Interview by Cian Walker
Bombing Science- Sago, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. So, just a quick introduction- how long have you been painting and how did your graf career begin?
Sago- I hit a wall for the first time in 1993, at the age of 10; my elder sister was in love with a a really cool local writer, Styx. Since then I painted constantly until 1999, and then stopped to take care of university and parties. I came back to graffiti at the end of 2008, so here i am today.
BS- What crew(s) do you rep, if any?
S- I founded BadMotherFunkers crew in 2009 with my homie Camel, but that’s more about our lifelong friendship than graffiti; in 2010 I founded ARCHIGRAFF project as well, a collective composed of those i reputate as some of the finest urban artists out there. It features Rusl, Aroe, ECB, Wany, Sobek, Kcis, Storm, Rifle, Nychos, Ders, Tasek and PixelJuice, and it deals with urban regenerations commissioned by city councils, private investors, companies etc.
BS- Where are you from and what’s the scene like where you live?
S- I was born and I’m still living and working in Treviso, a small city next to Venice in the north east of Italy. Although very conservative, Treviso was one of the first places in Italy in which graffiti appeared in the late 80’s thanks to the contribution of Solow, a true wild style king. Today’s scene is not so developed, a lot of kids paint trains but I often see that the reason of it stands more in adrenaline and fashion than in a real, motivating passion. Hopefully new generations of motivated artists are growin’ up at the moment.
BS- Do you have an ideal painting experience? A chill wall with some friends and
beers? Night missions? Trains?
S- The kind of stuff I’m painting at the moment fits perfectly with a sunny saturday afternoon and a couple of joints. My past experiences were more related to the rest of your list, and my future ones could be as well, just depending on the moment.
BS- Tough question I know but who are some of your favourite artists- graffiti and otherwise?
S- I reputate Dondi as one of the most influential and innovative graffiti artist ever; Dare, Toast and Delta deeply influenced my way of painting in the past also, but today fine art is to me a deep and infinite source of inspiration, with Jackson Pollock at the top of my fav list.
BS- Are there any particular goals you’d like to achieve in your graffiti career?
S- Contemporary cities are affected by strong and diffused visual pollution.
As an architect and as an artist my goal would be that of demonstrating how urban art can be a proper and effective solution to this problem, as well as how it benefits the everyday life of people: art is beautiful and improves life quality.
Then, making a living of it would be nice as well.
BS- What is your opinion on the current state of graffiti, both locally and internationally?
S- I guess graffiti artists are living in one of the most shining periods ever. A bunch of good artists are growing up today, creativity and new ideas can be seen everyday and people are definitely starting to consider urban art as a fine art; a lot of writers are concerned by graffiti going inside the circuit of galleries, but I think this is the natural consequence of a process that started decades ago, and the most interesting thing about it is that nobody knows what’s next.
In Casablanca
BS- Your work seems to interact strongly with the environment you’re in and the surface that you’re painting on- do you plan for these spots before painting them? Or do you just work with the spots once you get to them? Do you prepare sketches for each wall?
S- I believe sketches are self referential if not related to a context. Finding a connection between my paintings and the surrounding area is fundamental everytime I approach a new work, and i guess the reason of it comes from the fact that I’m an architect.
Buildings are the main support of what we do and i believe that what I paint can be more and more fascinating in the measure it deals with architecture and landscapes it’s dropped in.
At the same time, buildings are not designed to be painted with graffiti and that’s why I love to interact with abandoned places and old factories, always trying to leave the background as natural and rough as i can.
This method of work requires a bunch of sketches to feel really comfortable with my lines and proportions, as i need to reinterpret my pieces everytime depending on where I paint; but yet, what I draw on paper is never what I do on walls.
With Sayko
BS- You’ve really pared back your style lately- how have people reacted to this? A lot of graffiti artists view abstraction as sacrilege, although abstract styles seem to be asserting a bit more of a strong position over the last couple of years (writers such as O Two & She One, Gary, Roids, Smash 137 etc.)
S- In my opinion the value of contemporary art stands not in the final result, but in the process that brings the author to make a certain thing.
I guess that graffiti should just follow the same rules; when I look at a piece by Dondi or any other graffiti pioneer from the 80’s I see some real innovations, and I think we should always remind ourselves that what they were doing had never been done before and try to push the boundaries again and again.
So, seeing some cats trying to abolish cliches like outline, fill in or bubble background in order to find new references outside graffiti themselves, well, this makes the game definitively more interesting.
Starting from some studies on typography, I recently focused my attention on how to deconstruct letters and obtain basic and geometrical structures; this process resulted in some kind of abstract compositions, but the outcome wasn’t actually planned and will surely develop into something else in the future.
BS- What is your opinion on the internet and how it’s affected the world of graffiti?
S- I still remember that when i started painting in the mid 90’s the only spraypaint brands available were Talken and, in lucky times, Krylon; finding spots was really hard and getting connected with writers in other cities or countries almost impossible.
Today, one mouse click is enough to have full access to any kind of graffiti supply, chat talks with writers on the other side of the world and constant upgrades of what anybody is painting anywhere.
This is very positive, and to me it’s fundamental to keep on working with art as 50% of my projects are related to internet connections.
At the same time, lots of junk gets visibility with no filters and the underground flavour that permeated earlier graffiti has disappeared. Everything seems to be too easy and this is a pity, but as i said before this is also the step of a process.
With Storm
BS- Your colour combinations are always spot-on- any particular favourites?
S- During some recent trips I was literally rapt and surprised by colours of sunsets in equatorial regions.
Everywhere in nature is definitively full of smashing colour combinations.
BS- Your canvasses are beautiful- any more contemporary artists that you particularly admire?
S- Thank you.
I actually love fine art and lot of artists fascinate and inspire me in several different aspects.
CyTwombly is one of my favourite artists ever for the use of colour, the superb balance of masses and the outstanding canvases format, I love the refined painting of Tapies and the incredible, deep atmosphere of Kiefer’s work.
Moreover, I follow the work of people like Remi Rough and Jose Parla; they are a great example of how graffiti can be a proper departing platform to a wider range of interesting expressive languages.
BS- Do you mind talking a little bit about the process of these canvas works- what
medium(s) are used? What surface are they painted on? (There are some really nice textures, maybe like wax?, can’t figure it out)
S- Well, my most recent canvases represent the process that stands behind each aspect of my work, including typography case studies and walls but, unlike them, no steps are hidden; so I guess the result is more sincere.
Industrial enamel has the perfect fluidity to approach the surface and allows me to create emulsions with spraycans; i always use them contemporarly to be able to paint very quickly.
BS- Are there elements of letters in there or is that just my graf-soaked mind seeing letters in everything?
S- Haha, your mind is working fine.
The texture you can see is nothing else than the word sago repeated again and again; however, letters are just a starting point and don’t pretend to be a final result, that must be unknown.
BS- Have you appeared in many exhibitions in the past?
S- I proposed some of my canvases to the public last year for the first time, during an art residency in Hamburg; i had some exhibitions concerning graffiti as well, but now i’m focusing more on the development of it into another kind of fine art, and this is the beginning of new roots.
BS- Any excting future plans or projects in the pipeline?
S- My attention is at the moment almost completely addressed to Archigraff projects; a lot is being cooked, including a new meeting of the whole collective in Italy during the next summer and a long therm project through Europe in partnership with other big urban art organisations.
Moreover, i’m focusing my attention on the production of canvases for some upcoming exhibitions.
Shouts:
My girl Marta, my mom and dad who constantly support me, the whole Archigraff collective and all my haters, of course.
With Rusl
