1. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. To start off, could you please give us an introduction of yourself, what you write, where you’re from, and how long you’ve been writing graffiti?
Thank you for choosing me! I use the alias DAIS. I live in Copenhagen. And I did my first piece together with my two childhood friends “Fat Kim” and Thomas Karl Oskar in the local concrete tunnel of our small town back in 1988. And yes, I guess I’m older than you’ve imagined. 🙂
2. What would you consider your style of writing to be? You really seem to make use of fonts and angle perspective in a lot of your work, how did this interest come to be?
Hmm… I actually try to avoid putting labels and definitions on stuff. I think it limits creative thinking by doing so. And also during the years I have painted in many different styles, as I like to explore new and expand what’s possible when it comes to painting letters on walls. But at the moment my style is very graphic and simple. Simply because that works the best when I play around with the same letter shapes several times on a wall – or if I work with a specific perspective etc. then it works the best with simple letter shapes.
3. That’s fair! Deep scrolling your Instagram it looks like you were always into that very graphic, straight line, and geometric type of style. What initially got you interested in this aesthetic?
I guess you will have to scroll some more then. Haha. Or maybe have a look at stuff I did before Instagram. Anyway… As I started to use Instagram around 10 years ago, I thought that it was kind of interesting that most people watch paintings on a screen. You know back in the day you had to be standing in front of a wall to actually see it. Or see it in a magazine. So the fact that most people watch my stuff on a screen, inspired me to think of ideas that would include the screen as part of the final result. So I started out playing with stop/motion and other ideas.
4. Did you have any experience with this type of animation outside a graffiti setting?
No. But aiming to do stuff in new ways have been part of my approach to many things in life for a long time. So I’m kind of used to finding solutions to make new ideas come to life.
5. Stop motion animation can be a very time-consuming artform, pairing that with your extremely clean work means you must spend a while to achieve your final results. What’s the average time it takes for your pieces and what’s the longest you’ve ever spent on a project?
It’s rare that I spend more than 3-6 hours on a painting. So I guess the average time is somewhere around that.
But a couple of years ago I was invited to take part in the Peinture Fraiche Festival in Lyon, France. I was painting their largest surface at the festival. A 12 x 7 meters wall that was positioned 3 meters above the ground. And I actually painted it 12 times, as I did the same letter shapes as seen from 12 different angles. And in that way, it ended up as an animation of my name spinning round and round, for the visitors to see as they were asked to download an app made specifically for the exhibition by Peinture Fraiche. It was super cool. And it was a nice and inspiring element to play around with in combination with wall painting.
6. Your work is definitely futuristic with the use of smartphones, animations, QR codes, and interactive experiences. How do you see technology influencing the future of graffiti?
I think it’s obvious that more possibilities result in more new ways of painting. The way spray cans and caps have developed over the years, has had an effect on how people paint. And the fact that we both have an online presence as well as an offline presence also has had an effect on how people paint – and how they document both paints and the painting process. So I’m sure when new technologies are being adapted to our ways of living in the future, they will influence graffiti as well in some way. But having said that, I’m sure that some people will still stick to that old-school vibe and style… And everything in between. That huge variety might be the most interesting thing about graffiti.
7. How much does the wall/environment itself play a role in your art? A lot of writers sketch in a linear fashion, a rectangular blackbook sketch that gets converted into a piece onto a rectangular wall with no more thought to it. A lot of your work does the opposite of that and allows for the sketch to expand off the wall sometimes. Do these ideas organically form when you find a new spot?
Inspiration for new ideas can come from anywhere. But one approach I use is that I try to see obstacles as possibilities. You know, some walls have stuff in front of them. And other walls are located in limited surroundings that can be challenging. But then I try to see if I can come up with ideas that use those limitations. At Roskilde SkatePark they have some sort of poles to make sure cars don’t enter the skate park. And they can be challenging when you want pictures of your painting. But then I did a painting, with part of the letters painted at the pole in front of the wall. I did a similar one at a spot in Næstved, where one of the walls is less attractive to paint because of a basket hoop in front of it. And at a Hall of Fame in Copenhagen one section of the wall also is less attractive to paint because of a skate ramp in front of it. But then I got the idea of making a stop/motion painting of my throw skating the ramp. The last example is from a wall in Copenhagen called West End Walls. I was invited to paint it. But I noticed that it was hard to get a picture of the wall from straight on. But then I decided to paint it to be seen from the angle. And after that, I have done several of those so-called anamorphic paintings that have a certain viewpoint to be seen from.
8. You’ve collaborated with a bunch of artists in the past, who has been your favorite artist to work with?
I really like to do collabs with others. I mean, collabs like working on ideas for the painting that will work well for both artist’s styles. It can be challenging sometimes to come up with those ideas. But I really get the feeling of 1+1=3 when looking at a final wall that is based on a simple idea that combines two different styles. I think I have done nice stuff with many guys. But I can mention some:
TOREN from Spain has a graphic style and also plays around with fun ideas for paintings. I think we have done some nice walls together both in spain and denmark. But even during covid that made it impossible to travel. We did a project together combining a wall in spain with a wall in Copenhagen to end up with a gif showing letters moving from one wall to the other.
JENS STENTOFT from Denmark that is super skilled painting in photo realistic style. So far we did 3 walls together. And actually all of them at Roskilde Festival as part of the awesome RF-Graff project. And in all 3 paintings we have played around with gifs with hands, magicians or a big mouth that in different ways affect the DAIS letters.
SKIRL from Vienna that use his own special build roller to create nice shapes with nice texture to it. I have visited him twice in Vienna resulting in some interesting projects. As his style and process is very different from my process it was maybe a bit more challenging. But then when it finally worked out. It felt even better.
TACOS from Paris that use Chinese letters when painting. And also is super skilled painting his letter as they have a specific light source. I really like the neon light wall we did in Paris. And i think it’s a nice example of how painting together doesn’t have to be a battle about who can make their name stand out the most on the wall. My letters was clearly very simple, as they were made to look like neon letters to light up Tacos’ letters. And the fact that i didn’t leave the wall thinking i did my best letters ever, was not a problem at all. Watching the gif of the wall later that night at Tacos place, made it all worth it.
AIMS that I have known for a long time as we were both young bucks at the same town city called Roskilde about 30 km from Copenhagen. The fact that Aims is super skilled graphically made it work well that we did very graphic stuff when painting together. But also the fact that our two names have both letters A, I and S in them was an interesting thing to use. So we have played around with different ideas for gifs that switches back and forth from one name to the next in very simple and graphis ways. And we had loads of laughs along the way aswell.
But hey,.. So many nice people that I could mention.
9. What kind of advice would you give to younger writers coming up, that are trying to create their own original approach and style?
Graffiti is based on breaking rules, right. Both literally, as you often paint where you are not allowed to. But also breaking rules in terms of painting in new ways as you develop your own style as a result of learning by doing. So to me the beauty of graffiti is that you can play around with it in your own way. So I would say that younger writers should try not to be afraid of being different. And also don’t forget to have fun along the way.
10. Where can people find you on social media and support your work?
My main channel is on Instagram: @dais_dk
