LSD Magazine - Issue 7 - Made in Space - Out in May

SUBSCRIBERS GET TO READ IT FIRST
READ ALL ISSUES HERE

Open publication - Free publishing - More urban art

Open publication - Free publishing - More wayne anthony

Open publication - Free publishing - More wayne anthony

Open publication - Free publishing - More dance music

Open publication - Free publishing - More dance music

Open publication - Free publishing - More art magazine

Banksy in Hollywood - February 2011

Brand new Banksy spotted in Hollywood last week... Our boy Banksy tends to blitz various spots during the early hours of any one morning. By the time we all wake up someone somewhere in the world has texted, twittered, facebooked, myspaced and Flickred before you can say 'is that a banksy?' Authorised Banksy networks declare the pieces are indeed the work of the man himself (or at the very least a team of little green helpers).

IMAGES COURTESY OF WOOSTER COLLECTIVE

Open publication - Free publishing - More urban art

Otto Schade - London Solo Show - ON NOW

OTTO SCHADE - SOLO SHOW

Otto has been creating some great pieces in London recently particularly in the east end. We've interviewed him in a past issue of the magazine and encourage everyone to go see the man's high end works...

Lava Gallery. LAVA Gallery 1.11 Kingly Court, 

Carnaby Street W1B 5PW, United Kingdom  

Opening  Party: 

Thursday 6th January 2010 | 6PM-9PM  

Exhibition from: 

7th January -19th January 2010 Otto Schade Website 

Hackney Council Terminators Hunt ROA's Rabbit

While organised groups of locals residents debate with Hackney council on the merits of protecting all Banksy works found in the borough. Another heated 'what is art?' debate is raging through the councils corridors of power. Afterall one may argue the fact a unique graffiti tag on a wall is art but we don't think the question of whether ROA's rabbit piece is art has any place in this debate.  ROA pieces are all around London particularly in East London and many other cities in Europe. The artist did his first solo show in Pure Evil's gallery in Shoreditch September 2010. Belgium based ROA has been on the rise over the last couple years and Hackney was blessed with numerous pieces who have stood the test of time.

The council seems to be getting it completely wrong in its approach to white washing street art graffiti. They appear to welcome anything that Banksy paints on walls while opting to scrub everything else. ROA is one of the hottest names in the street art world right now and if monetary value is what drives the decision to keep Banksy enshrouded in perplex plastic then ROA's work is highly collectible and soon worth a wee fortune. Hang on though, did we miss a page or something, wasn't it the cutting edge media industry of Brick Lane legend coupled with the street art graffiti movement which created this air of sophistication within the borough that is globally known for its Murder Mile?

ROA's rabbit has been there for months and in that time no-one has painted over it which also shows a mark of respect for the work. If the council white washes the wall just how long do they think it will take before they return to white wash some shabby scrawling. The owner of the premises told journalists "It's quite the opposite of what they're saying it is, it's not a blight – it really adds to the local area. If it was some horrible graffiti then they'd have a point, but it's a thing of beauty in Hackney Road, which is not the greatest area in the world. Among the bingo halls and shops you've got a really nice artwork, which really adds something."

The council told journalists "The graffiti ... is clearly visible from the road and, whilst it is not the council's position to make a judgment call on whether graffiti is art or not, our task is to keep Hackney's streets clean. As part of our enforcement policy, which is informed by Defra guidance, we initially contacted the property owner on an informal basis and offered advice, including what they needed to do if they wished to retain the piece of graffiti. This was followed by a letter and another visit to the property before the removal notice was served. However, we are currently holding our enforcement action to allow the owner a further opportunity to seek planning advice about retaining the piece."

They painted over the Banksy in Church Street last year so we're expecting to see a white wall anytime soon though we hope to see the rabbit for much longer...

A petition has been started so if you wish to see this piece on the wall for longer then please sign the petition and lets help to keep street art on walls and anything else deemed a canvas.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?PremROA&1

K-Guy @ Urban Contemporary Art Sale - 21st October

Dreweatts Auctioneers will be  holding their next Urban Contemporary Art Sale on Thursday 21 October   2010. It kicks off at 7pm at Dreweatts London at their Bloomsbury premises: 24 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London.  

K-Guy has a unique 1/1 piece called DEATH OF VENUS up for grabs. A  twenty-first century, cosmetically enhanced reworking of the  Botticelli masterpiece, Birth of Venus. 
 
'Personally I always thought   the old girl looked a bit sad and now the nip and tuck generation has   dealt womankind a rusty scalpel?' K-Guy

Piece Details

Acrylic, spraypaint and silkscreen ink on coroded galvanised steel  sheet formed into a tray type thing. Signed, stencilled and numbered  on reverse, 90cm x 90 cm x 6cm (35 1/2 x 35 1/2 x 2 1/4in)    accompanied by a certifcate of authenticity. 

To view the online catalogue go to the site http://www.dnfa.com/ .  If you're interested in buying stuff, here's the details for online  bidding  http://www.dnfa.com/auctions.asp?view=saledetails&aucno=20430&avail=1

Mural Locator - Useful Kit

Nice Tool...

 
Mural Locator is a simple to use web tool that helps people locate murals around the world. The growing database of locations, photos, and documentation on Mural Locator brings murals and mural artists to a larger audience.

Murals can easily be submitted to the site and have comments made about them. This creates a forum for artists and viewers to communicate and connect.

The interface allows the user to search for murals in a number of ways:

1. The use of a Google Maps mashup with cluster markers makes it easy to find murals in a certain location.

2. The front page shows the newly submitted murals. The page arrows on the sides allow for easy navigation through the database.   

3. Word searches can also be used to find the artwork by location, subject, or artist.

MuralLocator.org makes global murals more accessible and keeps people informed of this ever developing and growing art form.

LSD Magazine Interviews - El Seed (Issue 5)

Building bridges across communities, cultures, preconceptions and artistic forms, El Seed is throwing up a unifying mirror of colour, clean form and the universality of cross cultural humanty. Fusing the ancient medium of calligraphy with the urban poetry of graffiti and street art, he unites two artistic currents into Calligraffiti, both in an exploration of his own conflicted identity of a Muslim living in an often dangerously prejudiced western world and the nature of that prejudice itself as he opens a dialogue across religion, culture and community through the glorious metaphor of stylistic heterodoxy. We contacted El Seed as he painted the street of Montreal a softer shade of understanding and had a conversation.


Can you tell us a little about your background 

I grew up in Paris, France. The son of Tunisian immigrants, I was raised between two worlds; between my North African roots and my French European education. I have always been interested in combining these two aspects of my identity, in both my art and in other ventures. I started painting and drawing when I was quite young, but never had any formal training as I ended up in business school.

What took you down the road to Calligraffiti?

Ever since I began to paint and make art, calligraphy was a big part of my life and I would draw inspiration from the old masters of calligraphy. Graffiti also came early on in my artistic life. I began to tag the walls of Paris in 1998 but stopped shortly after my focus changed to University studies. However, I continued to paint on clothes with styles reminiscent of the graffiti and street art scene, never quite losing touch with hip hop culture. Once I moved to North America, first New York City, then Montreal, I began to paint again with the graffiti artist Hest. Through his guidance and support, I began to mix my love for calligraphy and graffiti and eventually emerged with my own style. I am definitely not the first nor the last to paint walls using Arabic script, but my own particular style grew from a mix of classical calligraphy, using clean edges and complicated lettering, and old school graffiti, using walls to create messages and get people to think about pertinent issues.

Can you give us some insight into why calligraphy is considered the highest form of art within Islam

From what I understand, calligraphy developed as a profoundly Islamic form of art due to restrictions concerning pictorial representations, which have their roots in hadiths. Certain schools of thought posit that reproducing images of living creatures is prohibited within Islam, therefore developing forms of art which avoided direct representations of living beings. Furthermore, reverence for the divine text, the Qur’an, gave words and writing a high rank in Islamic societies. Historically, scribes were commissioned to reproduce the Qur’an in the most beautiful lettering possible, thus encouraging artists to develop highly stylized forms of writing. It seems to me that the combination of love and reverence for the Qur’an and certain revelations said to prohibit reproducing living things have made calligraphy one of the most distinct and highest forms of art within Islamic cultures.

How does Islam impact your creative process?

As a Muslim, Islam impacts every part of my life, including my art. Early on, I would paint portraits, cartoons and other forms of representational art. However, as my knowledge of Islam grew and I began to integrate its principles into my everyday life, I realized that I no longer wanted to represent living beings. This is the main reason why I began to develop calligraphy into my painting and why it has now become the vehicle for my artistic messages. In this sense, Islam has shaped my creative process and has guided my paintbrush and my spray can to where they now point.

The name El Seed – is that a play on Sa’id or El Cid, or does it refer to the idea of planting a seed of thought?

When I started graffiti in 1998, I was looking for a name with an Arabic sound which would correspond with my North African roots. I was first inspired by the book ‘Le Cid’ by the French author Corneille. Cid, or Sa’id, means ‘the Man’ and this appealed to me in my youth so I began to tag my name as ‘El Scid’. However, as I began to develop my calligraphic style and my artistic vision began to mature, I changed my name to ‘eL Seed’. I found that this spelling better reflected the quest for my roots and my origins by calling upon the metaphor of a plant.

Do you intend people to decipher the word, as in give it a sound, or view it only visually?

Since I produce murals with the intention of them being viewed in both Arabic and non- Arabic speaking parts of the world, I strive to deliver art which is both pleasing to the eye and thoughtful in its meaning. The writing itself is always important, and every word or phrase I choose is pregnant with allegorical and interpretive meaning. I try to use eyecatching forms and arrangements to pull the viewer into the piece and essentially awaken a curiosity as to what it all means. At the end of the day, one of my main aims is to make people who don’t understand Arabic want to understand, and thus create bridges between languages, cultures and paradigms.


What does abstraction of the written word bring to its meaning?

Being able to appreciate the form of a letter or a word enables the viewer to perceive language not just as letters, words, and sentences but also as art and poetry. Abstraction of the written word provides a more holistic vision and appreciation of what is being read. A letter or word thus begets a personality, a form, an image, which complements its meaning.

READ FULL INTERVIEW IN LSD MAGAZINE ISSUE FIVE

Open publication - Free publishing - More wayne anthony

Urban Art - Addict Galerie Show - Paris

Addict Galerie - Paris

URBAN ART
... from walls to studios...
The street - a laboratory to new modes of expression

A work of art is born on the streets because its authors do not define themselves as artists. And there it is, the revolution. Young people with wandering fingers, simply wish to recall their existence via urban landscapes, prison-like places made of bricks and rocks, often deteriorated, which work as the scenery to their lives. For more than half a century the aesthetics of the cities have been modifying.

We have often condemned the immature spontaneity of underground painters, who only follow their instinctive need of expression that aims to deconstruct a certain conventionalism of forms. At first only a field of experimentation to young "amateurs", the streets have now become a place for exhibitions of the best-trained artists in search of their target audience, not usually found in museums.

In contrary to the traditional individualism of creators, street artists were able to develop a sense of generosity and solidarity that allowed them to effectuate collective projects. They also replaced traditional painting tools by exploring several techniques and all types of stands. Some broke from the norm by revisiting the figurative aspect with the irony of metaphorical language. Others made use of multimedia to increase our awareness of the dangers present in the virtual world.

Urban art is nowadays a way of life for many of its followers, artists who stay true to the varied inspirations and wish to create on authorised locations without breaking any laws.

 
However, a paradox is brought to light: how can these wandering innovators, having elected the street as their field of experimentation, and who are used to exhibiting works destined to disappear, how can these creators of an ephemeral art let themselves be locked up in a museum or gallery?

One thing is for certain: by moving indoors, and abandoning their secrecy, they do not lose any of their authenticity. These artists are simply proclaiming a different kind of inspiration, but one that stays faithful to their creative approach. They have also given their word that they will go back to expressing themselves in the streets. This tendency is not new. The shift from walls and wagons to light, mobile and collectible paintings had already happened in New York, beginning at the end of the seventies with Crash, Lady Pink...!

 
But what did the common man think when these globalising “works of art” were thrown right in his face? He remained sceptical, sometimes shocked, often puzzled. Institutions and critics saw this as an opportunity to ostracise these creators of undecipherable signs, reduced to the rank of supporters of an underground ghetto culture with subversive slogans.

For its part, the press demonstrated a surprising lack of interest towards this movement: that is when they were not chastising it, going as far as calling it a “degraded art”. Museums completely ignored them. Collectors, ill-informed, could on their part, only have cold feet.

Such context casts urban art in a peculiar place in history and does not make its recognition as a full-fledged artistic movement any easier. Even if the situation improves slowly, to this date in France very few exhibitions have been devoted to urban art. But even those have not taken into account the variety of techniques practiced, nor the richness of its inspiration, ignoring some of its great authors. It was about time to recognise the importance of one of the most revolutionary creative outbursts of the 20th Century because of its ability to reinvent pictorial art forms from an era condemned to a human jumble.

In order to appreciate its magnitude, Addict Galerie will be holding two exhibitions, with the first one taking place on October 16, 2010. This panorama will aim to expose an abundance of talent that will be glowing off the walls. The works of more than forty international artists will be gathered, notably those of pioneers Gérard Zlotykamien, John Crash Matos, Doze Green, Lady Pink, John Fekner et Don Leicht, Jean Faucheur, Toxic, and also younger talents such as Imminent Disaster, 108, Jazi, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, 36RECYCLAB, Mambo. Others also sharing their walls with us will include Jaybo Monk, Marco Pho Grassi, Victor Ash, Herakut, Dan Baldwin, Andrew Mc Attee, Nick Walker, Kofie, Boris Hoppek, Thomas Fiebig, L’ATLAS, Mist, TRYONE, Smash 137, Eelus, Dtagno...

Addict Galerie is conscious of the fact that a degree of subjectivity intervenes in this unique project and the choice of works, and is the first to acknowledge so. Their aim is to reveal, in a way that has never been done before, the coherence of a mode of expression that, through its multiplicity, asserts itself as imaginative, inspiring and innovative.

The proposed scenography observes the course of this panorama in two parts but without breaking its unity, even if the first stage entails a stronger abstract feel and the second a more figurative one. This approach reinforces a global vision that attempts to highlight the successful transition of street art to galleries.

It is through this initiative out of the norm that Addict Galerie wishes to give justice to urban art and help it establish its artistic legitimacy.

Laetitia Hecht and René Bonnell
Translation: Marina Felippe

website: www.addictgalerie.com

LSD Magazine Interviews - Pip Rush / Bert Cole - Arcadia (Issue 5)

We know our way round a party here at LSD, but this is pure next generation stuff as every single synapse crackles into a lightening bolt of gobsmacked wonder and the barriers crumble before the onslaught of thousands upon thousands of heaving minds, bodies and souls coming together in breathtaking unity and rushing their fucking nuts and their bolts off. After the spellbinding spectacle that was their field at Glastonbury, we caught up with Pip Rush and Bert Cole - the visionary nutters behind it all for a word...

Can you tell us a little about your backgrounds 

PIP - I grew up in the countryside in Dorset within a family of artists. My brother Joe had just started the Mutoids when I was born so got a lot of inspiration seeing their shows as a kid.Tried the school thing but didn’t enjoy the system, Started working on and off with the Mutoids 15 years on, learned how to build big scrap sculptures and enjoyed some wicked parties around the world. 

BERT - I grew up in the Dorset countryside with an early passion for mechanics, machines, improvisation and acquiring the skills for making things. I went to my first Glastonbury 20 years ago and witnessed Archaos aged 10 which helped my wheels get turning.  I took off on the road at 16 with tent company Kayam that took me all over the world in amongst festivals and events and was quickly made a tent master and spent the next 11 years touring the globe in the summers with a motley tent crew moving giant structures for events from orchestras to raves. In the off season I started to put on my own free parties and was becoming more interested in getting people together with music and entertainment outside of the normal system.

How did you come together to create Arcadia?

PIP - I started a traveling arts café and travelled round European festivals and squats building party environments. It was hard graft with no funding and we spent a lot of time trying to fix the trucks and acquire diesel... But it was loads of fun, and we met hundreds of creative, driven people. We rocked up at a Spanish festival one day and bumped in to Bert who I vaguely knew from childhood. He was erecting these massive tents, having fun with his crew playing about with serious machinery. I was really inspired to see the possibilities when you had quality tools and good food…and I think he was also inspired by how much fun our freestyle creative lifestyle was…


The next year we scored a good budget from a festival in Ireland and he came out to help with his crew. It was a real potent mix of crews and we built an amazing environment full of sculptures, with a big tent in the middle with bands and stuff. Sometime in the early hours we had a chat about how a linear stage and a separation between the musicians, crowd and sculpture was all wrong, so decided to try and merge it all in to one 360 arena…. From the outside we looked like a dribbling mess, but on the inside wed just hit on an idea that was about to grow beyond our wildest visions!


BERT - I knew of Pip from an early age as we grew up pretty near each other but started to get more in touch as time went on and we realized we had some common interests. I worked as part of a team Pip put together to produce an area at Electric Picnic in 2006 and there was something really positive about working together and the ball started rolling there really as the momentum gathered to try and create, make or produce things in festivals that were nothing traditional but a fusion of influences and elements that combined, made for a full 360 degree all encompassing atmosphere in which people could really let themselves go. This was made relatively obvious from witnessing years of festivals and concerts always following the same old linear formula of stage and auditorium etc. We quite clearly decided to turn it inside out and upside down and create a hub from which effects, music, energy radiates in which people are amongst rather than simply watching. Where things have got to now is a mere evolution of what started for us there.

How important is recycling and mutation in within the Arcadia concept?

PIP - Hmm, it’s massive. Anyone with a few basic skills and a welder can make amazing things out of scrap with very little other resources. Also the inspiration that comes from visiting a scrap yard and seeing mountains of machines from past generations piled up high is massive in itselfe.… We get all our stuff from military scrap yards, Its interesting seeing crates and crates of 

BERT - I feel like we start with outlandish concepts and then search for good bits of scrap as building blocks, slot then in and re arrange them. This allows the concept, design and manufacture to organically and simultaneously develop along an exciting path.

How important is wider team spirit and the essence of collaboration in the bigger installations?

PIP - It’s all about that really, building creative stuff, pushing the boundaries and having a big party at the end really brings the best out of people. ‘Arcadia’ has attracted so many amazing individuals and groups in to my life, all who have inspired me and shaped how I live. I think everybody must have a similar motive, because they all give their heart and soul to work around the clock and make it happen… and they’re definitely not doing it for the money! 

BERT - It’s all about the people, community and spirit. What we do is fuelled greatly by huge amounts of enthusiasm, focus and relentless hard work towards a collective goal by many amazing people who have a huge range in skills, interests lifestyles and ideals. Together these form a multi faceted, ever changing collective who point in the same direction.

READ FULL INTERVIEW IN LSD MAGAZINE ISSUE FIVE

LSD Magazine Interviews - French Street Art Legend C215 (Issue 5)

Laced with a both a haunting realism and an otherworldly transcendence of the flesh into the immortal mysteries of identity, the supremely prolific and painfully genuine C215’s work drips with the whirlwind emotions of the human condition. He speaks through the universal language of communication, the human face to the universal elements of our existence and our shared hopes and shattered dreams through savagely emotive, yet silently reflective portraits that define the commonalities of humanity through the fragmentation we all feel so witheringly and all collude in so blindly. Yet while he urges silent introspection toward our attitudes and prejudices through his silent poetry, despite all the corrupting ills of society, greed and ego that penetrate us an overwhelming joy and embrace of all that is human shines through through the radiant energy that vibrates around his work and the exuberant and dramatic color schemes he so often hurls into the increasingly monochrome world around us. This is intangible complexity in all its conflicted clarity and the man himself took a moment for an exchange of ideas with LSD...

Can you tell us a little about your background and your early journey 

My life was reasonably stable until the age of 14 when I became a raging drug addict : hash, heroin, coke and moreover LSD. My LSD period was unarguably great for opening up channels of creativity, but led also to a certain self destruction. I travelled with the Nomads alongside Spiral Tribe in the early 90’s until I found myself in jail and was forced to re assess my condition, realising that it was time to get myself clean of drugs and start out on the next phase of my life. I began to study tentatively, before the momentum began to snowball and I eventually found myself with a masters degree in Art History, another in History and 2 bachelors degrees, one in German, and the other in English. I fee


What impact did the illegal rave scene have on your creativity and your perception of the world?

It gave me the opportunity to discover that you can be at the heart of a movement that is bigger than you and step outside pure individualism into communal goals, communal living, and a wider purpose. It woke me up to the fact that you don’t need to go to night clubs or museums to experience art, but that you can feel art, create art and be art by yourself, doing it with your mates in unexpected places each with their own intangible character like abandoned warehouses or caves. Ultimately, art is visual poetry, and poetry is always unexpected. 

Is there a beauty in the abandoned?

Whatever is abandoned can equally be saved, and that is the essence of romanticism. Abandoned warehouses, asylums and derelict wastelands reflect our own lives, with a strong sense of the ephemeral. We feel small and modest when we weigh our prized individualism against time and the wider universe, and consider how long any of us or anything we do will last within collective memory. Time being stopped in a specific place helps us to understand how short and transient life really is.


What does our attitude to public space say about us as a society?

In today’s Western cities we find ourselves living in an increasingly puritan atmosphere. Under the questionable cover of struggling against crime and terrorism, cities have been cleaned up to the point of obliterating any form of self expression with the glaring exception of branding and corporate advertising. The bottom line is that within in a modern liberal economy, public space exists solely to generate profits for commercial interests through the penetration and shaping of our daily reality - that’s it. It’s up to us to change this scandalous dynamic and speak about the place of human beings in the urban landscape. Raising that voice and letting it ring out and be heard would truly be a new humanism.

What effect does gentrification have on community identity?

Gentrification gradually forces cities of the world to fit the same mould. Communities are slowly being dissolved to allow this globalised uniformity to set in and genuine social relationships tend to disappear, leaving society and the urban landscape only really able to sustain business relationships. There are walls of separation everywhere: door codes, guards, cards, etc that break down the spirit of human interaction and communal trust and break us down into a dehumanised conformism.


How do you explore the forgotten in your work?

I try to show the neglected and the rejected people society chooses to blind itself to - the homeless, street kids, people who failed or had no chance to succeed and I paint their inherent beauty and dignity. In a world where people who have fallen through the net of officially ‘socially acceptable’ I try in my own way to bring their identities into the light and perhaps awaken the passing viewer to the real flesh and blood, feeling individuals that they may decide to ignore or whose conditioning may not allow them to embrace the common humanity they have with these forgotten souls.

Is there a universal language of the human face? 

Emotion is universal and eyes betray the same feelings everywhere. What is important is to find the link that unifies us within the same community and a shared humanity, beyond religion, politics, economic imbalances and social issues. My job would be to gather people once more around simple feelings they could share together, facing an unexpected homeless portrait painted in a street and speak directly to the individual humanity within the portrait that speaks to the primal in us all.

READ FULL INTERVIEW IN LSD MAGAZINE ISSUE FIVE

Open publication - Free publishing - More wayne anthony

LSD Magazine Interviews - Muro (Issue 5)

Bilbao born artist Muro has evolved out of straight up lettering into an astonishingly diverse and vibrant set of styles. Globetrotting from Europe to Senegal with cans in hand - his bizarre menagerie of surrealist wonder is truly the stuff that brings the concrete to life and sets the imagination flowing. Hampered by a language barrier on the interview front - we did a Q+A, but have tried to cram in as many images as possible into the piece......

Self taught or art school? 

Self taught 

How long you been painting and what influenced your decision to paint on the streets? 

Since 2000, influenced by the 90´s Barcelona scene  

Are artists safe from arrest in your city? 

Absolutelly yes, I´m actually living in a small town where graffiti has a good reception by the people. 

How important is street art and graffiti in your city? 

Not enought, it´s never enought. 

You’ve painted in many countries, how do you decide on what country to visit next? 

Sometimes I receive a invitation to paint in a foreing city and other times I go where I want.  

More and more artists are travelling to paint in Africa, how did Senegal respond to an artist painting on their streets? 

It´s always a surprise, they are very opened to receive people and treated me very good, maybe they're inocence makes them better people than us. 

Street art graffiti in most cities has a very short shelf life before someone goes over it or get buffed, do you have the same problem in your cities and how do you personally respond? 

I try to not get affected by this acctions because everybody knows that graffiti is a ephemeral art, but sometimes I get angry and painted again over it.

READ FULL INTERVIEW IN LSD MAGAZINE ISSUE FIVE

Open publication - Free publishing - More wayne anthony

LSD Magazine Interviews - Eine (Issue 5)

Well fuck us sideways with a crate of spray paint but the unthinkable has happened. David Cameron, British Prime Minister and Tory - yes TORY leader shook hands with President Obama on his first official visit to Washington and proudly handed over a painting by street artist Ben Eine. Either we’ve all disappeared down one seriously hallucinogenic rabbit hole, or the political dynamics of street art just took a left turn doing 90 with the handbrake lashed firmly on. It opens up all sorts of questions about changing social perceptions of the medium as well as sowing doubts about the inevitably coruscating commercialism that may eventually be its demise, but for Ben who’s been pumping out stunning art for over 2 decades it is richly deserved and a fat slice of wicked news after a lifetime spent underground and grafting. As he said himself in 10 foot letters - It’s been a strange week , and we caught up with him as it all went mental in the Cameron Obama aftermath...

Could you tell us a little about your background as a graffiti artist...

I started doing graffiti when I was about 13 or 14. When what’s now grown into hip hop came over from America as electro music and break dancing 25 odd years ago, graffiti was a part of that new movement. I was a young kid at that time and I wanted to be a part of it and being a bit of a cheeky git that likes running away from things and being a bit naughty but since I was rubbish at breakdancing, graffiti ticked the boxes for me and so I got heavily into it. 

You eventually moved away from graffiti into what’s much more your current style. What sparked that evolution? 

I was getting really bored of how graffiti hadn’t progressed and hadn’t developed into the amazing promise I felt it had when we started out. We were going to change the world, we were going to paint everything and it was going to be revolutionary. Graffiti over the years didn’t progress and just became really boring and stagnated and graffiti writers have these self imposed rules like you can’t use stencils and everything has got to be done freehand you know it has to be like this or like that…. And people outside of the graffiti community were doing other things like stencils and abstract painting and while the graffiti community hated that, I actually liked it and found it really interesting. The combination of being bored with graffiti and seeing what was happening elsewhere as the street art scene was starting to happen with people like Banksy and Shepard Fairey making posters and stickers pushed me to have a closer look at the potential of this new scene. Add to that the fact that I’d been arrested lots of times and was on the verge of prison, while didn’t want to go to prison for graffiti, I definitely didn’t want to stop painting stuff. So I kind of knocked graffiti on the head and started doing street art. 

 
At that point were you just using a can but you then got into screen printing and all kinds of different media. All self taught? 

Yeah I haven’t been to college and I didn’t study art at school from the age of 13 so yeah - all self taught. What was it about letters specifically that drew you. When I did graffiti, for me it was about the letter form and how letters change shape when combining them with different letters and graffiti is ultimately about making your name look as cool, as fresh, and as stylish as you possibly can when you write it on a wall or tag up the side of a train. It’s making your name look fucking amazing and all about the style with which you put it out there. I was never into characters or backgrounds and scenes – it was all about the word. So when I stopped graffiti and moved into street art, I started with letters almost without thinking about it, and would play about with my name and the letter form in general. Lots of people that were doing street art had an image or a character that went with their name - Banksy had his rats and Shepard Fairey had his big Obey character, but I wanted to try to do something different and because of my history in graffiti and my kind of nerdish interest in typography and especially in old fonts, it just progressed into what it is now.


Your canvases feature children heavily – can you elaborate on that a bit...

It’s a lot to do with innocence, video cameras,the way that children are overly protected and the way that surveillance is swamping our society. And taking that fact of the overprotection of our children, does it affect them, does it damage them, are we taking away their freedom by trying to protect our freedom with endless layers of security? Those canvases are really playing about with those kind of ideas 

What was the first inkling that Downing Street was going to be approaching you for some work? 

I was in my studio on a Friday night cutting out some stencils and I got a phone call from Anya Hindmarch who I had collaborated with towards the end of last year. We had a little chat then she said this is a bit of a weird one, but Samantha Cameron and David are really big fans of your work. I was like whoa that’s a bit of a surprise. She went on – ‘David is looking for a painting to give to the most important man in the world; in America, I can’t say his name. Would you be interested?’ I said wow yeah. So she was like do you mind if I give your number to Downing Street and someone will give you a call. About twenty minutes later someone from Downing Street called and basically said the same thing that Anya had said - that David and Samantha Cameron are fans and that they were looking for a painting to give to - and again wouldn’t say the name - but the most important man in the world- would I be interested. The only thing was that they needed it by Monday and so we had a talk about the work that I do and what wouldn’t be suitable because a lot of the stuff that I do does contain negative words and they were really only interested in the positive stuff. They did worry about what could be read into the words and they obviously thought a lot about it, so I emailed them some images and the back and forth went on all day Saturday and Sunday morning until I remembered that I had a painting called “21st Century City” in a Brighton gallery. So I emailed them an image of that and within 5 minutes, they came back saying - yeah it’s perfect, we love it, they picked it up on Monday and it went on an airplane to Washington.

READ ENTIRE EINE INTERVIEW IN LSD MAGAZINE 

Open publication - Free publishing - More wayne anthony

Old Skool graffiti artist Busk Paints Lord Napier

Old Skool graffiti artist Busk relived part of his youth as he threw up his calling sign on the Lord Napier pub. In days gone by no permission would be sought for this particular hideaway in Hackney Wick. Today though, Busk has the full permission of the owner Paul which was better than nailing all the doors shut from the outside with any threats locked silently within the four walls. Yes, Paul is sound as a pound and even offers the space for artist to exhibit their wares. Meanwhile Busk was attracting the most attention for spraying gold paint on the wall, to the untrained eye it looked, well, they couldn't be sure. Someone asked me if it was Banksy i said if he could spray lines like that i dont think he'd be doing stencils but then again he just might. As Busk finished tarnishing the red walls gold, graffiti legend Snoe began throwing up his piece on the other outside wall.


A host of artists (including Run, Cept, Discreet) were on the streets painting walls for the Hackney Wicked Arts Festival in 'erm Hackney Wick. Trains run direct to the station... Tomorrow and Sunday dozens of well known street / graffiti artists will be painting live on the streets throughout the event... We'll be down there and say hello...