What is your name and what crews do you rep, for the people that don’t know you?
My name is Kaos. I am a member of the Onfire Crew
Where are you from and how is the graffiti scene there?
I’m from Istanbul, Turkey. Graffiti in Turkey is improving and growing day by day. There are many talented artists and they are painting actively. There is a friendly atmosphere, almost every artist knows each other and always paints together. Sometimes disagreement situations happen but everyone respects each other. If we talking about graffiti, writers mostly love to paint illegally, like bombing, trains, etc rather than legal pieces. Therefore, graffiti is more popular than before nowadays. Turkish people love graffiti and get used to see graffiti everywhere. Because of this, some graffiti artists started to doing graffiti as a job, like everywhere.
Jean Baptiste Say says that “Every supply creates its own demand.”
Istanbul is rich with history, have you ever written on something you feel you shouldn’t have? Something historical?
Yes thats right, istanbul has lots of beautiful historical places. I think my friends and I never painted any historical places in Istanbul. Everyone knows that we shouldnt paint and damage them because Its our history.
I don’t know Istanbul very well, are they strict against graffiti or are they more supportive where you live?
Istanbul is one of the cities which has the most graffiti writers. Here municipalities sometimes provide legal walls, but we usually have to paint illegally. Sometimes restrictions happen but reaction of the people changes from part to part of Istanbul. Mostly they are supportive where I live.
What do you mostly paint? Walls/Trains?
I mostly paint walls and sometimes trains because there is not too much train line in Istanbul. Trains does not working almost for 5 years because of the reconstruction.
What comes first to you, style or letters?
Style is more important for me, because if you have a good style, you can make good all letters with your own style. Style is the power 🙂
What made you first get into graffiti?
I have been painting graffiti since 2006. Previously, I was drawing the letters on the paper by giving them different sizes in the school. Then I saw graffiti photos in local hiphop magazines, and I decided to do graffiti.
What keeps you painting?
We are a family with my friends thanks to graffiti, and this friendship connects us more to each other and to the graffiti. And, graffiti is a way of expressing myself. On the other hand, it can be source of income sometimes. For these reasons, it keeps me painting.
Any good painting stories?
Every writer has a good painting story. 2 years ago, I was painting bombing with my crew friend. We found a beautiful shutter and started painting. Halfway through the works, street residents called the police and three police cars entered the street. They took in the police car and took us to the police station. They took our resital and released us. As we walked on the same street again, we saw that the cops caught another writer and wondered what they would do and watched them across the street. After the police released them, he saw us and called us to his side. “What are you still doing at here, go away from here!”. We moved away from there. Later we went to our friends, we told them what happened. After we had a conversation and drink someting, a friend said we should go to the train. We said that the cops left few minutes ago and we dont have spray cans, my friend said I have enough cans, lets do it. We looked at each other with my crew friends and we decided to go. We thought that whatever will happen, it should be today. We all went to the train together, we did not have any trouble. It was a beautiful and action day for us.
Do you dabble in any other art forms?
Sometimes i’m making tattoo but not professionally. Just doing to my close friends.
If you weren’t painting graffiti, what do you think you would be doing?
I would probably interested in extreme sports like skateboarding and bmx.
Has graffiti made a positive impact on your life?
Of course. Firstly I had a lifestyle and I’ve made many beautiful friendships around the world with this lifestyle. And it provided financial support to me.
What would you say to kids just starting? Advice?
I’m say that they should follow world famous writers’ works, make long experiments on paper, do not be in a hurry to paint a wall, because they can not like what they did in the first tests and they can escape their enthusiasm.
Any last words?
Thanks a lot to Bombingscience family for the interview, it was great for me. Respect
Follow KAOS on instagram
