Lmao , Please tell me , I was hoping to go paint some trains in 2006. do they have a 3rd rail in the UK??? [/b][/quote] actually no.. the third rail is all fun an games.. when u paint a transit system your Supposed to step on Every single rail because theres sensors on the ground. [Broken External Image]:http://www.nationmaster.com/wikimir...C.jpg/300px-ThirdRail,Metro,Washington,DC.jpg ^see that one back there? step on that one as soon as you can to avoid the sensors going off.. now go ...GO!
Your a faggot. If you can't take 5 minutes out of your life to read a well written interview, what the fuck are you doing posting about it. Do you think anyone here gives a fuck that some wack 14 year old is too lazy to read? Nope. Really good read.
thats a pretty good read, iv tried exploring for tunnels near me but i can find any. i dont even know if there are any
Im gonna go out and explore our downtown, cause thats where all our tunnels are, under the skywalks in between buildings. Iowa sucks. That was a great interview tho, dude sounds nuts.
actually no.. the third rail is all fun an games.. when u paint a transit system your Supposed to step on Every single rail because theres sensors on the ground. [Broken External Image]:http://www.nationmaster.com/wikimir...C.jpg/300px-ThirdRail,Metro,Washington,DC.jpg ^see that one back there? step on that one as soon as you can to avoid the sensors going off.. now go ...GO! [/b][/quote] HA kay's gonna get Welsh Graffer killed!!!! :lol:
and we bitch about not hittin transit in nyc thats what they gotta go through to hit a train in europe lol
and we bitch about not hittin transit in nyc thats what they gotta go through to hit a train in europe lol
and we bitch about not hittin transit in nyc thats what they gotta go through to hit a train in europe lol
Post up your graffiti interviews. Ill start. L' ALTLAS (Paris) My name is l’Atlas, I live in Paris since my childhood, my roots stay in the south west of France as I was born near Toulouse (no coincidence if I represent for South painters!). I started tagging in 1991, in the corridors of Lycee Voltaire (75011) with classmates like Elger, Stor, Dj feadz… At the time I used to write “Socle� (Pedestal in English), already with my ideas of underground layers. Then in 1995 I went for Atlas so that the whole world could hear my name, no matter the language. At the beginning of 1996 with Elger and Coers, we created VAO which would bring together all the buddies coming from graffiti, that had another idea of its representation. On your website, we can see several videos of your work. On the “From Spray to Screen� DVD, there is also a short film you made about SO6. Do you have other video projects? I film a lot the people around me; I try to be the living memory of the people I love. I am putting together a new version of Palimpseste; 52 minutes documenting two years of action on the panels of the “place sans nom� (nameless square); You will be able to see Tom Tom, Jean Faucheur, Vast, Nomade, Elger, Tanc, Sunset, Babou, Zevs, Siche, Alexone...G... enjoying themselves. At the same time, I am also still working on a video about the “toiles errantes� (wandering canvases). At first, you’ve mostly been known for your tags. Your work has then evolved, but you have continued writing in the streets, unlike most of people with a similar background. Is it something you can’t live without? Do you consider it as the continuity of your work or is it something totally separate? It is continuity. I consider the tag as a layer in the history of writing. The tag remains the imprint of the unique gesture, inherited form calligraphy. Also after 3 or 4 beers, a good fat cap is the lushest thing ever, isn’t it? You multiply the techniques and medium: spraying, pasting, sticky tape, canvas, video… are you always looking for innovations? No matter the medium, I aspire to remain with time and go through the net of this system of eradication of memory in which we evolve. You went to study calligraphy in the Moroccan Atlas with a classical master, then in Egypt with a modern master. How did you meet these “masters�? Are they used to teach Europeans? Tell us about this initiation. The first master is called Smail Bour Quaiba, he is one of the last Moroccan calligraphist. I met him in Toulouse during my studies of History of Art and Archaeology, as I was working freelance for “Horizons Maghrebins “, a book about artistic relationships between the East and the West. I was in charge of the hanging of his exhibition… and we got on well with each other. He invited me in the Atlas, where I stayed for three months, doing 5 hours of classical calligraphy a day. After that I never went back to university where just one man talks for five hundred. In Cairo I accidentally met Munir Al Shaarani, a Syrian political refugee chased by the Iraqi government for communism. He was much more “modern�, had followed a classical calligraphy training, but had also been working in a design and architecture school. He mixes the three forms of Art, and is for me the greatest calligraphist on earth. He taught me Geometry … I owe him everything. He uses colour. With your curiosity for calligraphy techniques, would you be interested in other alphabets (Hebrew, Cyrillic, Chinese…)? I have also studied Hebrew calligraphy at the same time as Arabic. They are both Semitic and tricosonnatic languages, two sisters. I have studied Russian for 6 years in school, and have taken part in numerous Chinese calligraphy workshops. I am currently working with ancient Greek, doing a series of canvas with the Heraclites Fragments: “The Universe expresses itself through examples�. I am trying to transpose this whole of knowledge, although the Arabic touch still dominates in my paintings; to develop this nameless writing between writing and representation, alphabet and ideograms. Your photos, like your work, are generally in black and white. Do you believe, like Jacques Tati, that “the colour distracts the viewer�? First of all the use of black and white in my posters is for me a form of resistance, when town planners (and artists!) are loosing it; I will only take as example the beautiful green of the Mairie de Paris. The Black and the white then become a hyphen, a binding line, a breath, between the people and the city. Then the choice of black and white, for the photos themselves, is meant to make the city readable, in the same way a text is readable; (both my grandfathers were editors…) the artifice of colour disappears to let the reading free. Finally the black and white tells the presence of something that has disappeared. A book is about to come out. Was it your idea or did and editor contact you? What will it present? Your most recent works, or is it retrospective? The editor is Didier Levallois, from Criteres Urbanites, who I met through Daniel Cresson. It is deliberate that there is no graffiti in this book. I want to show that people with this background also have a personal one, a curiosity for other cultural influences as important as the heritage of New York graffiti. I bring back the memory of Arabic writing in the heart of occidental culture, so that we do not forget the part that the East has had in the erecting of the West, before it was drowned in it. More than a third of the words we use come from Arabic, mixed with Greek and Latin. The book is named l’Art du sens (the Art of sense). It is organised in 4 cardinal points; - the compass - the posters - the exhibitions - the collaborations in the streets with the buddies, always the same ones: Pablow, Elger, Teurk, Sunset, G, Tanc, Aleteïa... This last section about other people could have been replaced by photos of the “toiles errantes�, but for me the failure of contemporary artists is to always work alone. Ideas come from discussion with others. “The other is the deliverer� You are part of the “Acrylonumerik� project. I understand this is a happening mixing projected videos, pasting, and live painting. Can you describe the project and who else is part of it? Actually this project couldn’t exist without a collaboration; Jaïmito and Gilbert (12 12 collective) are the initiators of the project. The concept is to mix real painting and digital painting through graphic artists using beamers during a performance based on a scenario. The best thing to do is to have a look at the website www.akrylonumerik.com. I think you are preparing an exhibition with Pablow, Sun7 and Tanc, in Brussels. Can you tell us about it? This exhibition will be called UNDER CONTROL. It will develop the idea that we are being controlled, using a mise-en-scene of characters from Pablow, linked with wires to a central Spirit that gives instructions. A simple metaphor of our contemporary life. Through the decoration of shops, the edition of tee-shirts… Agnes B. often works together with you. Can you tell us in what way this fashion woman is interested by the art world? I have met Agnes B. in 1998 while I was destroying one of her delivery trucks at lunchtime on the Canal St Martin, a nice fat cap how I know. Agnes likes people who like to display themselves. She shot several films of my tags in Paris, and wanted to make tee-shirts with them. It wasn’t really going anywhere; I was going my own way. I was coming back from Cairo when she offered me to take part in an exhibition about graffiti in 2001 at Gallerie du Jour. I showed a video; in parallel Sam Bern painting the Parisian sidewalks, and a classical calligraphy, the first sentence of the Koran written with chalk on a blackboard. One again, I am trying to show that beyond cultural and social considerations, exists a universal energy that drives men to leave an imprint of their gesture through time. Meanwhile, the twin towers collapsed. Then a lot of things followed others. I got busted, I met Jean Faucheur, I made my first canvases, I started with posters, I vectorized all my logos, Agnes printed it all on a black and white tee-shirt series, she gave me entire freedom, I decorated her shops B sport with black tape, the Japanese invited me to do the same in Tokyo… there I shot videos of Japanese calligraphists… Just as electro musicians often give credit to their rock influences, graffiti artists evolving with post-graffiti like to mention their non-graffiti-scene influences. Who are the people who have had an influence on your evolution? Are there some who you would like to collaborate with? As I said earlier, my encounter with Munir al Shaarani was a turning point. Of course I copied for a long time the works of Hassan Massoudy, I have also been his pupil. I am currently doing a few canvases with Jean Faucheur, and I dream of mixing my work with the one of a Japanese calligraphist whose name I forgot. According to you, who is the next person I should interview on ekosystem? A girl !!! ABOVE (England & California) Most of us discovered you during your residence in Paris. What did you do before ? Before moving to paris in 2001 I was a freight bomber in California. I tagged the Name Above, Freights. I was and still am a huge fan of American trains. The fact that ones artwork is moving all over the country is a good feeling. Everyone must yeild to the Iron Horse. You are now back in California. Urbanism is pretty different than Paris streets. Does it change your way of working ? For sure...The city I'm painting in the Blueprint for my Arrow attacks. whether its wood, paint, stencils, or stickers The city landscape is very important in Placemant and posibilities. Paris is a beautiful city that is stacked and very dense, opposed to most American cities that are flat and wide spread. For example, In Paris we have the "rain gutters" on every street that run down the side of the building. An extremely effective object to tag, or to put up a sticker...where in the states one is not so fortunate. To be an American in Paris, does it make tradespeople easier to convince to paint on their store ? No its actually much harder! Most French that I've encountered are "against" many Americans. What I mean is that there is this grudge or un-easyness for americans in foreign lands. The times that I would ask permission to paint a store, the owner would ask me where I was from? I would tell them California, and very often after I said that they just turned their backs and walked off. Or anyway you didn't ask any authorisation to paint them all....? I would say it was split 50% legal, 50% illegal. When I would paint a store often times the cops would be called...I would show them fake signatures, and address'. They would look it over for about a few seconds then leave. Its funny The cops would say " oh so your the guy who I see everywhere." Once I had a cop ask me if I could paint his truck. I would paint in the daytime with no fear of being caught. The cops knew who I was and didn't see me as a vandal. I could always work the "Dumb American" angle and explain that I had permission but lost the papers, or there was a mis understanding between me and the owner...In any case I got away with a lot of nice illegal piece's. We have seen tons of wooden arrows, in Paris. How many arrows have you put up ? Are there long to cut and made? First of all thank you for keeping your head up^ I really had the most fun putting my arrows up in Paris. I did a total of exactly 451 in all 20 Arrondissement's. I am very organized in how I spread my art around any given city. I like to be "all City" with pieces of me in every corner of a city. with Paris it was easy to do this because there are actual arrondissement lines. The first edition of Wooden Arrows that I placed in the city was 235. I did anywhere from 10-12 Arrows in Every arrondissement. I would work within the arrondissement so precisly that when I found a spot to put up an arrow I would look at the street sign to check the arrondissement number and see if it corresponded with the one I was in? If that arrondissment was not the same number I would not put my arrow there. I did not want to cross over the Arrondissement numberlines, and go out of bounds. I did this until after all 235 were succesfully placed in Paris. I then doubled down on the "better half" of Paris. 10 Arrondissemnets that had a high amount of people passing bye, and constant action. This time I had an army of 216 arrows that I pierced Paris with. The grand total placed in Paris was 451. The hardest thing about making my arrows was working with high powered electrical tools. Throught trail and error I finally got to match my marked line with my cut line. I almost made 10 fingers dissapear into only 8 fingers. That was a close one. I would of never thought that tagging on Freight Trains in California would of led me to cutting wood in France. Its Strange the evolution of style. Do you have any connection with french or US writers ? YES I have a connection with all Writers. We all share the love of painting. The risk factor, and the creativity of one's style. What was the first thing in your life that you remember being really passionate and excited about? Drawing. I remember just loving to draw. Who has inspired you, and who's work are you into now ? Not necessary in the graffiti world. My Family. My Father is an amazing Painter, and ceramasist. His work ethic and style's are very inspiring to me. I would say in addition to him the whole Graffiti Culture as a whole is very inspiring. I love to walk down the steet and see someone risk their life, for getting Ups. Just people finding the power with in themselves and to channel that energy to street art is Powerful! You wrote on a few stickers : "My mother is an artist". Can you tell us more ? My mother is an artist. She along with my whole family are artists. We were all raised to find out our creative outlets at a young age. My parents would tell us That "the only way wrong to paint was to not paint at all." Is she supportive of you doing art stuff? My family backs me up 110% What telephone number do you dial the most ? 867-5309 Jenny I got your number! What is the hottest thing in California right now - except you - ? The return of the Califonia Women. Just like the French Women, the California Women are Sexy, and fun to paint on. What are your plans for the future? I'll be back in Europe in about a year...I just need to finish some school here in California, until then I'll be attacking the US of A. with some bigger more advanced wooden Arrows, and freight bombing. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP^
all right, im glad you guys liked the idea. I got alot more, but i have to go out for dinner with my family <_< . Ill post maybe 1 more and when i come back ill post like an other 5. Interview with G in Paris You took part of the french graffiti magazine Graff-it. I think you left them now. Do you consider you work as graffiti ? [Jerome] I've got the luck to work among Graff'it redactionnal on 4 issues. But even i'm in love with all aerosol way of art, i don't think that sticking some posters in the street could be called "graffiti". It's not the same spirit and the same freedom in creation...there's no limit with graffiti 'cause it doesn't matter about format, size or choose the best support but a poster must do.... What made you start taking photos ? [Jerome] When i understand that my brain won't be able to record all what i see everyday. I started with "only one use" easy cam, and took some holidays, friends and family pics. I lost most of my early pics....i'm not in love with organisation... What does putting up your large photos in the streets bring to you ? [Jerome] Since 3 years i lived in Paris, i've met some people like Jean Faucheur who show me the real art of sticking large posters in the street. Last year, Halieutik has an idea to create an happening "Art Is Stick" (it's now the name of our collective) around sticking some A3 in the street. We finally stick them near Eiffet Tower and this action was a terrible revelation for me. I want to show my photographic work to public and this alternative media is for me the best way to exhibite my pics. Would you like to show them in galleries too ? [Jerome] Of course yes, but i don't think i would exhibite the same things than i do in the streets. Every space (a town or a closed room) needs a special artistic reflexion about the best integration of the showed work and the supported space. Just like djs are stuck to vinyls you seem to only use film and not digital cameras. Have you tried digital cameras ? [Jerome] It's strange because i'm working everyday with a numeric and it's a really good stuff. But it's my own purpose thah i follow when i only want to work with argentic materials. With numeric u can shoot hundred pics and even check while shooting if it's good or not....traditional cameras doesn't work like that and i prefer to play with this substance of fate (u can see result only after a few days) and as i'm limited in the number of pics on a roll film (12, 24 or 36) i only shoot what it seem to be a really unmissable action.... since a few months i've worked with an old appareil, it's a Rolleiflex who takes some 6x6 pics. It's amazing to get back to this old way of photography, it's giving me very good lessons about shooting tips without any technology help. Do you print for yourself ? [Jerome] No. I don't have the materials to do that. At this time, i prefer to work with a guy called Claude Perrain who's got a small photo shop and who gave to me good advices. It's such a good collaboration since 2 years that he put each month a poster of my work in his window. You made a series of car photos with each time a name on it. What does it mean ? [Jerome] For me cars are the perfect illustration of our old economic organisation. At beginning XXe, car's production (Henry Ford) was a real revolution in building goods. But now cars are a sort of disease for the planet while its pollution (CO emission), with oil exploitation and with the strange behavior when human is a driver. I wanted to make people think about it so I began to stick a series of car's faces on the wall with their original number plate. But I was arrested while sticking and Police notified to me that showing number plates is more illegal than stick posters in the street. So as a number plate is finally somebody i change it into a fake firstname. Today, i've got almost 500 differents models of cars. Do you plan what you're going to shoot, or do you go out and find good things ? [Jerome] Since i was fed up to miss some unbelievable scenes of life, i always had a camera with me. So i've never plan anything, i only follow my feeling with what i'm watching. By walk or with my scooter, i shoot each time my heart reacts from something. I can't explain very well because it's only about sensations. What is a good photo ? [Jerome] 50% of hasard and 50% of love. I don't want to shoot nude femal walking in forest, it's not my aim. I prefer to report normal life events and if you love enough life, humans and earth i think you'll be able to find a magical side everywhere, sometimes happy or sad but that's life. Ying&Yang. There's no Good if there's no Bad. Who are your favorite photographers ? [Jerome] It's not a palmares, but names like Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Pierre-Henri Lartigue, James Natchway or Spencer Tunick for their visions of life. And Henry Chalfant for his vision of graffiti art. Making graffiti is also having a particular relationship with urban cities... What does the city of Paris mean to you ? [Jerome] I'm always a tourist in this town. I still don't know all the corners or the underground sides of the most visited city in the world. But Paris still remain for me a kind of culture and art center..even it's a not the real interpretation of its reputation. Paris has a too loud history to look future with new eyes. It became a sort of supermarket of regular and classic culture with musuems, etc.... Are there cities you would like to go ? [Jerome] Cities i don't know like Berlin, Tokyo, New-York, Johannesburg but i dream about travelling to Iceland. But the most exciting will be to travel in space. Actually it "only" cost 5 millions dollars..maybe in 20 years it'll be cheaper.... Any upcoming projects, you would like to share with us ? [Jerome] I'm working with Halieutik and Alexone on an exhibition in an old movie theatre in Paris XIIIe. I think it will be crazy cause we're going to "design" all the spaces of this place. It'll take place during the last weeks of september. You'll know more in a few weeks.... Also, i'm trying to update my online portfolio each months and i'm still looking for places or galleries to show my work Any last word ? [Jerome] " L'homme est naturellement bon, c'est la société qui le pervertit." Jean-Jacques Rousseau 3 silly questions : hALTERophile or ALTERmondialiste (Alternative globalisation) ? [Jerome] Altermondialist directly ! Only watch to Transnationale.org to see real faces of all WorldWide Firms... Nike or Naked ? [Jerome] Naked with the same above comment. Imagine a world where everybody were nude....amazing !! Pierre la Police or Fuck the Police ? [Jerome] I love the work of the first. And "Fuck the Police" is not very clever. We can't live in our societies without a minimum of control. But today, it's really out of control.... Can you choose 2 flix extracted from ekosystem and tell us why you chose them ? [Jerome] first one : i'd like to thank the artist named LE_COVER... i don't know him, is he italian ?...(in fact it's an italian crew)but i choose his Panda Crashed Tanker Graffiti... why ? because it's not common to see a modern and so huge graffiti without any sentence or slogan but that has got a powerfull political message....with a very clever recuperation of WWF logo... In this shit new millenium, i think that we must keep a social, ecological or political side of our piece of art... it's not enough to draw a small character on paper and to stick it in the street...this kind of alternative media is already a non-underground and a hype-as-God goal...Don't hide your ideas. Express them ! second one : it's both a choice and a big up ! i choose Alexone and his "commerçant de proximité"... it's one of his first large character sticking in streets... and i think that it's one of the best cause it's fun, the integration is perfect (only see the lamp and the cashier!) and it keeps a social side among its simplicity. It's just intelligent ! Can you choose 2 photos from you and tell us why you chose them ? [Jerome] first one : i took this pic last summer unless thinking i'll get a result like this. The thema of this shoot is very clear, it's a good illustration of human evolution by foot wear. Nude, simple beach shoes and sneakers.... maybe in a few years with all our modernism, we won't be able to walk.... have a look to Segway.com it's amazing...!!