang! Some places don’t and the art suffers for it. Art hubs like London are always going to attract artists from around the country and abroad because of what it has to offer, that being a broad spectrum of genres included in the art pie. It’s completely saturated right now, but then that can only be a good thing if it encourages artists to be more competitive. You’re always going find artists who compromise their work by making it more sellable and employing cheap visual puns to get a bite. But then audiences such as that in London have seen it all before and have the maturity to distinguish between the foot stomping jump up and downers and the hard grafters who’ve opted for the legacy.
Your work is very figurative, would you ever create a self portrait piece?
I’ve done a couple in the past ‘the lone nutter’ is me posing in my long johns. Not that anyone would probably recognise me with it being simplified like that. (http://www.spip.co.nz/ted_lonenutter.html) Also the guy wearing a hooded jacket in ‘ain’t yo momma Audrey’ is me. (http://www.spip.co.nz/ted_audrey.html) I tend not to do self portraits much though as I’ve often got far more interesting reference at my disposal. It’s enough having to look in the mirror every morning.
You choose really interesting materials to work on such as car parts and fridge doors, what attracts you to these materials and what would be the most far out material that you would like to work on in the future?
I choose to work on pre-existing materials because it allows me to stage a reaction to the object as well as project an idea. Objects that have exisited for specific purposes have their own story to tell and make available contexts that are hard to attain otherwise. Appropriation is the correct term to use I think. With my work I try not to only appropriate the material with all it’s imperfections, but also to appropriate the inherent purpose of the object. Painting driving scenarios onto car bonnets for example. This provides for a more comprehensive context. Also I like the aesthetic of aged metal, theres something there that appeals to me greatly.
Most far out material? I’d quite like to paint an old bus or a great big aeroplane some day. You might say ‘why not go for a space ship or a jet fighter?’ if it’s a choice of any object in the world. For me it’s important to work with objects that have a human connection, used in day to day life, not the extremities. And so your average passenger aeroplane from the 60’s perhaps would be the ultimate canvas for me.
If you could eat any cake in the world right now which would it be?
Um, it’s a close call between my mums carrot cake and my late nans rolled wine biscuit fudge cake.??
Tell us a little bit about your work habits, for example how do you get started? How does the magic happen?
Well, getting good reference to work with is important. I’ve had to learn how to coax people through photo shoots in order to get the expressions I’m looking for. Keeping them busy seems to be the best ploy, setting silly tasks in a quick fire fashion. Check your rear vision mirror, right now we’re doing 90mph on the motorway, wrench up that imaginary handbreak and plow down that gravel road. You’re in a traffic jam and really need to pee etc etc. Usually I’ll have acquired an object to work with before hand but sometimes things don’t gel that well and I’ll have to keep looking for materials to use. I’ll work out which combination of reference works best and do an initial mock up of my composition on the computer, working the templates by hand afterwards using pentel pens and pencils. The linework is key so I’ll manipulate it until I’m happy on paper, whiting out and redrawing where necessary. Then I’ll transfer a rough slap dash plotting of my character(s) using an old school animation technique of flipping the paper and following the lines. This works best for me as it allows for the linework to be manipulated again which I’ve already become partially familiar with. Also, when positioning imagery onto 3D objects it allows you to bend shapes around awkward corners as it works with your line of vision. Once I’ve plotted the main components I’ll then look to applying background treatments and enamel work. This tends to get messy so it’s best to get it down first and allow it time to dry. Then I’ll do a slightly more detailed transfer of the character(s) using the same paper flipping technique. From here I break it down and work the individual shapes, sanding some areas back and layering others up with oil and egg shell combinations. Things generally get progressively tighter towards completion. I’ll constantly redress the lines, splitting them in two, sometimes four times. I like to think of colours in space as being governed by principles such as the doppler effect. Objects can be brought forward and pushed back depending on the softness of the lines and by under painting using complimentary or non-complimentary colours.
Who are the up and coming artists in London at the moment in your opinion?
Gee, that’s a tough one. Signal Gallery has a fantastic crew and the Maverik Showroom has some brilliant graphiti artists onboard. I’m friends with a lot of artists in London and elsewhere for that matter, and to highlight some would alienate the rest so I might be lame and opt out of answering that one. Suffice to say that I don’t think the likes of Damien Hurst are that amazing and the big fish aren’t always the most interesting specimens in the pond.
Did you enjoy your experience of painting at Cargo? Be honest now!!!
Yeah, of course! Loved it, and I felt the love. Great coffee too! It can be quite isolating working from my studio in West Hampstead. Working from a location like Cargo where you’re photographed every half an hour was a novel experience compared to the usual being looked apon as a weirdo oddity.
Went to Queen Elizabeth College in P
Thanks David
While her friends had crushes on teen pop stars, she desperately wanted to be a comic artist for Donald Duck. Later, she changed her mind and imagined herself being a plastic surgeon. Now she is twenty and, luckily, she has turned out to be a terrific street artist. We first met Netta while she was painting a wall in Old Street and we had a chat with her.
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
I make lots of grumpy noices, I try to fix my hair –which, at that ungodly hour, looks like a war field– and drink a terrible amount of coffee.
Explain us in a few words who are you and where do you come from.
I am Finnish, but to be honest I have been traveling throughout my life from places to places so I often say I a from “the blue planet”. I moved to London a year ago and now study graphic design at London College of Communication (LCC).
What do you like about being a street artist?
I love being in the street, it’s addictive! I’ve always had the temptation to “mark the existence” with little scribbles in the environment. Whether it was a surreal long stick man in age of four, the statement of it was already then fundamental! Also, working in the street turns the work into a interactive piece and breaks the “distance” between the art work and the viewer. Often people don’t have the chance to see the evolution of the work which is, in my opinion, the most interesting part. It also makes it more approachable for the public and is an opportunity for me to meet lots of crazy and interesting characters!
If you were not an artist, what would you like to be?
I would always choose to do something creative. But I guess I could consider being some kind of a Christopher McCandless, like in the movie Into The Wild.
Where do you get the inspiration from? Any artists you admire?
The environment is a visual puzzle that I play with. I visualize my ideas in motion. Because they are in constant evolution I try to capture as much of it to my most precious thing: the sketchbook. It’s nice to flick trough my old sketches because they are always full of little surprises. Although, sometimes it freaks me out to see sketches that I made when I was six or seven.
Artists that I admire… I could name hundreds!! But there is something that recently inspired me a lot such as works by Animalbandido, Blu, and David Firth’s stop frame animation. They are just beautiful.
Do you have any topics that are repeated, in general, in your artwork? What’s your message?
I like to keep things a little surreal. It awakens curiosity. My work seems simple to read but the more you try to intepretate it, the less sure people become on how to make sense of it. I use subjects that are quite familiar such as instability, childhood, motherly bits and pieces, anatomy, chop and twist organisms with humor. It can make you smile but also question its “healthiness”. My style is well affected by the fact that I am a little bit a weird mix of cultures.
I don’t often use many colors in one piece because they tend to be full of texture. My work is always in captured as “unnaturally still”.
My message always leaves space for personal interpretation; many find it very dark. I have always drawn or painted when I wanted to cope with something that made me very upset. It is a way of freeing my mind from things that bothered me without hiding them. I’d like people to enjoy it visually but also to think it back. Also, London seems such an hectic environment where it’s easy to forget about yourself or others.
What’s the Cargo’s wall you painted about?
In simple terms it illustrates exploitation, the nature of a (wo)man and its relationship to its environment. But I am interested what individual interpretations can it bring.
If you could choose any wall of London to paint, which one would you choose and what would you paint in it?
If I am honest, I always wanted to paint the Gherkin to look like an easter egg. I am not quite sure why, but from the first time I saw it, I decided it was an egg, not a Gherkin.
Also, I’d quite like to paint a massive warehouse wall which I see from Shoreditch High Street into a super version of “nature of a (wo)man” piece. I want to make it look like a man could be part of the graffiti. Cargo’s wall would look like its baby product. I think it could be pretty striking. I am already excited about it but what I need is a good space and more and more designs!
What’s in your opinion the best city to paint graffiti in nowadays?
I suppose Berlin, London and Barcelona are the top ones. Also I’ve recently heard about Brazilian street art culture. I am quite shocked of the decision of who-ever to remove all graffiti from London streets! It is one of the best attractions in the city. It does not qualify as vandalism if art is out in the streets instead of being locked up in gallery spaces!
Explain us how would it be an ideal day for you in London.
I love small simple things. I’d probably get a good group of friends and set a little fire in the river bank, chilling and playing guitar. Or break dance. Or plan a massive art guerilla attack to London streets! That would be mental! I love brainstorming with friends, it’s exciting and pushes my adrenalin really high. I am already excited just with the thought of it!
As we’re always talking about street art and Barcelona has been for years one of the Meccas of graffiti art, we decided to have a chat with Anthon Maxus Christophersen, one of the driving forces in Barcelona’s street art.
Mila Doré: When did the Barcelona street art scene start and how has its evolution been? It’s said that it’s not what it used to be…
Not sure when it started. I guess Gaudí was the first really known street artist in Barcelona. Transforming boring buildings with playful adventures organic decorations. Transforming the public space into an art gallery. Bringing more joy to the people of the city.
MD: What do you think street art has contributed to the city?
For me, street art is like buying/eating at a local family owned deli, run by people who work there out of passion, and take great pleasure in serving you. A place you leave having received something original made out of passion and respect for the surroundings, compared to a McDonalds franchise… This is what makes me feel at home in Barcelona, when I walk on the small streets, away from the buildings way, often covered by big commercial banners of a Photoshop reality, all put there to make me want to use my money or think in a certain way. That’s when the street art starts to show up. From tags with the simple messages like “La belleza es tu cabeza” (“Beauty is inside your head”) to “Más Amore” (“More Love”) or beautiful abstract or figural art works. All these things turn the streets into a walkthrough gallery but, most important, brings up the inner happiness, knowing that I’m not alone and that there is love, talent and passion out there. It ignites my inner lust for life. I’m loving it.
MD: What is different from Barcelona’s scene, compared to others?
More colours and more love, less spray, more brushes… But due to cheap international flights and internet networks, you tend to see more and more artist appearing in more than one European city. So what really make Barcelona stand out is probably the high standard of the artwork.
MD: Tell me 5 spots in Barcelona where we could go and normally see good street art?
Raval, Barrio Gótico, El Borne, The 3 Chimneys in Poble Sec… and Poble nou; but Barcelona in general.
MD: If you had a sit down with Barcelona’s mayor, what would you tell him?
“Please help all the trafficked African prostitutes that every night after the dark float Rambla Catalunya –It’s sad, obvious and completely wrong–, instead of using resources on secret police looking after street artists. Do something usefully with the taxpayer’s money…”
MD: What do you think about street art going into galleries?
If an artist is able to put the same passion onto a canvas as on the street, and give the public the chance to buy it and put it in their homes for friends and family to enjoy, then I’m all for it. No doubt. That’s the great thing about art: you can’t fake it, it won’t work.
MD: How do you think the digital camera has affected the street art movement, if at all?
The best example is the animated videoclip “Muto” by Blu.
Here the street art becomes alive. As well as the tons of Flickr-type sites where artist and fans share pictures… no doubt that it inspires. So it has affected it in a great way.
MD: Who are your Top 10 Barcelona street artists?
Love and admire them all… each one for their own unique artistic style and personality. So can’t make a Top 10, but instead I’ll mention one, because she is the reason why my eyes got opened to street art and the vast beauty of it, which I’m forever grateful for: Sackristan. Respect, respect, respect.
MD: What is Vaqueros de Barcelona (“Barcelona Cowboys”)?
Vaqueros de Barcelona is the original a title of a short movie that I planned shooting in Barcelona. The short synopsis for it is: “A young man, lost in an empty world, without passion or true values, heads of to Barcelona in search of the true cowboys, in hope that they can guide him and lead the way to a meaningful life.”
Despise a lot of pondering, nothing really happened before Marc Mascort i Boix (former founder of ROJO magazine) came on board. Within a week he managed to arrange a painting party, right in the centre of Barcelona. This event transformed Vaqueros de Barcelona into what it is today: an organisation that curates art shows and arrange events to promote the true artistic cowboys of Barcelona and abroad.
Today our goals are to keep making the painting parties, as well as finding the right format for the movie (planning to launch it in late 2010), so that it shows the beauty and the greatness of these street artists.
MD: Which is the most interesting scene you’ve shoot for the moment in the documentary?
That would be a spontaneous clip: Filming 2 artist painting in day time day… A bus driver stops his bus full of passengers. He opens his window and, in a very friendly and local way, shouts: “¡Hey, tío, qué imponente!” (“Hey, pal, that’s great!”). This is so beautiful because it totally reflects the common men’s view on street art in Barcelona: as something that is valued and appreciated.
MD: Finish this sentence: “The streets of our cities…
… are the place where we meet, say goodbye and fall in love. So let them reflect all of the beauty, longings, mysteries and great to come. That’s inside of us.”
If you are in Barcelona and fancy a street art trip, check this map by the guys of Montana Shop & Gallery. With a little bit of luck you’ll be able to see the work of names such as Diva, Boris Hoppek, Sixeart, Miss Van, Btoy, Delphine Delas, Kenor, Olivia, Pez, Rallito X, Ripo, Rotor, Royal, UIU or Zosen.
Eelus swang by Cargo last month after almost a year of trying get him down here, to create a piece in our yard. As usual with Mr E, he left us with a beautiful yet slightly sinister slice of his artistic world. Mila Doré had a sit down with him to ask him a few questions about his style and his background.
Mila Doré: You first started making hand drawn posters of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Which one was your favourite and why?
Eelus: It was all about Master Splinter for me. He was like a rodent Mr Miyagi. There’s just something cool about a rat with ninja skills. I used to have pet rats too, they’re intelligent critters!
MD: Where else do you find the inspiration? (comics, films, real life…)
E: I’m big into horror and sci-fi, that’s always been my main inspiration. Most images for me are usually have one foot grounded in one of those areas. At the minute I’m reading a lot about natural geometry, Phi, the Golden Section and the basic invisible ordering of the universe. I’m becoming fascinated with the fact that even though the world to us seems chaotic and unstable, there’s a strict design and formula holding everything together. A secret language that governs everything we see or do. The same shapes and numeric equations are used from things as tiny as a virus cell all the way up to the shape and construction of an entire galaxy. For example, the orbit of Venus around the Earth creates an almost perfect pentagram every 8 years, mind blowing!
MD: Why did you choose stencils and not oil painting or ceramics?
E: I basically became interested in the same way I’m sure many others did, Banksy. I moved to London knowing nothing of stencils and street art and had my eyes opened in a big way. After being just a fan and observer of the scene for a while I decided I’d like to create my own work purely for my own satisfaction and curiosity. I used my background in design and illustration and just started making stencils of characters from my sketchbooks and from photos of friends and from magazines. I just seemed to get it, it felt right to me, something in my head clicked from the very first stencil I did. I really enjoy the process, the stages you have to deal with to produce the final piece. You need to be good at every stage to make a great stencil. You can’t be an amazing illustrator or painter but be shit with a scalpel, it just won’t work. It’s such a basic medium too, I guess I enjoy the challenge or getting what’s in my head out onto a wall or canvas using a limited colour palette and basic materials. Plus I’m very impatient and struggle with concentration problems at times. Something like oils is such a long messy process, I love the immediacy and simplicity of spraying a stencil.
MD: What do you find exciting about being on the streets?
E: I’m excited about people’s reactions to my work. I’m putting it out there to be judged, loved, hated, criticized, buffed. If you pick the right spot your piece could be seen, thought about and even discussed by hundreds of people in 1 day. That’s what excites me.
MD: How does it differ when you show your work in a gallery?
E: When you place a piece outside, you’re not trying to make money or please a gallery owner or potential buyer. I mean I know you’re not doing that when you paint a canvas too, you should always paint for you and you alone but if you’re painting a wall, you have another special level of freedom. I used to find showing pieces in a gallery really intense. I would get really excited if people liked the work or bought the work, and I’d become really down and withdrawn if bad things were said or if nothing sold. I’m learning to get better with all that now and starting to really enjoy creating art for myself and purely for the sole reason of creating.
MD: Who are your references in street art?
E: As I mentioned it was Banksy that first introduced me to street art and him and Eine that gave me my first break allowing me to sell my work through Pictures On Walls. My main ‘street art’ favourites are people like Herakut, C215, Titifreak, Blu, Word To Mother, Lister, David Choe, Mr Jago, Mike Giant, Skinner. I tend to be more influenced by people outside street art though, everyone from Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Fuseli to James Jean, Mike Mignola, Tom Gauld, Ashley Wood, Stanley Kubrik, Arthur C. Clarke, and last but not least H.P Lovecraft.
MD: Which is the best graffiti you’ve ever seen?
E: this:
MD: What do you think street art contributes to people in big cities?
E: I think it gives people an everyday opportunity to see art and engage their brains on something they probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. A lot of people never bother going to galleries or museums because they can be put off by the atmosphere or because they have a preconceived idea about what to expect, but with street art, it becomes part of your everyday world whether you like it or not. You could pass a piece on the street on the way to work and that piece could stop you in your tracks, make you take out 1 minute of your busy day to stop and think about it and it could stick in your head for the rest of the day, week, month. It could create discussion between colleagues and friends, make you share ideas and thoughts and just generally get people talking and discussing art where they wouldn’t have otherwise. I got an email once from a woman who had spotted one of my angels that I painted in Dublin. She was walking past there with her son and she said she got the feeling it was there watching over her and her family, giving her hope for the future. I thought that was amazing, it makes it all worthwhile.
MD: Compared to other cities in the world, what do you think about London’s street art scene?
E: I think there’s a lot of great stuff going on but I also think there’s a lot of shit being put out there. I haven’t done anything outside for a while now mainly because I feel like the streets are awash with bad stencils. It’s true that everyone has to start somewhere, you can’t be expected to knock out great pieces from day one, I know I certainly didn’t, but I also didn’t go spraying weak work all over the shop. I won’t put anything outside now unless the location has been carefully considered, planned and thought out and the piece is good enough to be put out there, to make a positive difference to that space and environment.
MD: If you could paint any wall in London which one would it be and what would you paint there?
E: I guess it wouldn’t all be about the biggest most high profile wall. Like I said it would have to be a wall that would interact successfully with the piece, become a collaboration between myself and the street. Sometimes the best wall spaces are the ones hidden away that only a small handful of people will ever see.
MD: What’s the best one you’ve already painted?
E: I think the 2 most successful pieces for me have to be the Main large wall I painted at the Cans Festival in London last year and the Lost Angel in Dublin. They came out exactly as I wanted them, I had a great time painting them, met some great people on both occasions during the process and I’ve had a really positive response from the people who saw them.
MD: What’s the thinking behind Cargo’s wall?
E: I have to say there’s no real concept behind the piece other than the woman is supposed to represent a kind of witch, living out in the forest. I just wanted to make the most of the opportunity and paint something that was just for the sake of painting. It was interesting for me to work on such a landscape format, most of my stuff seems to be portrait for some reason. It was also nice to relax and have fun with it knowing there were no print or canvas sales coming off the back of it.
MD: Could you tell us your favourite place in London to get inspired?
E: London has inspiration everywhere. I live on the South East coast now and make the trip to London around once a week to catch up with stuff. On that day I have an almost inspiration overload. I do a tour of the galleries and see what other people are doing, I walk the streets and take photos, I nip into books shops on the way and stock up on magazines then I spend time with friends in the pub in the evening. Every part of that day in London for me is inspirational.
MD: Tell us two or three places to go in London if we want to see good street art.
E: I used to have a studio in Hackney Wick, that places is constantly dripping with fresh paint. Other than that you’d probably wanna do a tour of the east end. Hit Shoreditch, Old Street, Hackney Rd areas, it’s always been the street art heart of London.
MD: Are you pessimistic or optimistic?
E: Depends what day you catch me on. Some days I can be the Lord of Doom and Gloom but then on others nothing can go wrong. I’m making more of a conscious effort recently to stay positive and optimistic at all times. At the end of the day I’m my own boss, I do what I love doing every single day of my life, I have an amazing supportive family and great friends, a roof over my head, I don’t really have anything to be pessimistic or negative about. The current financial situation in this country is the only worrying thing, a lot of people are obviously feeling the pinch.
MD: Which is your biggest fear? And your most unachievable dream?
E: My biggest fear is losing my creativity and having to go back to working for someone else. That depresses the hell out of me. My most unachievable dream is to become bitten by a radioactive animal or insect which results in me having bizarre super powers, massive responsibilities and crazy enemies. To direct sci-fi films would also be amazing but I have a suspicion that may never happen.
MD: If you could go back in time, would you do anything differently?
E: I would use a darker grey on the background for the Cargo wall 
Apart from that, absolutely nothing. You have to go where the journey takes you, roll with the punches and learn as much as you can from everything you do and everyone you meet.
MD: If you had to choose: Demon or angel?
E: Demon. Nietzsche said that In Heaven, all the interesting people are missing’.I couldn’t agree more.
MD: If you were god and suddenly woke up after a long sleep and saw the current chaos, what would be the first thing you’d do?
E: I’m not sure if I believe in ‘God’ but maybe there is some kind of grand Creator, It’s a nice theory. It seems to me that if something has created us, it’s almost like they’ve bought a Kitten, they’ve let the kitten loose in the house then completely forgotten about it. So when he/she comes back and finds the house has been trashed, he can hardly be surprised. In all honesty if I was said Creator, I’d get my majestic caddie to hand me my Godlike putter and I’d tap us into the nearest black hole (obviously in 1 shot) and start again. I guess me trying to be optimistic isn’t going too well just yet.
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For more information on Eelus go to:
http://eelus.com/ or his One Big Freak Show blog
Thanks to Unusualimage for use of his flickr images.
Could you imagine what morphology nature would acquire to defend itself from devastating human attacks? French street artist Ludo was at Cargo last month decorating our wall with his answer to the question.
His ephemeral creation was part of his “Nature’s Revenge” series. With his eye-catching street art he reflects about the relationship between humans, weapons and nature. In his work you can see skull grapes, hand grenade plants, cauliflower bombs, rose thorns, sunflower guns, carnivorous plants, omnipresent security organic cameras that watch us like if we were in the book 1984, and leaves changing from vital green to sad gray, emerging from the concrete, bricks and asphalt. A perfect imaginary to prompt the most spooky green nightmares. Be careful what you think about tonight.
See here some other pictures or check his site / flickr slideshow for the lazy ones.
Eight years is no small thing. Cargo’s yard has had most, if not all, of the cream of the UK’s street art scene and even a few from further abroad grace it’s battered walls. We don’t like to drop name but *cough* Bansky, Shepard Fairey, Herakut, Miss Pink, Nick Walker, D*Face, KLANG!. So we decided we were mature enough to launch our very own Flickr account. We want to share with you all those great pieces of art that have been breathing life into the walls of our yard for so long.
Par example:
Click here if you fancied more than these yummy appetizers. Here for the slide show.
A month back Greek street artist The Krah hit up our 6th wall with a striking, multi-method piece. Wet Paint had a sit down with him to ask him a few questions about his style and his background.
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Wet Paint: Do you remember the first mural/wall you painted? What was it and what prompted you to paint it?
The Krah: Graffiti is like an imprinted instinct, with roots in our tribal ancestors’ territorial marking and freedom of speech. Everyone sees Greece as a paradise holiday destination, with beautiful beaches, nice food and hot weather. As a child brought up in one of the most over crowded built up Mediterranean cities, with high unemployment, corruption, police brutality, knowing that you will be trapped in a 12 month army duty after school, it felt like there was no future.
I started doing tags in the streets of Athens as a kid, pure vandalism – it was so much fun. Then I felt the need to use spray paint and to get more creative so I did my first paintings of characters back in 1997 on one of the walls at my school. But that just wasn’t enough I soon got addicted and started painting the streets in central Athens, met other graff writers and then fell in love with painting subway trains. As I got older my passion to create opened lots of doors, I got to travel, meet people and through experimenting with different ways of making art I developed the style I have now.
WP: Graffiti or ‘tagging’ has recently been becoming more prevalent in your home city of Athens. Has this been a long time coming or a gradual build up of tagging? Why is it “all over the city” (or is that media misrepresenting it?)
TK: In Greece like in most Mediterranean countries because of the hot weather, people tend to spend most of their time out doors, in parks or meandering around in the city. Graffiti is not only a way of marking your journeys but it’s a way of changing your surroundings. The graffiti boom didn’t happen in the 80s like in the States or Western Europe, it started later on in the early 90s. Before that you would see lots of political and football slogans but because of our passionate and fiery nature it just got out of control, the youth took over the streets. Now days Greece exports the Sabotage spray paint, feta and olives.
WP: What would you say separates Greek street art from the scene in the UK? How are both scenes different?
TK: I find that we are more influenced by the European and Brazilian scene where as the English have been more influenced by the American style. Seeing the Athenian street-art you see strong references to Greek mythology and a lot of references to the Sea for example mermaids and anchors. You can’t avoid seeing political meanings in the street paintings visualising the current government corruption and the effect it has in the modern Greek society.
Sharp Graphic elements inspired by graphic design, seem to concur the new generation of graffiti in Athens. An interesting element is the new style of roller tagging that has been influenced by the notorious Brazilian pixacao taggers. I showed my Brazilian mate Milo Tchas some photos of them and asked him to compare them. He told me that the Greek style of roller tagging was different because the letters in the Brazilian pixacao are separate to each other and tall but the Greek ones are stack together look more like graphic logos and some have 3d shadows like traditional graffiti.
Check out some Greek graffiti/street art here:
WP: Who are your current favourite artists and why?
TK: Since I stated doing graffiti I always loved the work of Stelios Faitakis other ways known as Bizar. One of the first Greek graffiti artists and one of the most known. His style is influenced by the Orthodox church wall paintings that has a strong visual presence In the Greek society mixed with themes based on ancient Greek mythology and elements of the far eastern culture, illustrating the struggle of the working class and the fight for freedom against the system depicting scenes of revolutions between angels and riot police.
WP: What role do you think digital photography and the internet have played in the street art boom (if any)?
TK: I remember before the internet and cheap fights we made and watched graffiti videos and graff magazines as it was the only way to find out more of what was going on in the graffiti sub-culture and find inspiration. Now days its easier to travel and you can check on the internet and see the new styles world wide, web-sites like graffiti.org, woostercollective.com and ekosystem.org have been as important to the evolution of graffiti as has the book spray-can art by Martha Cooper.
WP: There is something about Akira in your art, is that a fair comment? Has Japanese anime influenced your art?
TK: Akira is definitely one of the best animated films of all time. In 2002 my mate Eon from my crew (http://www.101crew.co.uk/) gave me a ticket for Tokyo. So, I went with him for a week of non stop graffiti and getting smashed. It was just life changing. They use cartoon mascots instead of logos and the streets of the centre all look like a futuristic Piccadilly circus full of neon signs and digital video adverts on screens, their rich alphabet adds to the visual stimulation… Japanese people of all ages read Manga comics on the tube on their way to work.
I love the Asian Temple roof tops that curl, and the way the Buddhist religion reflects on the population and you can see it in their mannerisms. Everything is different from the food to the smells, I could go on forever. It was a very inspiring trip and has effected they way I think and draw.
WP: You work on a lot of media, which is your favourite to work in and why?
TK: There is nothing like painting in the streets…. Finding spots that fit with the surroundings, so the art-work becomes one with the city. The idea that it belongs to everyone and it won’t last for ever, it is alive and it will deteriorate with the wall or might change by other people scribbling over it or cleaning it off.
WP: Have you ever been in trouble with the law?
TK: Lots of times….
WP: Who or what do you find influencing the work you create?
TK: Hypnotic rivers of sound, the vibrations of bass, spectrums of light, feelings, tastes and aromas of every day experiences.
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The Krah is currently working on a deck series for a British Skateboard Company and has three shows running at the moment in Birmingham, London and Brighton.
He will be appearing in some group shows in Athens, Berlin and New York.
Keep an eye on his travels and his trade-mark pieces appearing all over the world here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-krah/
You can also buy some The Krah limited edition prints from here:
The French Trio 3megabits, triple-teamed a wall a month back. They also adorn this month’s Cargo flyers.
How did you guys end up painting together?
Fabulon : What?
Go Frida : It was at the Shunt Lounge in June 2008, Fabulon had the opportunity to exhibit some work and paint on walls. Got scared and called us…we had a great time, free drinks, met great people and decided to carry on with the trio thing.
Barth : …
What are the benefits & disadvantages to working in a trio?
Fabulon : Qu’est ce qu’il a dit?
Go Frida : It helps you to go out there and do stuff rather than just planning on doing it and moaning about not having the time or the energy. The disadvantage is that it’s a democracy and you’ve got to take into account other opinions and ideas. Some people see that as an advantage though…
Barth : …
Is there a medium you guys prefer to work in?
Go Frida : We’re trying different medium as we go along and depending on the surface but our favorite combo is paint and markers because it’s got the speed and allows a good level of detail in the drawing.
Fabulon : Stencil is cool too, it’s easy and it looks good.
Barth :…
In a fight, who out of you lot would win?
Fabulon : Quoi?
Go Frida : Me. Period.
Barth : … (smoking)
Paper, Rock or Scissors?
Go Frida and Barth : Rock!
Fabulon : We mostly use painting and markers…
