The Toaster interview

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When did you start the Toaster project? Is the Toaster a collective or a single person?
Myself and two others started the Toaster project on New Years Eve, 1998. We put our first stickers up the next day, January 1st 1999.
For the last 2 years it’s been just me doing it. It was a naturally progression as I was always the one doing most of the painting and art anyway. We were all cool with the decision.

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Did you write letters before starting the Toaster project?
I wrote ‘traditional’ graffiti from 1985 when I was a young kid. I watched the film Style Wars and saw the book Subway Art and it essentially changed my life overnight. I carried on painting graffiti until 1997 but gradually I was deciding I wanted a change of direction. I still loved getting up but wanted to be more conceptual and to stimulate more questions from the public as well as other writers.

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What keeps you still painting? Can you ever feel tired of the Toaster project? Do you see yourself still doing it in 5 or 10 years?
I’ve honestly never got bored of the Toaster image I paint. Rather than it being restrictive painting the same thing I found the initial repetition quite satisfying. Once the image was up in many cities across the world and people knew about it, there was a natural progression for me to deconstruct it and paint pieces with abstracted elements of the Toaster. People still see the Toaster within these pieces but it’s also a way of me going full circle back to my graffiti roots. I’m painting walls that feel like graffiti pieces, with shadow, bold colours, graphic lines and shapes forming letters but it’s all done with me using parts of the Toaster.
I’ve got plenty of ideas to push these pieces further, to go more complex or strip them back to be more minimal so yes I’ll defiantly be painting the Toaster in 20 years let alone 5 or 10 years! I’ve been doing it for 17 years already so why not.

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You painted several times with Zime from Eindhoven. Do you frequently collaborate with other artists?
I try and find a balance between painting in isolation and painting collaborative walls. You can learn a lot from both. I often take an element of my last wall and inject it into my next wall. It’s a natural timeline and progression. I’ve painted with Zime a lot the last 10 years. Firstly he’s a good friend but I also respect him as an artist. He’s very precise in his technique. He also likes using only 2 or 3 colours and I enjoy having to adapt my piece to complement his. I’ve also painted walls with Will Barras, Sektie, Space3, Erosie and Roa to name but a few. Also we organised a big Toaster show in London in 2009 with 15 artists. Each painted a Toaster collaboration piece with me and the other Toaster guys. That was sweet.

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In the early 00’s in France there was someone named “Krisprolls” who also painted toasters. Do you know him or his work? What is the deal with Toasters?
I don’t know the Krisprolls guy personally but yes I saw his work years ago. Sometimes people would email me asking if it was me but I only paint the one type of Toaster!
When us 3 guys started the Toaster project it’s wasn’t because we were really obsessed with an electrical toaster! We simply wanted an image to get up on the streets. It had to be already recognizable so the public asked ‘why?’ not ‘what is it?’. Also we thought it would be cryptic to put the image of a household object on the streets. It would seem slightly bizarre and get folks asking questions. Finally we choose the Toaster image as an insular concept. Like I said at the start of the interview we came up with it on New Years Eve 1998. We were at a house party but as ever we found ourselves away from the main party. We always hung out in the kitchen. Yes it is where the fridge is which means we are nearer the beer, but also we didn’t fit in so much with the main party. We wanted to talk about graffiti in the kitchen while others wanted to dance in the living room. So we thought ‘let’s choose a kitchen object to represent us’! I loved the idea then and love still getting it out there nearly two decades later.

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Muretz interview

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Can you present yourself? How did it all begin Muretz?
I am from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and I’ve been working as an artist for many years, here and in the UK mainly. I am quite new to graffiti, been painting for about 3 years only. I began doing it just for fun, and seeing the reaction from people to my work got me addicted to it. I like to express myself with my art and found in graffiti a great way of doing so.

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You live in Sao Paulo, you work doesn’t seem to be influenced by the vivid local scene. Could you tell us what are you main influences?
Well I think the local scene is mainly about tagging and putting an art piece out there just for the fun or beauty of it. But I always thought street art is about communication, sending a message to the people out there and few local artists do that in their work, so I decided taking that path. My influences are mainly outside of the graffiti world, they go back to when I was a children’s book illustrator. I am also a big fan of TV cartoons, so a lot of my inspiration comes from that I suppose.

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One of your iconic image is the red and blue 3D glasses. Do you have a childhood memory of these glasses like a 3D movie maybe?
I keep a pair of those glasses at home as a decoration piece and one day I thought about doing something about it. I thought it would be interesting to put it out there and have done a few versions of it. People seem to have fun with that so yeah, I guess its one of my favourites.

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If you could explore and paint anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I want to go to the Middle East. I have never been there but I know it would be a great place to spread my art.

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Muretz website + instagram.

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Angel Toren quick portrait

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-Please, tell me a few words about yourself.
-My name is angeltoren. I’m from Murcia in Spain. I discovered graffiti in 2003, but I started doing my first pieces in 2007.

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-What does inspire you?
-I am inspired by linear artists typerfaces
and architects. “Hans Vredeman de Vries” is one of the artists in my
current job references (fullines) apart from futuristic retro style.

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– Do you enjoy painting with other artists?
-I love painting with my colleagues and everyone who is willing to paint a mural.

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-What do you do when you’re not painting?
-I work in a company making 3D designs for processing stone and when I do not work prepare my next designs for my walls.

Angel Toren on instagram and on ekosystem.

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Noneck interview:”from Czech Republic to Indonesia”

Can you introduce yourself ? Where do you come from?

I come from the Czech Republic but I currently live in Indonesia. Yogyakarta is the City where I study indonesian painting and batik at Institut Seni Indonesia. I am a painter based on the esthetics of graphic design which I did more than 10 years long and almost 20 years I deal with graffiti, street art and murals.

You are now living in Indonesia. Is it a good place to paint ? What are the main differences with painting in Europe?

One of the reasons why I’m here is absolute freedom in street painting. Here there are not something like illegal graffiti because it isn’t considered like an act of vandalism. Local people consider it as an art and the police also has more important things to do such as fining people on the street and standing at waroeng (local fastfood). Art has a long tradition here. Jogja is a cultural
and artistic center of Java, if not the whole of Indonesia. Another advantage is the wild urbanist of Asian cities and Jogja is one of them. There are many places for painting like narrow streets and abandoned houses. But in the other hand i have to be more patient because of Tropical climate with strong sun and high humidity, which makes it very difficult to paint during midday and afternoon. Everything takes more time.

Is there a local graffiti scene or are graffiti only made by strangers?

I was surprised by the size of the local scene and its diversity and the proof is there are eight graffiti shops in the city. In the city it is also possible to meet world-famous names of graffiti and street art.

How would you describe your style? What are your artistic influences?

My work is basically abstract. I used to paint and deform letter but at the moment I fall in love with number eight which is also the symbol of infinity in a horizontal position. This describes my relationship to painting; infinity work,
infinity satisfaction, infinity adventure etc…

I am inspired by contemporary grafffuture movements and the work of a lot of abstract muralist like Momo, Hense and many others.
I am also inspired by the Poland scene and by my colleague LUDEK aka KEIM who stays at home with his family whom i collaborate with in distance.

What do you do when you’re not painting?

Travel, travel and travel. There are so many wonderful places that are awaiting to be visited for example volcanoes, temples, waterfalls, beaches, caves and many more. And of course sometimes i have to show my face at the school.

What aspect of Czech Republic do you miss the most in Indonesia?

Things work in a different way and pace here. I have to be extra patient when i want to buy something, fix, manage, or even dealing with bureaucracy.
Sometimes the Indonesian exaggerated politeness combined with laziness and special logic can turn into hell on earth.
And last thing that I miss are good beer and fine wine. Indonesia is an Islamic country that is why it is difficult to get a good quality alcohol.
Lot of things which I don’t miss me more than that i miss.

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