Anarkia interview

 
BS: Everybody has a reason for writing graffiti. Some people want fame. Some do it for the love of art. Others do it for the adrenaline rush. What is your reason for writing?
 
Anarkia: Graffiti for me is a lifestyle, it is a different way to think and live in the world. It is incredible how I feel with the adrenaline rush making with precision a good piece on a train or how I can express to the world my ideas changing it with a production.

BS: How exactly do you use your art to express political and social themes? I ask because in North America NOT many recognizable artists seem to get up for political reasons.
 
Anarkia: I think that the different scene that we have in Brazil is why we can have different  conceptions about graffiti. You have lots of characters, different letters, stencil and everything you want to do without discrimination. This is why people like me can go out and do a graffiti thinking on it with political reasons.
I think that Graffiti is a kind of art that you can like or not like, but you can’t close your eyes;  it always will be there. It passes a message if you want to see it or not and this is why it is so powerful. And if I have person walking along all the city to see and assimilate my message, I can use it to change the way that person thinks, using the images to make reflections about the world. Last year, I made a project in a ONG called Artefeito that was to stimulate the female writers production and to divulge a new law about domestic violence against women that we have in Brazil. At this time me and the others girls came to the slums and others place that the information didn’t reach and the humans are so humble to talk about the woman positions, the law and at the finish we made a big mural with the girls about the law. Here in Brazil is easy to do that because people like graffiti and view it as more of an art than vandalism. In this project we made graffiti all over for the girls see that in that place. They will look for persons prepared to defend them. If We use the graffiti to do actions like that one we can make the world can be better.

BS: You use graffiti to express your views on feminism and social issues. What specific social issues and women’s issues influence your work the most?
 
Anarkia: Oppression against woman influence me. I want to do contribute with something to finish the oppression and the machismo. I use my graffiti to do this.

BS: In your opinion, what are the most important issues the Brasilian government needs to change?
 
Anarkia: Brazil is a rich county, but has lot of difference between rich and poor because of the corruption and a way that people think to always take advantage of the next. This is why we have to change the culture, because in this way we can transform our society and make a world better.

BS: Sao Paulo is becoming one of graffiti’s most popular and often imitated cities. How would you say Sao Paulo differs from the scenes in Santiago (Chile) or Buenos Aires (Argentina)?
 
Anarkia: For a long time we didn’t have access to Internet and others way, and the graffiti could take the way it want without so much influence from New York. Here we don’t have so much prejudice about different kinds of styles and you can do every thing you want. We have many people doing all kinds of graffiti and the population like this, because before all the graffiti we just had the pichação , which was considered [by people] something wrong and ugly, it is dirty. When graffiti appeared, people seen lot of colors and thinks that this is good to clean up the pichação. Also because here is a perfect ambience to create in the street, one time that the law is not so strong and the police are not so hard because we have many bigger problems to combat like the traffic. The chaos and the disorder of the city make the ambience perfect to develop the graffiti scene.
 
BS: Can you go a bit further and discuss the difference between Pichação and traditional graffiti art?

Anarkia: Pichação is a different culture from graffiti. Pichação is like tags but the game is who puts it highest and with more quantity. The graffiti has influence from the arts and from Hip hop, some writers came from pichação like me, but in reality one thing is complete different with different ideas and people one from the other. And the society in general sees graffiti like art and pichação like vandalism.

BS: Name any female artists in Sao Paulo or abroad whom you consider worthy of respect.

Anarkia: I like Lady Pink because of her importance in the history [of graffiti] and her power. 
 
BS: Recently, you did some work in Toronto with Canadian artist, Force. How did that collaboration come about? Do you have plans to do more work in Canada? How does the Canadian style differ from the Brasilian style?
 
Anarkia: I would like to came again to Canada, but at that time I came because I was a coordinator in a OSA arts forum about how youth can use art to change the world, and I don’t know if someday I will have the luck to came there again. I made lots of friends and it was a very important contribution for me to work with them. The scene is a little bit different from Brazil, lots of rooftops, and nothing on the street! We can see that the letters [in Canada] have a New York influence, in Brazil it is a crazy (larger) mix and all are different, specially the letters. For me was a good experience.

  
BS: Graffiti often seen as a “boys only” art form. However, if one looks deep into the whole culture they will find countless examples of female writers and designers. In North America, the women are here but their work doesn’t always get the proper attention. Do you feel female writers get the recognition they deserve in Brasil?
 
Anarkia: Brazil is a poor county and the arts are not so valued, it is not just for girls, but is different to live by art for the boys, too. Of course we have lots of machismo and we are fighting against it. In reality, we don’t have so many girls doing graffiti and with a good production because the girls don’t have education to be in the street and to do public things as the boys are. If one day we receive the same education, one day we will can equality with the men not just on the graffiti but on all levels.
 
BS: Of all the murals and pieces you’ve created, which one is your favourite? What makes it so significant? 
 
Anarkia: For me the most important are the ones in the train, because here in Rio is difficult to paint trains and principally because life doesn’t have value and people kill for “one Real”. If the cops catch you, they will kill you. And to make something that is predominately “for men” ,for me, is a way to say I can do too; I am as good as a man. It’s a kind of feminist protest. Because the people never agree that we girls can do the same things that the boys can do.
 
BS: You are a two-time Hutuz Award winner*, which is a huge honour in Latin America. Could you tell me about the history behind the Hutuz? And what does it mean, to you, to win at the Hutuz?
 
Anarkia: Just one time, the first I was just nominated. Hutuz is the most important Hip Hop awards and festival in Latin America, it is made by Cufa, from MV Bill, the same person who made the movie Falcão – Meninos do trafico . Every year it indicate the best in hip hop and gives the award in a beautiful party, but I don’t like when the underground culture is so institutionalization; capitalism make every thing with no sense. For me, we can’t give an award to a writer because we have many kinds of different styles and we can’t say what (style/artist) is better than another … lots of goods writers are making good and real graffiti and people don’t see it. For me, to win the award is just a way to say that I am in the Street … even I can be good as you even in your dirty world.
 
And [I have] something funny to say for this is that the one who gives [the Hutu award] to me was a famous actor from the movie “Elite Trope” and he made a freestyle to call the winner, and when him called me he called like “O” anarkia, [“anarkio”?] with a masculine pronoun that we have in Portuguese, and worst when I came to receive it, I was with my boyfriend,  and the actor gave the award to him!!! He thought, as many people there, that Anarkia was a boy because it was the first time a girl was nominated and won a boy’s category, because in general the Hutuz has a female category for the most categories. It was funny. The video in on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq3xf7LHaoM&feature=channel

[Correction: I made a mistake. Anarkia was nominated for two Hutuz Awards, in 2007 she won her second. A lesson for all you writers: Read you notes, be more thorough. My apologies to Anarkia.]

BS: Where do you see yourself in the future?

Anarkia: My life changes all the time, I can’t calculate my future, but what I want is to always make graffiti, even if I will be transformed into a grandma.
 
BS: Any advice to (graffiti) writers out there?

Anarkia: Make what you want, because what is important is to be happy.
 
BS: Lastly, what makes you most proud to be Brasilian?

Anarkia: Specially to be Carioca. It is a happy people, that never give up your dreams.