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failed art


Here is the 2nd issue of Failed upgrade with 188 pages of freight graffiti from Russia.
You can download the pdf here.

Klone/Tel Aviv interview


Can you introduce yourself ? Who are you ? where do you live ?
Over the last 7 years or so I’ve been signing some of my works as Klone , some I don’t sign and others are done under different names . I guess my most known work goes under the label of Klone so we can stick to that.

I come from Tel-Aviv ,
which is physically located in Israel ,
but mostly feels like an independent island
of sanity/insanity in this crazy land .

My beginning with street art lay in graffiti which I started doing somewhere in 1999 (under the name MAKE), back then we didn’t really have any graff scene here in Tel-Aviv or in Israel at all and you could count all graffiti kids around the country on one and half hands :)

How did you came to street-art ?
Long story short – around 2003-4 I started to experiment with characters . Started with stickers and passing through couple characters I came upon one that eventually got me my current name and stuck for awhile, It was a kind of clone but I wanted it different so C was replaced with K . Years later I’m not doing a single character anymore and half the time I don’t even sign my work outside but trying to develop a kind of deeper conversation between myself, the city and the occasional viewer. And since few years ago I started to be more involved in the contemporary art scene in Israel, then the environment of the white cube came into my life and allowed me another platform of self expression.

You are born in Ukraine. Are Ukrainian culture and graffiti scene an influence to your visual language ?
I moved from Ukraine to Israel in 94 , back then there was no graff scene in either of the places . I am surely inspired from the Ukrainian folk culture as this where I’m coming from . I always feel that I didn’t get enough of that and trying to learn more . I think that eventually the work doesn’t reflect one place that I belong to because I can’t say I belong to one place or culture, so the work is neither Ukrainian, Israeli or International. Its more of a hybrid, evolution of thinking that becomes through adaptation to new environments around me.

Who and what inspires you ?
I think what inspires me the most is the constant changes around us. Of course I’m always looking back , at history of humankind , art history and my own roots , but those things are always in the back of head and they’re more like a library you to for reference . The everyday life , the news , the people , the city , all those things that change with me or without me are the ones that fascinate me the most . I think that’s one of the reasons I have this feeling and hope that I wont ever be able to accomplish myself as an artist , there’s way too many things I want to paint , sculpt and create in many other ways .

What do your work express about yourself ?
My work is probably the best way to see who I am and how I reflect my surroundings , as I’m not so good with words most of the time , I prefer to communicate with images, and only through viewing a large amount of my work you can understand something .

You released your first artist book with a lot of your photos and illustrations. Is it a self-published book?
Yes, Its self published , probably because

I always thought that the DIY way is the best way

and it assembled from 160 pages of images only in a hardcover . This book was a way for me to get away from all the big projects I’ve been involved with over the last year, like solo show and group show in Tel-Aviv museum, and focus on something more private . In a way this book is an attempt to bring you behind the scenes of  my work , get into my head , with all the weirdness that comes along . It assembles bits of work from past years and also work that was done especially for it.
(more…)

OZ stays FREE!

A few weeks ago we posted about the developments in the case of  OZ – a widely known graffiti painter from Hamburg.

On the 3rd February 2012 the Hamburg District Court has reduced the sentence of 14 months of jail on appeal to a fine of 1500 €. The court argued that the acts already lie back up to four years. In addition, the “inhibitory ability” of the defendant is severely restricted. Even a prison sentence would not deter him from further crime.

….here is a recent interview (german) he gave: OZ Interview 2012

 

 

Ánimas, Kraken.

Kraken. Mexico City, 1980.

With a dark style, Kraken already have a few years as an Illustrator

A couple of months ago Kraken presented Ánimas at Upper Playground Mexico, the second part of his first solo show called Fantasmas, which was presented last year at Hold Up Art in Los Angeles. Ánimas, is his first solo show in Mexico City. A serie of screen prints and drawings was presented on this exhibition, a must seen for this winter days.

It’s been a while since Kraken showed his work in the streets. After a couple of years working on a studio behind a computer, he’s ready to come back and show us his deepest thoughts and feelings through his Kraken.

“En las primeras notas, fantasmas, espíritus, almas, emociones vueltas animal y a su vez animales vueltos emociones rindiendo culto a divinidades desconocidas, primitivas con las almas convertidas en cuervos y la ansiedad convertida en ojos, Lo emocional vuelto animal, lo etereo convertido en salvaje.

Seres carentes de emociones invocan ánimas, las emociones son fantasmas, te persiguen, las olvidas, las exorcizas.”

-Kraken

Kraken

Hamburg Patrol Pt. 1

Beeing “on patrol” in our hood this week, checking out the city and its artists we stumbled over a few gems we`d love to share with you guys. There is still lots potential to be found on the walls and streets of our beloved Hamburg. This time we show you a selection of street- and hallpieces, tags and stickers which caught our attention. Enjoy.

Interview – HONET (from 2007)

In 2007 i tried to make a magazine about painters on trains. I came in contact with active painters of totally different styles. Because i was never able to print this magazine, I want to publish two interviews. ( It’s never to late. )

HONET is one of my favorite train painters from France. His stuff never looked like typical “Hip Hop Style”.

In my eyes he was one of the few who started to “give a fuck” on the “Hip Hop Realness Attitude”. His stuff is much influenced by his punk and oi roots, later on by “urban dandyism” as he says. He is one of the few how is able to switch between art world and yard activity.
It’s always nice to see some fresh panels of him.
There are just a few trainpainters who are as long active as he.

Shl: Hello Honet, Please give a short introduction. And why did you choose the name HONET?

HNT: When I started it was fashionable to have a name with american words and connected with violent meanings like “crime time” or “bad boys”. Honet is more…”funny”and “cynical” in some ways!

Shl: I remember an interview where you explained yourself in the following words: “Samba&Fred Perry,
small,bald head, egoistic ,thievisch, lying, bitter
and antisocial , honet ( = honest)” ( published in
„Graffiti in Paris“ by Sybille Metzte-Prou
,2001, Schwarzkopf&Schwarzkopf ) Is this still your definition? If something changed–why ?

HNT: Are they the exacts words??? (anyway,I think I never read this book!)…so if I have to describe myself actually, should be something like: “Prada, Samba & Fred Perry, graffiti-adventurer & urban-dandy…with only one goal: to laught about life !”

Shl: I’m especially interested in your trainworks. When did you paint your first train? Do you have some special memories?

HNT: Sure! The really first time, some famous graffiti-writers from this time (early 90’s ) invited me to join them. We went by car outside Paris and did some cool damages on 2 silver-with-red-doors commuter trains. Colorz, Oeno, Veas and myself under the name of “Poe”. Then I decided to do it again by myself. With some friends, Natyo and Earl, we discovered a metro yard and found the way to go in. We came back one week after and I did a top-to-bottom and a panel before getting chased by a guard, but what-a-souvenir !!!

Shl: The book „Graffiti in Paris“ shows panels consisting of a character and a style. When did you start with that kind of characters? What was your idea behind that works, cause most of the characters showed skinheads?

HNT: Before being a graffiti-writer I was listening to punk-rock music, especially a cult French punk group called “Berurier Noir”. They were not only good as “musicians” but they had a “strong image” and an “attitude” (I was a great fan of Public Enemy at the same time, who had a strong aesthetic, too). Then I met two guys, Shun and Poch. We started to paint a lot together on trains and they were both totally into punk,oi music and skinhead culture. Step by step I discovered that Graffiti is not necessary connected with hip-hop: I’ve met lots of Writers, especially from Spain, who were into the same mind as us. Listening to Ska and wearing Fred Perry !
I’m not ONLY listening to punk music, I’m even more into electro or new-wave but I really like the Skinhead and Mod cultures. Ghetto dandies/ rude boys: that’s, for me, the perfect reflection of my life and the way I do graffiti. Then I used those Skinheads characters as a way to say: ” I don’t care about your rules, I’m walking my own way. I’m free and I’m waiting for you to follow me !”

Shl: Around 2000 i saw more and more of your works ,
especially the characters, in the streets. Why did you
change to paint more in the city?

HNT: Painting trains just became, not “boring”, but it was about “going nowhere” : one more train, one more picture, in a middle of tons of other train pieces from arrogant new-comers ( who probably dissapeared since that, crash down by some others ! ). I needed to grow up, to find a new way to rise in the middle of this crowd. I didn’t change, I just decided to explore new areas and use my trainpainter energy for new challenges but I’m still talking about the same thing: “GRAFFITI” and the faces that I’m painting are the symbol of it: hard attitude / a bit of romantism, minimal technic for a strong impact.

Shl: You still paint trains – but what has changed in your definition about trainpainting? What has generally changed in trainpainting?

HNT: Yes I still paint trains from time to time because I like it and I like to share those magical moments with my friends ( who are all train-painters ! ) but I’m trying to be more “relax” about it and fight against this obsession and my paranoïa. I’m more actually into searching for new metro-systems that I never painted before and where nobody, or just some jet-seters, went before me !

Shl: On your website , everybody can find something about your travels around the world. It seems that you are one of the oldest, still active interrailers .When
did you paint the first train out of France? And When was the first interrail tour? What has changed since your first interrail experiences? Do you enter international yards alone or with local painters?

HNT: We started in 93, first we went by car, Shun, Poch and myself to Belgium, Holland and Spain in the beginning of summer. Then we did an interail in september, we visited Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Berlin and Munich. I’m still in contact with some crazy guys that I’ve met at this period like the MSN, VIM, FTC or the CDC and I’m still meeting them across Europe from time to time. Some I’ve met only few days, few hours in the night, but I will never forget them and we are all something like “forever friends”. Even if I see them only once in 10 years !
That’s also the reason why I’m trying, as much as possible, to paint with the locals. I don’t care about giving an “hardcore image” painting alone, I like to communicate and exchange experiences with people…of course sometimes they are just “unprofessional annoying young kids” but most of the time we have really good feelings and lots of fun together ! I don’t care about a nice panel with a good picture in an easy yard…I prefer a good action with cool partners in a risky hangar, even if we don’t paint at least !! that’s the most interesting part of this graffiti life, as I said before: sharing magicals moments !!

Shl: What do you think about the development that more and more west european painters go in the eastern parts of europe and rock their systems?

HNT: Of course, interailling is now a heavy industry : every writer is travelling and I like it, especially for the eastern ones, that’s a great oppotunity for them to discover the world. I like to watch how it turns into a big and massive mess for destruction ! I hope that soon some new waves will come from China, Mexico or Irak ?!
And : “hahaha”…I don’t beleive that the western painters are rocking the wild-east, maybe just a few like some guys from Berlin but the others just focus on easy targets like Bucharest subway. Instead I can see lots of east-writers, from Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungaria , crews like EWC, RCLS or GLK and now from Russia. They do big dammages when they are coming around. They have no fears and just laugh about our “human-rights” countries !

Shl: Do you still do trains in france, especially in paris? Did the development of the fast buff change a lot in your opinion about trainpainting?

HNT: I stoped painting trains in France in 2003…not because of the buff ( because sometimes french trains can run for a long time ) and I told you, I like the action more than the result. But I was tired to ONLY think about trains 24/7 and tired to became more and more paranoiac. Waking up every monday morning at 05:00 AM waiting for a cops house search ! That took to me too much time and energy. Now I need to enjoy life, spend good times with my friends and some time for working on all my differents projects !

Shl: ok that’s all – right know it s your turn – what else you would like to say …

HNT: Everyday I’m thinking about my friends, from Liege, Stockholm, Berlin or even Russia, about my partners, the SDKWUFCs, VAD, TMA, P2B and WMD, about all we have done together and all the things we’ll do in the future and it makes me so happy, it makes me mad every minute of my life…Graffiti is the strongest Art movement in the History and I’m so proud to be just a brick in the temple !

Freight update #3

Here is the third and probably last issue of Freight update.  It’s still about freight graffiti from ex-ussr. There’s also an interview with Aris from Italy, some pieces from 0331c, tse47, bios, boxp, russia hobo  art…

Sten Lex about 2011

11 things about 2011
Sten & Lex

1- A photo of one of your artwork from 2011.

Our last work,  a new step in our work. We are studying, from about
two years, this new way of drawing stencil. Now we have just did this and
another stencil on the street and hundreds of sketches. We are very far
from what we’d like to see, these are  proofs, experiments 10 years
after our first stencil on the street in 2001. On the street we use
the same technique of the Stencil Poster, we paste up a paper stencil
like a poster then we paint on it and then we destroy the matrix, so
the stencil die on the wall, it’s not reproducible.
It was not very easy to change, we abandoned the parallel lines
that were a mark for our stencil. We introduced lines and dots in
stencils many years ago and we called that way of stencils Hole School,
in the website Stencil Revolution. Now there are a
lot of stencilers using halftone to create their stencil, today a
lines or dots stencils are very common.
What we want to do now is using one color stencil as always but
destroying the lines in thousands of fragments like an impulsive
schetch and doing something else than portraits, very difficult.
We want, as in the past, to go as far as possible from the classic
stencil immaginary in the form and in the content.
We hope to reach some result, time will judge us.

2- One thing you did in 2011 that you are particularly proud. We are never totally proud of ourselves, we are -most of the time-
unsatisfied by our work and may be it’s the reason we still work on
our art.
The work that was more intense this year was that in Køge -Denmark-
for Walk this Way festival in april.

3- Something you loved in 2011.
The Crisis, we are happy that this Occidental crisis will make reflect
many people.
The best arts movies were directed in Italy during a period of crisis.
May be crisis will help some artist to express something authentic.
Some new real piece of art.

4- Someone you hated in 2011.
In 2011 we hated ourselves.

5- One city, One festival & one exhibition.
Prague, Fame Festival, we were at so few exhibition this year… may
be we will go to see Caravaggio in Palazzo Venezia the 31.

6- A photo of someone else artwork or the name of an artist you
enjoyed a lot the work.
This years we were fortunate to take part to a festival in Foligno,
Attack,where we watched the three horses of Erica il Cane, we like his
imaginary and his skill in drawing so big murals. It’s very important to
see a mural in person and not only on a photo on the web.

7- One book
We prefer don’t tell our book, no one read nowadays.

8- One web video.

9- One website
I don’t navigate very much

10 – One place to eat in Roma.
In our house, Lex in particoular is a good chief. If not we recommend
Sora Margherita in  piazza delle Cinque Scole.

11- One last word
Thank you for the interview.

http://stenlex.net/
http://www.ekosystem.org/tag_big/sten

Sten & Lex

Above book: Passport

As far as I can remember Above was the 1st contact I get from the USA via ekosystem.org. It was more than 10 years ago. And he was also the only non-european to participate to our collective project called Don’t Copy Me in 2002. During those years he regularly sent me news about his travels and actions. Street-artists like travels but it’s more like a lifestyle for Above. He lived in Paris & Barcelona for several months and he traveled more countries than Phileas Fogg the last 10 years.
This book retraces his steps around the world with photos and stories from artists he met.
There are 2 version of the book. The luxury signed-numbered-boxed one (on the first 3 photos) and the regular one with only the book.
http://www.zeropluspublishing.com/above.htm

ABOVE: PASSPORT examines the street artist that has blanketed the world with art covering over 90 cities in 60 countries. The book includes hundreds of plates and quotes from artists across the globe .

Technical Specs

  • 156 pages – 31.1 x 31.1cm
  • Over 270 color images
  • ISBN: 978-1-937222-03-1
  • $55.00

http://goabove.com/