MURDOK
Personal work and critical analysis of graffiti culture; artist interviews and features. fb.com/artmurdok
Monday, 5 April 2021
Coffee
My mother made the best coffee
sweet and full
it took me years to figure out how she did it, a good amount of milk and two sugars.
the magic of youth fades and gives way to the facts of adulthood
all your heroes become human.
but in every uncovering the reality comes through, bringing with it its own we-all-have-a-place beauty and bloom
we are cogs turning on the ground
we are pieces moving around
The light in the kitchen was always peaceful, yellow curtains and sticky surfaces from where Jeremy had half of pastries.
the grill was aways full of bacon fat
one day a chicken walked in
I think my mother saw it as a sign.
I came across a man walking his dog whilst practicing his flows
stood tall as the dog defecated
let an ocean of words tumble out of his mouth
bits of popular song mixed with pieces of his poems
stone serious and bold
dogs not bothered though
Monday, 15 January 2018
December
my rise to greatness is slow but not debated
a particularly prophetic day
painted a wall then made my way across the country like a man with no name
machined to the city
a carriage in december
the cold outside not enough to quell these embers
four walls and more, man nextto me absorbed in reading a book about one of many wars
or a coule sat beside each other, both some scummy sufferes
who shot their looks across
but cross legged on the seat ignored and hushed up
quieted the mind listened weird growls and guitars that seemed out of time
Sat down on the floor
amongst the grids of complications tht make up the shed im in
iron, wine and skin
tired mind and slim
near christmas, sat alone like an eclipse
that profound sense of family aint for me
rather a paintful type of surgery
buy em all a muffin and hope they dont speak ill of you
paste over all their habits with a shiny mound of something new
forget the past for a day
forget you never speak
I think I found my baseline frequency
the hum that hymns at the core of me
the choir that chords these parts of me
that melody thats task was to be trapped and tune my flesh accordingly
its a hidden one
a tao type titan
one who move the wind but is nought to see
I know how it went but couldnt tell you what its face was like in imagery
because years ago I buried a body and built a new one from its bones
and years ago I swore id never know again a mind that cold
and thought I might disguise and hide behind a name thats not my own
now I find a power pillared like rifle striking lightning fighting rides and striding through
im on the edge of unlockingit again
and I cant pretend like that sight is something I cant comprehend
I know myself, warts n all
and though I may flatter, fall and fail in equal measured opportunity
I buried death
and survived what came next
but it still doesnt replace their steps
so you can keep your plasticized purpose
i’ll be trying to piece a new part of a universe
a particuarly prophetic day
caught in a haze
I slept on a mattress alone in the front room
the flickering tv kept me awake in its muted quiet
he did not recognise that it was christmas
asleep in his cared for accomodation
I the proverbial and patient son
did muse over what it meant to lose almost everyone at once.
Christmas aint easy for some, an effort that rewards are none.
Counting ghosts and missed existences upon your fingers like you tally crumbs
how your family drifts hold it tight and watch it like that melting snow slip.
We sit and we drink and we think
we sit and we think and we see that the brink be away from us for now so we begin
let it sink in and process what progress can be poised for the new years begin
Monday, 30 October 2017
Lax Sapien
Mixing
the visceral energy contained in graffiti and extreme music with
abstract painting, sculpture and performance 'Lax Sapien' brings together
past, present and emerging works.
Monday, 16 October 2017
Friday, 29 September 2017
Medium & Message; An Interview with Ludvig (12ozprophet 2015)
One of my first, and definitely still one of my favourite interviews this was conducted for 12ozprophet in 2015. Ludvig isn't your ordinary writer, more at home using a brush and house paint than with a spray can his style is the epitome of what is now classed as 'ignorant'. Far from ignorant though Ludvig provides astute criticism and comment on his beloved culture and espouses a philosophy of freedom and happiness that is of the upmost importance to an art than was born of a want of freedom and expression without limit.
Could you introduce yourself and give us a little bit about how you got started? what first drew you to the artform etc.
I write Ludvig. I represent NNC, 1LS, MLC, EE and 1%. I first started a long while back… I don’t really remember how I got started or exactly when, there was no big bang moment. At school I drew on stuff and practised letters, but never really got anything done. There were other kids who just had these amazing handstyles, the way that people did letters in their tags back then was so good, the letters were kind of broad at the bottom, sort of squat, with smaller top ends. It took me a couple of years after that to get started. I wasn’t really that naturally drawn to writing as a package of elements in the same way that I saw happening with some others, there was really no musical connection for me, I liked the punk graffiti and some of the people writing band names, I also liked a lot of the more political and protest statements done with roller paint, you used to see a lot of these on bridges and along motor ways. You don’t really see it anymore. I think that people thought it was a good way to get a message out at that point in time, now it’s a pretty limited way. What drew me to writing was a mix of wanting to create something while not being the best at art and wanting to make a mess and irritate people. It was a bit like prodding people with a stick and then running away. I was definitely angsty and angry, but then I’m still that way now… I didn’t really think of it as an art form, it was just something that we did, the same way that it happens today, wherever you end up your name ends up.
In modern graffiti we're seeing a lot of writers take up a deliberately naive style, a lot like yourself - where expression and release seem to take precedence over technical ability etc, could you describe / explain your style a little?
My feelings on this are a bit warped and mixed. I can paint technically well with a spray can and did that for years, it wasn’t until later that I stopped with that and found a different path. So I really appreciate some of the technical pieces, having said that, some of the works I see are clearly executed amazingly, but they just leave me cold, I can’t see the human element in them. I just don’t want to paint like that. So at the moment being able to express and being able to do it quickly are definitely important. Sometimes painting a more technical piece in the past would get me stressed, I never feel like that anymore. I use the first line I draw every time, never really making any corrections. I strongly believe that the first line is the right line and should be worked with, no cut backs, no corrections, no faffing... It is important to me that a piece is expressive and has some depth to it, not just a picture of a word... I’m also not a big fan of pieces that all look the same or where you can’t see any of the character of the person behind them; it’s confusing to see a piece with no character coming through in it. Sometimes you see pieces that seem to have no humour and seemingly no passion; just something painted by some Norris, fuck that. My stuff is about having fun and making a mess, it’s about not really giving too much of a fuck, I like for things to look weird, childish and a bit off key, I’m definitely not looking for any kind of balance or flow or clean details with thin lines, a million fades... The style is about releasing energy and expressing something, painting freely, fast and with a sense of fun or anger or whatever it is that you’re feeling. It is also very important to me that the pieces are letter based, I am always just writing my name, I’m not really that interested in doing pieces which are not based on words at the moment. Occasionally I’ll do a big blockbuster or two just to check that I can still do ‘normal’ letters or just to shut someone up when there’s too much talk of weird styles and lack of letter structure.
It appears youre a fan of the multimedia approach to pieces, which is really refreshing to see, could you talk about decision to use a brush?
I nearly always use a roller and emulsion, bucket paint. I find it much faster to use a roller, which, for me, is good because I’m very impatient. There are also other factors at play too, I like to be in contact with the surface, using a roller does this; with a can you’re always just off the surface. I like the reach of the arm to make a line and then the swipe quickly back to start filling in, it’s a fast way to paint. I never really sketch out a piece and then fill it in, I generally just do one letter at a time and then go backwards and forwards along the piece until it’s finished. The downside to this is that I’m pretty bad at scaling, so pieces tend to come out big in scale. Also, roller paint is easy to come by too, cheapish to buy and often to be found in skips or thrown out onto the street. I do use cans sometimes, either in conjunction with mulsh or very rarely alone. What I find though is that I can’t really get the overall look that I want for a piece, I lose the fluidity and spontaneity of it with just cans, it feels forced and fiddly; slow and lacking energy. I admire writers who use only cans and manage to make their pieces look spontaneous and full of energy. I’ll occasionally use cans for the outline, I do like the dusty look you get from a can with a stock cap, I like the 1970’s look of doing that.
As it differentiates so much from the norm, where do you place it in terms of graffiti?
To me it feels like the same thing. I know that the pieces end up looking a little different from the average, but I think that most writers would want their stuff to look different from other pieces. If your stuff doesn’t stand out then it’s most likely not going to get any shine. There haven’t been many writers doing the dirty style in the UK over the years, but in Europe there have been some guys really pushing it for a while. It does look different, to me that is part of the point, the point is not for everything to look the same, the point is not to stick to the rules… Not for me anyway. I’m not sure where I’d really place it, it obviously is an outlier and not that close to the traditional fundamentalist New York style, but it has the same root. It is no more freakish in my mind than people who claim to be writers and just paint large spray painted murals with no letters for corporate money, for me they’re further from ‘graffiti’ than I am.
Why do you feel what you are doing is important to graffiti?
Haha, that is a difficult question to answer without coming across as a total tosser! I’m not sure that it really is that important to graffiti as a whole, but it is very important to me, it is a way of life for me, or a strong part of my life. I have a compulsion to paint and try to do a fair bit, it’s fun. If it was important to writing in any way, I would stay that it is asking for a bit more open mindedness and it is another voice saying that it’s ok to be yourself, to do what you like... Not to always feel you need to conform, but if that’s what you want to do then that’s cool too. I know that there are people who do like my stuff, but there are also plenty who don’t like it at all, some people get so angry about it, it’s funny. Maybe that is important, it does seem to make people think something or to form an opinion, it’s not always pretty, so it does push against all the ‘pretty pictures…’ I think that it’s most probably just important in that it adds to the diversity of what exists as ‘graffiti’, all writers are important in this sense. It’s also important that not everything looks the same, there is room for big messy stuff too.
Where do you draw your influences from now? is there anything from outside this culture that feeds into it?
Most of the things that influence me are not from the world of writing, there are exceptions like early and mid 1970’s pieces and some of the styles coming out of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic… What mostly influences me are things that I see or hear, this comes out in the pieces and the little bits of text that I try to add to them, I’m inspired by things like music, hardcore, NYHC, HXC, punk, the rave scene, DnB, techno, metal and hardcore t-shirt imagery, religious and cultural symbols, booze, illegal subs, films, tattoos and flash, fine art, really shit art, outsider art, violence, sex, female genitalia, animals. stupid things that happen when you’re out and about… All sorts of stuff... Sometimes I can get really inspired by one thing and then mine that for a bit, other times I’ll just flick through an old sketchbook for reference. Other graffiti doesn’t really inspire me much, I like seeing other people’s stuff especially if it’s not in a HoF and sometimes it’ll buzz me up to want to paint, but I think that’s just being competitive and wanting to do more. Sometimes I’ll see other peoples stuff and I’ll think ‘what a fucking waste of paint…’ I know people think that about my stuff all the time too though.
Your instagram features a lot of pastel drawings of phrases, could you bit about those?
When you’re using oil pastels it’s a bit like using a roller and sloppy paint on a surface, they’re both slightly unpredictable mediums, they’re both scrappy and dirty. They’re both kind of scribbly and messy and scratchy. I find the work in the sketch books fun to do and they’re quick too, you can get whatever is on your mind out pretty quick, it’s part release and part self-actualisation. Part of it is also just about using what is to hand, I’ve been using highlighters a fair bit too, the reason for that is just because I had some, so they got used… I also like using acrylic on canvas and in the books, I’ll mess about with any medium that I can get my hands on really, it’s all good and challenging in its own way.
I think with graffiti, it really allows you to remove a lot of baggage from experience and get close to some real honesty regarding things, you seem very in touch with and understanding of how to use the medium to get a certain feeling. is this true of your opinion of graffiti in general? do you use it in the same way? to get to grips with a certain part of experience that you can't with other art forms? perhaps because of its inherent illegality etc?
Yeah, I would agree with this in general. I think that writing is a great escape for lots of people. Actually, I think that this is why there are lots of people who paint pieces that end up looking the same whatever their mood, because they are in a different place mentally when they’re painting, not really feeling the over-riding emotion that they may have at that point. What I mean is that an individual can paint when they’re sad or when they’re happy and the pieces may look the same. For me it’s different, how I’m feeling comes through and has to come out in a piece, if I’m feeling sad or angry it’ll be clear to see. Or if I have something to say I’m going to say it in the piece. Sometimes it’s better to go and paint a nasty, energetic and aggressive piece rather than punching someone in the face. Painting is a cathartic process too, I use it to push energy out, working with rollers and bucket paint helps with that, it has an intense immediacy, its full of energy. On your last question, yes, it does reach places that other forms of creation cannot, it is dirty and nasty, and generally on a large scale, less restricted. It is also fun because of that… Writing gets you out and about, painting canvas or working in a sketch book is good too, but you are generally geographically more restrained, sat in one place, with writing you are on your toes, seeing and doing things often with other people. I think graffiti not only expresses something of the character of the person behind it, but also about their energy.
What have the complaints been against your work?
Nothing that I care about at all, but lots of funny things that make me chuckle. People love to make up rules when actually there really aren’t any in this game, the only things that act as boundaries for us are our own personal moral codes, what we are, and, are not willing to do and our own codes of respect. Generally people do the right thing, but often also they don’t. I don’t see any particular reason why people should respect their elders or their betters, or often those worse than them; that’s really just old fashioned thinking which is put in place by people trying to maintain the status quo. It’s funny how people pretend to hate the set up of the establishment and the way that we are governed and then, as soon as they are able to, they try to establish the same type of phoney system in their favour, I see this so much... ‘You must respect this’, ‘X is a king’, ‘Y can’t paint over Z’ etc, blah blah.
There's a real importance laid on progression and experimentation, is there an end goal you're heading towards? artistically or personally?
Yes and no, when I was painting often with Bino a few years ago, we were constantly pushing to progress and talked about what the logical end would be. There was never an end goal as such, because if there was then that may indicate that it is not worth painting anymore, and that was definitely never the intention. We played with minimising pieces into just lines and dots or smears of buffed out colour. We painted a lot of walls like that and ended up providing a lot of decent backgrounds for other people’s pieces in the process. Haha. I still focus on progression and love to experiment, I never paint the same piece twice, so every piece is different. I will push off in one direction and explore that for a bit and then do something different when it feels right. I will often follow a direction to see where it goes. However, to really experiment you need to paint hundreds of pieces a year, otherwise it is just not possible to explore anything properly, or you need to hit the blackbook hard as a proxy. Artistically it is important to me to paint a lot, as much as I can, I try to paint over 100 pieces a year, otherwise I don’t think I’d be able to move forward and develop enough, personally, it’s just important to me to carry on; I enjoy it! I am not aiming for any kind of perfect style, because there is no such thing, it is different for everyone. I remember people looking at pieces and telling me ‘look, that’s tuff, that’s the perfect style.’ But, for me it rarely is, I look at it and see the same piece I have seen tens of times before, sometimes exactly the same outline… So, yes, progression and experimentation are really important to me, they are some of the key reasons that I carry on.

@ludvigism
You can see his work at ZAP Gallery Liverpool from the 7th OCT.
Could you introduce yourself and give us a little bit about how you got started? what first drew you to the artform etc.
I write Ludvig. I represent NNC, 1LS, MLC, EE and 1%. I first started a long while back… I don’t really remember how I got started or exactly when, there was no big bang moment. At school I drew on stuff and practised letters, but never really got anything done. There were other kids who just had these amazing handstyles, the way that people did letters in their tags back then was so good, the letters were kind of broad at the bottom, sort of squat, with smaller top ends. It took me a couple of years after that to get started. I wasn’t really that naturally drawn to writing as a package of elements in the same way that I saw happening with some others, there was really no musical connection for me, I liked the punk graffiti and some of the people writing band names, I also liked a lot of the more political and protest statements done with roller paint, you used to see a lot of these on bridges and along motor ways. You don’t really see it anymore. I think that people thought it was a good way to get a message out at that point in time, now it’s a pretty limited way. What drew me to writing was a mix of wanting to create something while not being the best at art and wanting to make a mess and irritate people. It was a bit like prodding people with a stick and then running away. I was definitely angsty and angry, but then I’m still that way now… I didn’t really think of it as an art form, it was just something that we did, the same way that it happens today, wherever you end up your name ends up.
Sometimes you see pieces that seem to have no humour and seemingly no passion; just something painted by some Norris, fuck that. My stuff is about having fun and making a mess, it’s about not really giving too much of a fuck, I like for things to look weird, childish and a bit off key
In modern graffiti we're seeing a lot of writers take up a deliberately naive style, a lot like yourself - where expression and release seem to take precedence over technical ability etc, could you describe / explain your style a little?
My feelings on this are a bit warped and mixed. I can paint technically well with a spray can and did that for years, it wasn’t until later that I stopped with that and found a different path. So I really appreciate some of the technical pieces, having said that, some of the works I see are clearly executed amazingly, but they just leave me cold, I can’t see the human element in them. I just don’t want to paint like that. So at the moment being able to express and being able to do it quickly are definitely important. Sometimes painting a more technical piece in the past would get me stressed, I never feel like that anymore. I use the first line I draw every time, never really making any corrections. I strongly believe that the first line is the right line and should be worked with, no cut backs, no corrections, no faffing... It is important to me that a piece is expressive and has some depth to it, not just a picture of a word... I’m also not a big fan of pieces that all look the same or where you can’t see any of the character of the person behind them; it’s confusing to see a piece with no character coming through in it. Sometimes you see pieces that seem to have no humour and seemingly no passion; just something painted by some Norris, fuck that. My stuff is about having fun and making a mess, it’s about not really giving too much of a fuck, I like for things to look weird, childish and a bit off key, I’m definitely not looking for any kind of balance or flow or clean details with thin lines, a million fades... The style is about releasing energy and expressing something, painting freely, fast and with a sense of fun or anger or whatever it is that you’re feeling. It is also very important to me that the pieces are letter based, I am always just writing my name, I’m not really that interested in doing pieces which are not based on words at the moment. Occasionally I’ll do a big blockbuster or two just to check that I can still do ‘normal’ letters or just to shut someone up when there’s too much talk of weird styles and lack of letter structure.
It appears youre a fan of the multimedia approach to pieces, which is really refreshing to see, could you talk about decision to use a brush?
I nearly always use a roller and emulsion, bucket paint. I find it much faster to use a roller, which, for me, is good because I’m very impatient. There are also other factors at play too, I like to be in contact with the surface, using a roller does this; with a can you’re always just off the surface. I like the reach of the arm to make a line and then the swipe quickly back to start filling in, it’s a fast way to paint. I never really sketch out a piece and then fill it in, I generally just do one letter at a time and then go backwards and forwards along the piece until it’s finished. The downside to this is that I’m pretty bad at scaling, so pieces tend to come out big in scale. Also, roller paint is easy to come by too, cheapish to buy and often to be found in skips or thrown out onto the street. I do use cans sometimes, either in conjunction with mulsh or very rarely alone. What I find though is that I can’t really get the overall look that I want for a piece, I lose the fluidity and spontaneity of it with just cans, it feels forced and fiddly; slow and lacking energy. I admire writers who use only cans and manage to make their pieces look spontaneous and full of energy. I’ll occasionally use cans for the outline, I do like the dusty look you get from a can with a stock cap, I like the 1970’s look of doing that.
NYHC, HXC, punk, the rave scene, DnB, techno, metal and hardcore t-shirt imagery, religious and cultural symbols, booze, illegal subs, films, tattoos and flash, fine art, really shit art, outsider art, violence, sex, female genitalia, animals. stupid things that happen when you’re out and about...
As it differentiates so much from the norm, where do you place it in terms of graffiti?
To me it feels like the same thing. I know that the pieces end up looking a little different from the average, but I think that most writers would want their stuff to look different from other pieces. If your stuff doesn’t stand out then it’s most likely not going to get any shine. There haven’t been many writers doing the dirty style in the UK over the years, but in Europe there have been some guys really pushing it for a while. It does look different, to me that is part of the point, the point is not for everything to look the same, the point is not to stick to the rules… Not for me anyway. I’m not sure where I’d really place it, it obviously is an outlier and not that close to the traditional fundamentalist New York style, but it has the same root. It is no more freakish in my mind than people who claim to be writers and just paint large spray painted murals with no letters for corporate money, for me they’re further from ‘graffiti’ than I am.
Why do you feel what you are doing is important to graffiti?
Haha, that is a difficult question to answer without coming across as a total tosser! I’m not sure that it really is that important to graffiti as a whole, but it is very important to me, it is a way of life for me, or a strong part of my life. I have a compulsion to paint and try to do a fair bit, it’s fun. If it was important to writing in any way, I would stay that it is asking for a bit more open mindedness and it is another voice saying that it’s ok to be yourself, to do what you like... Not to always feel you need to conform, but if that’s what you want to do then that’s cool too. I know that there are people who do like my stuff, but there are also plenty who don’t like it at all, some people get so angry about it, it’s funny. Maybe that is important, it does seem to make people think something or to form an opinion, it’s not always pretty, so it does push against all the ‘pretty pictures…’ I think that it’s most probably just important in that it adds to the diversity of what exists as ‘graffiti’, all writers are important in this sense. It’s also important that not everything looks the same, there is room for big messy stuff too.
working in a sketch book is good too but you are generally geographically more restrained, sat in one place, with writing you are on your toes, seeing and doing things often with other people. I think graffiti not only expresses something of the character of the person behind it, but also about their energy.
Where do you draw your influences from now? is there anything from outside this culture that feeds into it?
Most of the things that influence me are not from the world of writing, there are exceptions like early and mid 1970’s pieces and some of the styles coming out of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic… What mostly influences me are things that I see or hear, this comes out in the pieces and the little bits of text that I try to add to them, I’m inspired by things like music, hardcore, NYHC, HXC, punk, the rave scene, DnB, techno, metal and hardcore t-shirt imagery, religious and cultural symbols, booze, illegal subs, films, tattoos and flash, fine art, really shit art, outsider art, violence, sex, female genitalia, animals. stupid things that happen when you’re out and about… All sorts of stuff... Sometimes I can get really inspired by one thing and then mine that for a bit, other times I’ll just flick through an old sketchbook for reference. Other graffiti doesn’t really inspire me much, I like seeing other people’s stuff especially if it’s not in a HoF and sometimes it’ll buzz me up to want to paint, but I think that’s just being competitive and wanting to do more. Sometimes I’ll see other peoples stuff and I’ll think ‘what a fucking waste of paint…’ I know people think that about my stuff all the time too though.
Your instagram features a lot of pastel drawings of phrases, could you bit about those?
When you’re using oil pastels it’s a bit like using a roller and sloppy paint on a surface, they’re both slightly unpredictable mediums, they’re both scrappy and dirty. They’re both kind of scribbly and messy and scratchy. I find the work in the sketch books fun to do and they’re quick too, you can get whatever is on your mind out pretty quick, it’s part release and part self-actualisation. Part of it is also just about using what is to hand, I’ve been using highlighters a fair bit too, the reason for that is just because I had some, so they got used… I also like using acrylic on canvas and in the books, I’ll mess about with any medium that I can get my hands on really, it’s all good and challenging in its own way.
I think with graffiti, it really allows you to remove a lot of baggage from experience and get close to some real honesty regarding things, you seem very in touch with and understanding of how to use the medium to get a certain feeling. is this true of your opinion of graffiti in general? do you use it in the same way? to get to grips with a certain part of experience that you can't with other art forms? perhaps because of its inherent illegality etc?
Yeah, I would agree with this in general. I think that writing is a great escape for lots of people. Actually, I think that this is why there are lots of people who paint pieces that end up looking the same whatever their mood, because they are in a different place mentally when they’re painting, not really feeling the over-riding emotion that they may have at that point. What I mean is that an individual can paint when they’re sad or when they’re happy and the pieces may look the same. For me it’s different, how I’m feeling comes through and has to come out in a piece, if I’m feeling sad or angry it’ll be clear to see. Or if I have something to say I’m going to say it in the piece. Sometimes it’s better to go and paint a nasty, energetic and aggressive piece rather than punching someone in the face. Painting is a cathartic process too, I use it to push energy out, working with rollers and bucket paint helps with that, it has an intense immediacy, its full of energy. On your last question, yes, it does reach places that other forms of creation cannot, it is dirty and nasty, and generally on a large scale, less restricted. It is also fun because of that… Writing gets you out and about, painting canvas or working in a sketch book is good too, but you are generally geographically more restrained, sat in one place, with writing you are on your toes, seeing and doing things often with other people. I think graffiti not only expresses something of the character of the person behind it, but also about their energy.
Artistically it is important to me to paint a lot, as much as I can, I try to paint over 100 pieces a year, otherwise I don’t think I’d be able to move forward and develop enough, personally, it’s just important to me to carry on; I enjoy it!
What have the complaints been against your work?
Nothing that I care about at all, but lots of funny things that make me chuckle. People love to make up rules when actually there really aren’t any in this game, the only things that act as boundaries for us are our own personal moral codes, what we are, and, are not willing to do and our own codes of respect. Generally people do the right thing, but often also they don’t. I don’t see any particular reason why people should respect their elders or their betters, or often those worse than them; that’s really just old fashioned thinking which is put in place by people trying to maintain the status quo. It’s funny how people pretend to hate the set up of the establishment and the way that we are governed and then, as soon as they are able to, they try to establish the same type of phoney system in their favour, I see this so much... ‘You must respect this’, ‘X is a king’, ‘Y can’t paint over Z’ etc, blah blah.
There's a real importance laid on progression and experimentation, is there an end goal you're heading towards? artistically or personally?
Yes and no, when I was painting often with Bino a few years ago, we were constantly pushing to progress and talked about what the logical end would be. There was never an end goal as such, because if there was then that may indicate that it is not worth painting anymore, and that was definitely never the intention. We played with minimising pieces into just lines and dots or smears of buffed out colour. We painted a lot of walls like that and ended up providing a lot of decent backgrounds for other people’s pieces in the process. Haha. I still focus on progression and love to experiment, I never paint the same piece twice, so every piece is different. I will push off in one direction and explore that for a bit and then do something different when it feels right. I will often follow a direction to see where it goes. However, to really experiment you need to paint hundreds of pieces a year, otherwise it is just not possible to explore anything properly, or you need to hit the blackbook hard as a proxy. Artistically it is important to me to paint a lot, as much as I can, I try to paint over 100 pieces a year, otherwise I don’t think I’d be able to move forward and develop enough, personally, it’s just important to me to carry on; I enjoy it! I am not aiming for any kind of perfect style, because there is no such thing, it is different for everyone. I remember people looking at pieces and telling me ‘look, that’s tuff, that’s the perfect style.’ But, for me it rarely is, I look at it and see the same piece I have seen tens of times before, sometimes exactly the same outline… So, yes, progression and experimentation are really important to me, they are some of the key reasons that I carry on.
I think that the main thing it has taught me is that it’s ok just to be yourself. With most things in life it seems that there are rules, restrictions, regulations or you have to please someone else or work to a brief, with graffiti and art in general you can just do your own thing. You can just do what pleases you, art is the same, unless you choose to make it something that you need to earn money from... People are still going to judge you and critique your work, but who the fuck cares? My friend Insane says that all graffiti writers are mad to varying degrees; I think that he has a point. There are a lot of good crazies amongst us and a few bad ones; some very loyal people and some absolute snakes, some people who will tell you things to your face and others who are too cowardly to do so and talk behind your back. There are a lot of negatives, but also a lot of positives. Graffiti allows you to have a lot of experiences that you wouldn’t have had otherwise and to meet a lot of interesting characters along the way. It is also generally a meritocracy, it’s not exactly, you still get hype and people trying to control things in their own favour, but in general you reap rewards if you put the energy into it.

@ludvigism
You can see his work at ZAP Gallery Liverpool from the 7th OCT.
Tuesday, 26 September 2017
Monday, 25 September 2017
To Find Authenticity: Saber Interview (VNA 2016)
One of the most passionate, articulate and important individuals ever to grace Grafiti Sabers intricate and aggressive style needs very little introduction. Whilst the glory days of risking life and limb may be behind him, he retains an honesty and attitude which are as cutting as ever.
I had the pleasure of speaking to him about progress, parenthood and politics.
I had the pleasure of speaking to him about progress, parenthood and politics.
"You see high art taking bits and pieces of our aesthetic and regurgitating it back out making a lot of money. Apparently it’s trendy. We earned the right to use these aesthetics over anyone else. Certain people paid a higher price than others to learn these things. I see value in an artists struggle"
Obviously being such a veteran writer, has graffiti taught you anything lasting about the way the world works? Any distinct positives and negatives?
It’s been a long road….. destroy, rebuild, tear it down again. Positive, it teaches you about yourself. Negative, it teaches you about yourself…..
Graffiti and art is microcosm to the wider world. Cities functions, politics, socioeconomics. When you can travel to any city in the world and not know the language but can tell you what exactly is going on there just by reading the walls, you know you’ve stumbled upon something powerful. Over time it reveals deep insight. It’s a journey, a life’s path that can be applied to the self.
I’ve found that the confidence it gives you is a subtle but pervading one, a kind of whole body strength which opens up the world beyond societal boundaries but obviously whose flip side is a pronounced paranoia….
As far as lessons goes, little lessons on how to assimilate into different environment/people/situations. Learned how to steal in plain sight….
The confidence side of this lesson learning is something that shifts, some days I feel like I’m completely unstoppable, and other days I feel like the world is standing on my neck. The strongest thing that I can take away from this is how to push yourself towards a goal or task.
Not to mention the actual physical learning lessons of engaging the creative process. I believe painting large scale graffiti pieces has given me an edge over the traditional sense.
Fuck your wack ass girl portrait, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE WACK ASS PRETTY GIRL PORTRAITS, this isn’t a make up add for prepubesant teenage Beiliber fans. These Street Art walls personally look nicer to me blasted with a fire extinguisher, little community outreach program.
How would you describe your style and approach? has it changed since you began?
If you were to take a snap shot of a moving powerful energy source in battle stance. Intricacies, connections, flow, tech. Go big, paint hard.
I’ve always had this strange cluster in my head. Been there since I saw my first wildstyle as a kid. I am fascinated with the esoteric language letters and abstraction unveils to you. My style hasn’t necessarily changed but grew and expanded overtime.
Can you remember what this first wildstyle was? I’ve always been fascinated by abstract and the more illegible side of wildstyle as it appeared to communicate more of an attitude concerning its history and environment than it did pure letter science. What are / were you more concerned with? Letters or message?
The first wildstyle I saw in person was at the Belmont Tunnels 1989.
I saw power in these pieces. I felt this art form was a pathway to something deeper. I’ve always obsessed over the complexities of letters, it’s esoteric nature of math and abstraction. The complex aggressive styles always attracted me. I believed the letters were the message in the sense that the letters led me to search for a message. The two are inseparable.
what keeps me going….. lots of coffee, weed and the hope of success. Securing a future for my family. Making some sort of impact in art, and sharing inspiration.
When I started this the there was no hope for a future. No outlets, opportunities. No one gave a fuck. Now it’s possible to see an in on an end game or enough substance to create a strategy to plan for a future. You are never good enough till that check clears.
You’re an artist who has managed to retain a distinct visual language over the course of your career, what is it that continues to inspire you about these forms? Is there something you find youre trying to tap into?
What keeps me inspired is knowing that I am still not good enough as a painter or I am still evolving, wanting to see where this art takes me, what I might come up with next. I think when I paint I search for something deeper, what that is, I’m not quite sure yet other than there is a riddle that is still unsolved within me and painting is the best way for me to work these problems out. This distinct style that I have is the representation of this search for a deeper source. What ever the fuck that means…..
You spoke openly in a conversation with revok for Juxtapoz a few years ago about how you feel “art has lost touch with society”. Not necessarily reality but society, which seems a more distinct and palpable loss – being such an openly political individual and ambassador for the arts, is this something you still believe?
The beauty of art is, it usually reflects the individuals ideas and circumstances. As a microcosm art reflects all aspects of society.
As far as what is acceptable, gets celebrated and what generates recognition, the elite run that narrative as long as they line their pockets first. Hunger Games….
Obviously you’ve been collaborating on some big mural projects with Zes, how do your two distinct creative processes gel together?
I’ve learned a lot about painting from Zes, but most importantly I’ve learned plenty of life’s lessons from him as well. I believe Zes is one of the most important artists of our generation, his story has yet to be told properly. When we paint together we don’t even need to talk. We just paint. Our work is different but derives from the same place. Texture, layers, buffs, fat caps all piling on top of each other.
How have you reconciled being a graffiti artist and parent? The two can seem so incompatible, are you passing on any lessons?
#7 as far as graffiti goes I’m not out there anymore. I can’t constantly claim the use of the word graffiti to describe myself or my work. It has to be constantly earned and a big part of me has moved on. I gave everything I could to this even to my own detriment and well being. Quit frankly I’ve been bored with it for a while and if I’m not going to go out and do some real shit than fuck it. Let the new generation have it.
I’m 40, two kids, been through hell and back. I’m lucky to be alive.
I write on shit when I can. I’ll sneak in a little tag with my baby girl just to open her up to it. If I can paint a train somewhere then great.
For me it was a volatile lifestyle. All that young tuff guy shit doesn’t work when kids are hungry, diapers need changing and bills are do. Graffiti can be the most selfish act. I don’t have the luxury of being selfish anymore when people lives depend on you. Back when I was a feral dog I thought graffiti was my legacy. Now that I am a domesticated animal my legacy lies with my family’s future and my art.
The lessons I pass on to my kids are more about how I see the world then apply accordingly.
Definitely unorthodox…..
What would you say your influences are these days?
Art in general. I like seeing where this post graffiti art movement is going. I like to see what’s new out there. The only problem is every thing is so fucking saturated now. How to find something special umongst a pile of steaming shit is the trick. I have extra sensory perceptors to seek out authenticity and sift through the rubble of infested garbage. It’s a special gift I have.
Shit that almost sounded like a Trump rambling….
What ever puts me a good mood I’ll use as inspiration….. fucking butterflies..
What led you to become bored with graffiti? Would you feel it’s more that you got what you primarily wanted out of it? Or was there some part that you grew majorly dissatisfied with? (politics etc..?)
I guess I am not necessarily bored with graffiti, well fuck I guess In general yes, I am bored with some of it. Let’s be honest kids, what makes your endless scrawlings any different than the 50,000 names on that wall, with no understanding of lineage. Or your 1000 attempt to paint that same fucking limp piece in a safe community sanctioned streetart playground while posing for endless insta selfies.
Don’t get me wrong, my eyes are fixated to these sticky bathroom stalls and gas station pumps covered with scrawls. I still break my neck looking at rooftops on the freeways almost rear ending the fucker in front of me. I will always love graffiti even the worst of it.
And how do YOU differentiate yourself from that weak wet moldy commercial attempt at streetart that has the general average public excited to “support safe art”. Fuck your wack ass girl portrait, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE WACK ASS PRETTY GIRL PORTRAITS, this isn’t a make up add for prepubesant teenage Beiliber fans. These Street Art walls personally look nicer to me blasted with a fire extinguisher, little community outreach program.
How would you describe your journey / history in 3 words?
Can’t. Answer. That….
What makes your story more compelling than the OG’S who built this movement. Your struggle doesn’t mean shit to anyone when you are trying to fulfill this fake bro ego fantasy of being “a beast” to your small circle of circle jerkers without any substance other than the amount of blunts you smoked.
Now if it is done illegally even if it sucks it still gets a few power points. But it still sucks.But I still like you…The point is we compelled each other as crew and as art movent to test our boundaries creatively. These boundaries have been explored like the insides of an old saloon whore. How are you as the new generation going you contribute to the greater good of this art moment. This is one of the reasons many of us are exploring art, new boundaries new possibilities. This shit was turned out 25 years ago, when I started it was all ready past it’s prime. To be turning 40 and still introduce myself as Saber to another adult feels like I’m trying to hold onto some unfulfilled comic book hero fantasy. This has become a commodity, a fashion insta show. Authenticity is surrounded by herds of low frequency clones searching to mimic and appropriate something they have very little understanding of.And yes you have to paint a thousand pieces or write your name ten thousand times to get anywhere for yourself, as long as you know your roots and cultivate a bigger vision for yourself the path is laid before you. Otherwise you are just another sheep participating in whoring of this culture for fleeting extra likes on your insta post.Innovation is key. To find authenticity you have to be honest with yourself and your work and the people around you
- Saber
You can keep up to date with Saber at his instagram
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