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.  

Untitled Sculpture.

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.

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.

Bikaner to Jaisalmer

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.

"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 

Funk, Style and Swing - An Interview with Skore79 (12OZ Prophet 2016)

Purveyor of the most complete and bad ass Wild Style known to the whole of Europe, Skore79 has been carefully crafting his artwork for decades - I caught up with him to chat style and how having 3 daughters has changed his approach to painting
@skore79

 Introduce yourself and give us a little bit of background as to how you got started

I got started writing graffiti in the early 90s in a small town at the northwestcoast from Germany. Inspired by the movies Beatstreet and Wildstyle , I was tryin to do the same. Breakdancing  and writing Graffiti.
My first Name was ROM, then ROB. Quite simple letters with a little Bubbletouch.
95-96 I startet to write Skor, then Skore. I liked the letter "S" on the beginning of the word, because it is wild in the nature and you can combine a lot of other letters to it.

Did you ever have much luck with breakdancing? 
No, i was quite funky at the uprockthing, my sixstep was ok, but my powermoves were wack as hell. But I had a fresh Adidas trainer back in da days, lmao

What interests you about graffiti over anything else?

The science of letters. It has no borders. You can add anything you want to it, to bring your  letters to life. Meanwhile it is a big part of my life.   Graffit helped me, finding some very good friends and crew-member over the years, which I dont wanna miss.

How would you describe your style and approach? 
I would describe it as "classic Wildstyle", with some new aspects. I always had a straight focus on to the styles and not to the technique. For me its more important to have a good swing in the letters, as to have very sharp and cutted outlines. Another important thing is to have good and fresh combination in between the letter structure. Trying to stay fresh and original is my motto.

Why does such technical wild style appeal to you over simpler designs?
I don't know exactly. Maybe I´m feeling it more. Maybe to hide my blurry lines, haha. No due to graffiti I´m more the aggresive one. I think with Wildstyle you can give your letters a bad look, you know...something like that.

Everyone is said to have their own arrow and connections, what do you think yours give to your graffiti? as in, how do you use yours? 

There are some limitations, you cannot have your own arrows I think. Everything has already been painted, but what you can do is to have a different kind of combination of the letters and elements. You can have a different or own connection in between the letters, which is important to me. The connections need to have sense, without damaging the single letter….what you can also do, is to have your own swing or movement in your letters. I would compare my style with old Kungfu movies, not just that jet li shit…a mix with looney toons, haha.

Do you have any sort of rituals when you paint? Such as listening to music, drinking beer or smoking?
Yes all of that, lmao! It depends. But mostly I´m trying stay clear in the head and only listening to music, while I´m doing a piece at the wall or on the paper. Generally I´m doing my sketches all at night, while my kids are sleeping.

Any music in particular you listen to when you’re painting?

 I like jedimindtricks, vinnie paz, ill bill, prodigy. My favorite tune is still alchemist feat prodigy: albert einstein and MobbDeep’s HellonEarth. Listening to some german mc`s as well, but they're rare.

What are your main influences at this current moment in time? Whether they be from within graffiti or from outside. 
I can say my current influences are coming from my both crews SBB&ABS.  There are People like Phet, Dejoe, Sbeck, Pork. Which are in my eyes stylemasters in many levels. And the list goes on and on. I love also the styles from KidKaro(Spade)TPM,SureTPM Keep6 from Canada, Ores from Italy  and many more. But my original influences are of course the old New York Style & Berlin in late 80´s till mid90´s.

With you having such a classic and bold Wildstyle look, do you have any opinions on what people call the other side of graffiti, the 'anti-style'? People like PAL crew from Paris, Germes Gang from Portugal etc - where the expression is more important than the letters or tradition itself.

 Never heard of them, you mean this standard Cap, dirty Blade copies? Don't know what to say about that. I mean you have such great tools today like different spray can companies, different caps, cheap ground colours etc and all that they (can) produce is this whack letter-structure. Not worth a look in my opinion. But live and let live, I say.

How have you found balancing being a graffiti artist and a parent? The two can seem very incompatible. Im not that every-day-painter. It is enough for me to have12-15 pieces a year, which leaves a lot time for my girls. When I have to decide, to paint a wall or my girls, I would definately choose my girls.

Could you sum graffiti in 3 words ?
Funk, swing, style

Shout out to my SuperBadBoys, To my ABScrew, Uts . My man Dosar, Fakt47,Suck, Bers, Rafe, Ples Phon, Dragan, Marko, Zeljko, Assir, BjörnUlli, the MFR crew, Hek, Pock, Done, Spade, Keep6, Ores, Stan brate, Sure, York, East, Causeturk, Worm kardes, Leon,KevinAstek, Krome-magazine, Eddy Dibz, Stem ynn, JLo ynn, RageFua and all the others. PEACE! Ephiq,  Shuen, Kine, Wuper,GraffFunk, Knut, Ast, Lens, Toe, Irie.
THANK YOU!

Lefebvre

A man with no teeth sat in a mound of bottles and smiled at me, before lifting the can to his mouth

Nestled between two sections - one silent and one full of sound
I went there to listen to the bats, have a beer and sit down - most of my time is spent wandering around
paint teaches you to interract with things in a sacred way - you grow with the place you paint because you appreciate it being
it makes a place sacred.
things are navigated by them
who there they when? did big burners back to back by the wall next to the old railway track.
it cant be understood by those not initiated, those not gone from place to place with - those not trudged undergrowth and miles of mud with
Thorns, thorns and thorns
Trains, lights and dawn

The way the lines intersected, spent ages looking and how those lines criss crossed and made some savage energy along the wall.
sat with my limbs like that, some kinda yoga position. mimiced what i saw.
 thought more about the blanks, planned maps of meaning. what colours, this and that.

A little old lady on an electric scooter confronted me as I emerged
glances had, not said a word

My Sons Name Is Festival

Never been one to hide from the fight but I might dip and strike again, collect another force and form a plan to penetrate your friends, plan to have you disappear for 10, end up water lung like concrete clogs see we be saying never saw him again
Angst in this hunchback clap a few tracks, back with the sickness sip a few bhang
Slack with the riddim gonna get yourself slapped
Cos tact ain't a tool that I use to attract

My sons name is festival
He said to me whilst we stood crowded round the door of a hurtling train set for Jaipur, it was 6am and I caught him chanting at the sunrise birthing from the mountains the distance.
He offered an open blue foil wrapper in which was nestled some brown substances, I thought rude to reject so took it ecxpecting nuts – rather not, instead it was chewing tobacco. Quite a shock right considering on this tour id already taken opium.

He then introduced me to his family, told me he was an english teacher (this I thought funny as his interpretation of my native tongue wasn't great)
and then gave me a breakfast of a shortbread type cake made of ghee, wheatflour and baking powder I apprehensive in my acceptance of it duely forgot all imagined ills when it touched my mouth, beautiful.

My suns name is festival.

Stay lit with a short fuse well travelled
Keep my eyes out searching for that high mountain
Don't stay put

Now my timings not quite perfect and I admit that
Bit off beat, but bite this nah that no easy feat you see geeze
On a Sleepy Sunday in the rain
I penned a couple notes of pain
My many muscles spoke of troubles blend again
A stale hour absorbed in name
But been A hot minute since I knew her frame
Still, Set fire to a piece of parchment
As my fingers dribble with the question of conversation with you

"Chitodgadh & it's very nice place to see"
I hung out the train doors hurtling towards Jaipur,
I told him my name was Ben and he said
'Pen? What a name!'

Push

Beneath the shadow of the mountains we watched Hindus attempt immortality through immersion and chanting, it is quite a sight to behold man give himself to the gods in the hope of some sweet taste of safety.

I couldn't comprehend this mass enmeshed across the ocean over there 

I couldn't comprehend as the sun did set 

As orange crested building bricks I couldn't see only heard attempts

Your vocal chords they undulate over a PA system across a lake 

The crowd a call to meditate 

So loud I felt reverberate 

I cannot fathom why man would make himself immortal

Though immortal he must be

To hope to find a slice of peace 

Amongst this pile of trash and steam 

Your flesh is weak

Your arms they bend

Your bones they break

Your vision weak 

Your heart is hurt

But song is never stone 

And God is never done

So sing another and long hope 

This water dirty full of shit and socks 

Found a fish float upon its shores

Eyes all wide 

Brahmas tears did not cleanse

The chemicals we expend 

Did rot and row its own natures hand away into its end

Despite your effort for eternity your chemicals do not disappear

Your flesh is weak

Your shit is strong

All holy this, all holy that

But open sewers

Do death attract

I alone a vessel did wake in wicked hour and float with them in crooked song and hymn

 I lost myself in prayer later on

Inspecting every twitch my mind did make in remembering 

All memory is recall anyway they say

So I guess I summoned up a thousand lives from across the lake

Felt all their fates

Lax Sapien

I planted shrooms
waited for while, sipped shots with the moon
breathing in gloom, chatting gaps with a lesser of devils from an unholy few
with cider we rattled all cages, no shot low enough for debasing
every idea and weight of those cases, beyond good and evil is where had we claimed shit
we kicked it a dymanic loose duo, swung round all the haunts that the populace follow
I absorb from the roots and then shoot
play chess with the sleuthest of crews
whilst me and those powers that be, rake creeps into heaps
freewheeling in speech
but never sleep, that for the weak
unless you underneath
in which case I beat bodies, leave em hobbling and soggy

absorb from the roots and then shoot
eat all the fruit
lax sapien stick knowledge in skull which snake brew

oh how i grew
in thorns wine and spew
learn debate plato seven chakras bit snacks this cold mute

yickety yack
hack prezs bank
throw a few phrases then reassemble attack
volcano ebola over whack tongues new track
keep it here keep it now
keep it hymnal and holy in sound
keep that torch lit til baccanal found
I wandered town to town
naked unbound, still tripping on facts
stood straight ape
mistaken for grace a disgusting abstract

I lie down

(2013)

This was written at the grimmest period of my existence a few years ago; post-death of many kinds, I was sleeping on a mattress in my dads bungalows front room, it was christmas, i was alone and due to his dementia he wasn't aware of the season. I was incredibly depressed.

Good times.
Still a favourite though.

I write a lot about love, death, fire & home.
forever the cliche would say next that "theyre all ive ever known"
but as an infection spreads to the heart, my dearly departed ma & me discuss Ginsberg over coffee in a kitchen where the sun warms your face, spilling the room next to the brick walls with a sense of aching normality
like ive been filled to the brim with content, free from all earthly sin (excluding those inherited)
but she aint dancing in those mortal coiled shoes, long since tapping her feet to the great bass drum
the one that scratches at your face to take the skin for what it convinces you is sacrament.
but is actually kidnap. a stopped mid sentence silent vanishing.
and ill be standing before the reaper squealing, asking the only question that matters still
"but..does she still love me? like she used to?"

"has she kept that dimple acquainted with my fingers? has she hidden boxes of photos in a treasure chest?
am i allowed to assign hope to a ship long lost to a swamp?"

but she
always she, the forevermore Sma. forevermore, forevermore the biggest darkness in the hall, the gust of wind thats blowing down walls. the chill that creaks spine.
ive missed you. ill miss you. i am missing you. it is missed.
like there was never meant to be none of this but im piling books of knowledge like ignorance was going out of style.
histories lessons are stamped, or more scarred into skin that yellows with age.

ive learnt to know better, or so id hoped, so id penciled down on some red lines at the back of an old schoolroom class in a maths lesson i wasn't paying attention to. loud booming over the numbers at myself
but i scribbled and sat, scratching marks to paper that would last a life time in the heart.
then i buried it. and whispered to the ground that it better not tell a soul in the wind it blows lest i cut out a tongue with a pastry knife.
not that nature needs nurturing into silence, it doesnt do to tell the mountain about moving. it doesnt dwell on dancing.
but slow burns the skeletons, ravages the exo-ignorance.

'I'll never be alone, ill always have death'
i once wrote on a stone that i then cast out to sea.
i turned away from the shore, walked home & sat in front of a fire like before. light illuminating, old miser buddha position. i fell into the flames again (yet to feel alive). i cut off my arm to dissect the nerves to try and find the ones that were rattling the bone machine, spluttering cough medicine all over the carpet. i collapsed and went further, motorhomed it towards the sunset on a mattress the carers kept under my Dads bed for festive occasions,
but baubels dont reflect itv, christmas trees dont green to dying domesticity.

i've given enough to let go.
i've given enough to escape
what more can you take?

'There is a lifetime in the mornings sun' i woke up to know this stanza from a poem id built.
little light casting through the blinds, i pushed my eyes & tried to find the horizon point to disappear on.
little leprechaun, how does a rainbow grow? where can i melt into the colours, blues & hues?
he handed me a shovel, and recounted Sinking Ships:
"6ft between the days we spent and the way we wish things couldve been"
i sat hunched alone, a meditation my back had learnt and mused upon the best direction to dig in, the comfiest size to sleep in.

I'm shedding skin, but wanting sleep
I'm kneeling for prayer to bring a guillotine
I'm washed under history & seldom find peace.

All To Write My Name (45RPM BabMag Article)

For those who can't wait, here's the latest article I wrote for BabMag on celebrated Bristol based nutter 45RPM.

ALL TO WRITE MY NAME

“This was planned and persistent vandalism designed to show off to others similarly minded, with no regard as to the wider impact” 

- Judge Michael Leeming on the sentencing of SMT Crew.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

How do you unlearn subversion? Once you have been through the fence how do you ignore the gaps? Graffiti is dangerous not only because of it’s inherent ability to put its practitioners in the light of the law but because many of the most memorable moments it gives us are not the action itself, but all those beautiful stupid things that surround it and the wider viewpoint it gives us. The oddballs and addicts, the ways in and over, can you ever make a successful transition to mainstream reality once you understand how to cheat it? Would a 9-5 not ache?

“Once a cleaner walked into our hotel room and started screaming as i’d had a nose bleed in the night and was covered in blood...plus someone had drawn a hammer head shark over my whole body. Another time I woke up upside down on a fence as my trainer had split on its three prongs and I’d fallen on my face and knocked myself out. I have a million of these pieces of rubbish, someone once asked me what I would say to a kid starting out, those are the things I thought of.”

To look at 45RPMS work is to see a sea of colour and humour and to speak to him is to hear nothing but a genuine warmth, a boundless and unadulterated love for this culture but graffiti can will destroy your life if you let it and amongst the daydream haze of adventures he recounted in our conversation, you could sense the twitch of loss and gnaw of time (R.I.P Buzz, Wayne and Ekons) were digging. From funky letterforms to his endless throwup variations to his perfect phrase based characters he is an individual for whom art is everything, an obsessive creative who dedicates most hours to any number of outlets and has done for the best part of two decades. Now living in Bristol his time is spent between graffiti, illustration, photography and until recently getting himself into as many anarchic situations as life will allow.

"I’ve been painting since 1999, i’ve moved cities, i’ve lost girlfriends, good mates and jobs all to write my name on a wall for a handful of people to see. I’m always tired, scared, hungover or nervous, my hands are cut up and my clothes ruined but I’m a positive person, even in the worst moments."

This fascination with new possibilities, the opportunity to find / forge new pathways and curate his own life is at the crux of 45RPMs celebrated work but therein for him (as for many readers I assume) is the core of the problem. There is an absolute and vibrant fascination with language, place, people and the way not only that they are used – but can be used, talking to RPM you get the idea that painting is beyond just putting medium to surface, it is the key to a different world. To get a proper insight into this we need only start with his photography, this predominantly 35mm work may not be the primary outlet of his creativity but it provides perhaps a more illuminating glimpse into it; whilst painting may be a depiction of the hand, photography is surely a depiction of the heart and in his snapshots graffiti meets halloween costume meets street life meets weird tattoos in a 35mm presentation on not what could be (as his painting serves) but what actually is. Little light hearted incidences of importance, the every day hours between action that bleed comedy. Some graffiti photography can be beyond dull but 45RPMs viewpoint is infectiously inviting.

Within these photos lies RPMs letterform variations but more notably that which has bought him to the limelight in the past few years, his characters. These operate around representing in literal terms the little oddities that language births and start life as beautifully clean ink drawings whose influence is taken from either well known pieces of cockney rhyming slang (‘dog & bone’, ‘apple & pears’), subcultural lexicon (‘biter’) or simple unique takes on phrases (‘no fox given’, ‘a pizza the action’). Beneath simply stating your name graffiti is a love for how language functions as an action inherent to our encounter with the world and whilst not all writers take their name directly from slang there are huge similarities between slangs idiomatic, openly metaphorical inventiveness and graffitis stylistic exploration and the spatial possibilities of meaning. A good piece of graffiti is its own poetry and looking at RPMs characters, who not only take directly from slang but add in the visual / spatial element of graffiti you can’t help but feel there is an overwhelming enthusiasm for how we construct and value meaning.

This inventive playfulness acts as a common theme throughout RPMs work, his desire to explore and encounter the world in as many ways as possible shows through even when the form is simplified to pure weaponised style; the throwup. These to 45 are “graffiti at its purest form”; mobile, agile beings able to be executed anywhere to maximum effect in minimal time andtherefore perfect for the natural wanderlust of a writer. Graffiti strives at its heart to uncover, to understand the world in a more unique way and the throwup is one of its strongest weapons, providing immediate access to that adrenaline fuelled existence -  “when I'm painting one I don't think about anything but that throw up, its like a switch is flicked. Its just you and the silence, a hyper awareness to noise and movement that if your lines well enough become a dance”. But again it comes back to pure enjoyment - “how can you can walk past an Oker throwup and not smile?”

It is this utter concentration on the moment, this fleeting escapism of which all writers are aware which is unfortunately, the most troubling – because it is this which is the crux of the problem which so concerns RPM at the moment. The more time you spend in your own world, as all great artists do, the more developed that vision becomes, the more divorced you are from ‘reality’. Adding in softly near the end our chat he remarks “Bukowski said find something you love and let it kill you, I have”.
Bumping into an old friend recently he tells of how he stared blankly when they mentioned their recent BBQ and kids, replying “nothing” when asked what he had been doing with himself because how are you supposed to explain all of this? In the words of writer Buford Youthward “after all, when the sun comes up, graffiti is beyond documentation” The longer you go the more affinity you find yourself having with drug addicts & armed robbers, and what are we if not both of those?

45RPM is an artist who creates passionately and this enjoyment is obvious in all his work, you cant help but laugh with him, but in answer to this question of ‘what happens next’ I would say one word; adapt. Life is a series of chapters, utilise your skills in a different way and make the most of it. To those doubting their path remember it is not the destination but the journey that matters and to me it seems that 45RPMs work is a pure celebration of this idea. Allow yourself a moment of clarity, we are luckier than most.

We could all stand to learn a lot from 45RPM.

“I’m 36, single and without a mortgage but I wouldn't have it any other way, one day i’ll have to calm down so until then i’ll keep burning the candle any way I can.” 

- 45RPM

4:30AM

tonight went to go see the sugarhill gang, didnt like it though, seemed like it was middle age digging at the grave lot going through the motions making money from dead moments
imagine having never grow above something which made you famous in the 80s, imagine vanilla ice sitting at home a legitimate and caring artist but only known for one song
imagine how long those nights mut be, imagine how long and lonely are the one timers, knowing that theyre better than their lime light says.
because respect lost is defeat, you cant crawl back to strong and stable
nah that scars your fable, chris brown will forever be known for violence
what seems may be for now, but what could be should never be shadowed by its cloud
we respect it in our musicians and artists
i cant conceal a fate but i can change my ways and thats important in allowing growth
the ability to be wrong and move on, to change song
forever shedding effects in time and sentience
back to normal static relevance
embibed in the hive mind like resonance, shifting atwist beneath the crowds
a one type billionath of matter in a mind
we aint stopped that feet first ape
no rest for the wicked
for freedom we chase
ran right by god
didnt see him in the twisting turner blinker of a mirror, havent seen him around here
walked upright and straight into error

but i see him every now and then, in a day with too much coincidence or lining enjoyments lingering glare
i sense a certain beauty intransient in here
unexplainable, maybe self confidence in perfect objectivity, a pure state of stillness with the ocean

Ways Of Seeing (CHU BabMag Article)

Finally got round to picking up the new issue of Babmag for which I wrote an article on midlands 3D graffiti specialist CHU.

Here's the full piece.

Ways Of Seeing
The Work of Chu
by Murdok

“the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight” - John Berger

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” - William Blake

“Teenager leaves spectacles on floor of San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art as a prank, leading some to think they were an exhibit” - The Guardian, 2016.

Pareidolia, the name given to the way the brain will interpret and find patterns in shapes where there are none presents us with an interesting view into our imagination when looked at through the lens of art & creativity. If these simple instances of mental trickery made in moments of fright or fancy can construct worlds that simply are not there then what does it mean for our wider engagement with reality? What have we built that does not exist? Or more excitingly...what perhaps, are we missing?

Born in 1971 in Blakenall, Walsall Chu is an artist of multidisciplinary interest whose practice incorporates graffiti, world record breaking mural attempts, print, installation, video game design and a large role in the digital 3D rendering world. As he puts it though, there is a common theme of giving the viewer “more validity…..a super-human power” running throughout his work, whatever medium it is executed in there is a paramount interest in breaking down barriers through the introduction of the spectator to, and immersion of them in any number of different alternate realities.

Having just passed into his 34^th year as a graffiti artist and with 20 of those spent organising events his client base mirrors this lifetime of dedication with such companies as Coca-Cola, Virgin Trains (alongside Jamie Hewlett), Glastonbury Festival (numerous times), Nintendo, Digital Arts Magazine and even Banksy (who hired him as a print and event consultant) all seeking out his talents over the years.

To encounter Chu’s cross platform work is to have a glimpse into worlds beyond our own, beyond the realm of pure 2D representation and dipped into fantasy. As a self-confessed video game addict and having enjoyed employment with Walsalls leading games developers early in his career Chu is well versed in the creation of separate spaces that both mentally and physically engage users in their experience. For his ‘Cubic Experiment’ project Chu constructed an enclosed, decorated cube that upon entering would create an all around artistic experience when viewed from a single point in its centre. Disorientating, even for himself (Chu found it hard to distinguish between wall, floor and ceiling during the process) the piece sought to merge his fascination with the material capabilities of illustration and the immersion of virtual spaces.

Bringing the possibilities of the virtual realm to the street has meant that Chu has explored and experimented (sometimes on a huge scale) with ideas of 3D graffiti for a long time, whereas traditional Wildstyle graffiti feigns affiliation with projection from a surface its primary focus remains the distortion of letters, not of space, which ultimately means any environment created is understood as being linked to that surface and unfortunately retracts any promise of proper absorption into it. Chu understands something deeper though, that when a graffiti artist builds their name and style they are building a world – this being what we value outside of technical precision, the ideas graffiti artists (and wider artists as well obviously) communicate through their work. The best artists are the ones that make us see in the world a different, undiscovered place and in the case of Chu, whose work seeks to go beyond simple aesthetic fascination and into that pure meditative, hypnotic state that comes with a complete loss of self in contemplation, we find just that.

But whereas the virtual realm is limited to just that, virtual reality, Chu’s work in its use of the confrontational methods of graffiti and mural art forces us to examine and explore these ideas through sheer accidental exposure alone. These ‘Anamorphic Projections’ whilst meaningless from one view are reconstituted through the use of a specific standpoint or device and are a sublimely powerful act when mixed with the forceful space taking that graffiti employs. The everyday pedestrian can find themselves transported into a different world by simply being in the right place at the right time, they are a launch pad to alternate ways of seeing and just like Pareidolia work their magic suddenly – their absorption impossible to ignore.

Whilst the most illustrative and characterful depiction of these merged interests is most exactly given in the record-breaking mural attempt at ‘Hole In The Wall’ in Walsall town centre in which Chu single handedly painted a 40x95ft anamorphic projection mural over 42 days, the most precise and stunning experiment with these ideas is his black and white geometric work. Whereas the variation of subject matter (characters, letters, background) in traditional graffiti offer a chance to break up a surface – the consistency of line and colour in these monochromatic works do not give us that chance. Employing these devices of optical illusion for projects such as See No Evil and Room K in Bristol as well as the simply astounding “largest ever freehand 3D graffiti illusion” for City Of Colours mean the possibilities of graffiti and street art have been taken to a new level, especially when they’re painted without projectors, ladders or measuring devices – as Chu is prone to doing.

In Chu we have a master of alternative realities, a connoisseur of the understanding that art can be more than simple posturing. Together with the subtle political humour that creeps through the titles and ideas of much of his work we are shown an artist adept at getting to the crux of our experience and forcing us to confront how we perceive, engage and construct it. He is an artist that takes us to the edge of our reality, and demands we jump.