Black Book

Black Book

Keeping your eyes on the street

Meet Miss Van

making this look good

The ‘Banksy Effect’

the man who has everyone’s attention

Out of Koma

a peek inside his sketchbook August 2008

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I spend hours photographing the street art in my city. I also receive countless images from readers. My favourite pieces can be seen in this spot every edition. This is my monthly pick of the signs on the street.

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Letters to the Ed

ED’S CHOICE

It goes like this. Graffiti as you all may know is a ever-growing problem in FW. But realistically, do you believe that you can stop Graffiti? No. Look at New York, where “graffiti” emerged from. Every Effort they have tried to combat graffiti has failed and even till this day there are tags on the walls.

FW needs to look at graffiti as something that isn’t going to get up and leave our city.

Why hasn’t anybody suggested a way to barter with these graffiti artists. Graffiti will never stop. New kids are going to find new ways to get spray paint and markers and go write a name somewhere. Has anybody ever seen or heard of a “freewall” or “legal Wall”? It’s a place with a big wall where kids can go and paint, tag, bomb or whatever they do LEGALLY! Why not give these kids a chance to express themselves LEGALLY?!? A freewall would be less money to build and maintain in the long run rather than keep erasing the graffiti. A wall like this would in my opinion slow down graffiti very much.

Thank you Eric Stavney

This mgazine is all that keeps me sane. I am an artist myself and never cease to find inspiration in this mag. It’s great to get an international perspective. Do you think you could do a feature on some Canadian street art? I was there last year and was well impressed. I could even supply some pix!

Mary Ndlovu

Send your letters to: Richmond Publishing (Pty) Ltd. Postnet Suite 254,Private bag X30500, Houghton 2041

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features

i Banksy Baby

Britain’s new cult hero keeps us on our toes

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Miss Van s Marvelous An interview with her poupees

uDozing Off

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Urban artist brings street style to a fine level

new Club tCasroc’s From street to corporate

Sticky Fingers d International adhesives

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regulars

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s choice and Letters u Ed'This month’s finest

d Gear up

h Competitions

When textiles get graphic WIN an exhibition in a top gallery

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images lP

olitical

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Graffiti

Citizen journalism or vigilantes?

sketches eKoma What he does on paper on the street r Immortalised Legendary stencils

wEdinburgh Calling gSchool is Out

Wall pieces by a bonny lass

Mural programs now in place

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k Hest is Hero It’s time you heard of him

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EDITOR Deva Lee

DEPUTY EDITOR Annette Magni

MANAGING EDITOR Peter Nielsen

Contributors

ART DIRECTOR Rachel Baasch

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ason Morris likes to spend time tagging the walls in his neighbourhood. Then he likes to tell you lot all about it.

Occasionally he gets his bum out of town and chases the sun in cities with no name. He was well chuffed with what the crews in Rosario, Argentina were doing with their time.

See what he had to say on page 28.

DESIGNER Tessa Lamb

COPY EDITOR Nicky Watson

FEATURES WRITER Craig Manning

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR Sarah Lawrence

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER June O’connor

PUBLISHER

Keenan Roberts ADVERTISING MANAGER Emma Kolsinski

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MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER

raig Manning is a Banksy fanatic. He has recently been on a pilgrimage in search of all the Banksy works he can find. We think he did pretty well. Take a look at what he had to say about this new art cult icon on page 6.

Lesley Ballentyne

MANAGING DIRECTOR Jennifer Bam

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

wsgdred

Nicky Shiels

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS OF RICHMOND PUBLISHING Ina Rosenburg, Nicola Morris, Cara Hedding

PRODUCTION MANAGER Robyn Van der Merwe

Head Office

Richmond Publishing (Pty) Ltd. Postnet Suite 254,Private bag X30500, Houghton 2041 Tel: 011 484 0877 Fax: 011 839 0092

Subscriptions

Leanne Rosekilly Tel: 011 728 2332 Fax: 011 726 1881 Subscriptions online at www.blackbookmagazine.co.za

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A breakfast they plan their next adventure. She prefers

nna Weiss sleeps next to her camera every night. Over

the travel shots, whilst the camera likes street dirt. This time the camera won. Check out her latest shots in Rosario, page 28.

political bank(rup)sy

Words: Craig Manning PIX: Various 6

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wo things seem to be clear: First. That change is inevitable.

And second. That change polarises people.

They say that things take five years to fully come into their own.

And with the street art movement, we see that exactly to be the case. In truth, it wasn’t until last week’s trip to London that we fully understood how significant the changes have been in the street art scene. It wasn’t until last week that it fully hit us how much the movement has finally come into its own on so many different levels. And one thing is clear — this has polarised a lot of people.

“Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.”

Coming back from London, we started explaining it to our friends as: “The Banksy Effect”. While we’ve always been unabashed (and unapologetic) fans of Banksy, we now see Banksy as the single greatest thing that has happened not only to the street/ urban art movement, but to contemporary art in general. We know that that’s a sweepingly broad statement that is likely to get us in trouble, but let us explain. Most people need entry points to become comfortable with things that are new. And for millions of people, Banksy is the entry point they need in not only seeing art in a new way, but in accepting art as a part of their daily lives.

Like Andy Warhol before him, Banksy has almost single handedly redefined what art is to a lot of people who probably never felt they appreciated art before. By being an iconoclast, and in the process becoming a mythic hero for a lot of people, Banksy has become an incredible icon in our society. One that we think, when things are said and done, will be at the level of Warhol. The fact that Banksy’s book “Wall and Piece” is in every bookstore imaginable, including Urban Outfitters, is a statement unto itself.

The fact that Banksy’s work is now selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars at Sotheby’s is a statement unto itself. And we know that both of these things polarize a lot of people.

But for us, we think that this is the best thing that could have ever happened to the street art movement. Why? Because what Banksy (and Steve Lazarides) have done is to create a market for an entire category of art that until now has not been recognized at the level that it is now being recognized at. And for this we should all be grateful.

If you’re one of those people who are calling Banksy a sellout for selling his work for exorbitant prices, but are interested in making money yourself from your own art, then you should perhaps rethink your views a bit.

Here’s what we see happening. There are now a lot of people that have money and want to spend it on art. Their entry point into buying “urban art” is now Banksy. They read about Banksy selling his work at Sothebys and they want to be in on the action.

But not many can now afford to buy a Banksy piece any more.

This is actually a good thing for artists who are talented and want to make money from their art because those people who can’t afford “a Banksy” are now learning more and searching out and buying work from other talented artists who are part of the movement.

“The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.”

One of the best things that we did last week was to go to the opening of a fantastic exhibition at the Elms Lesters Painting Studios. The show featured great work by Phil Frost, Adam Neate, WK, and Anthony Lister. All four of them are incredibly talented and have been working their asses of for years. All four of them deserve everything they receive, including selling their work at prices most of us can’t afford. (We think that they deserve to make as much money as they want.) Would the work have sold without Banksy? Sure. Would the show have commanded the prices it did without “the Banksy Effect”? Would the show have sold out without the “Banksy Effect”? Some will say yes, but we don’t think so.

Of course there was a market for this movement before Banksy started selling at Sothebys. Gallerists like Jonathan Levine, Merry Karnowsky, and others have been selling art from these artists for years. But never at the level it is selling at now.

Another sign of the Banksy effect: Prints from places like Pictures On Walls, Faile.net, and others have never sold out faster. This is allowing more artists to make a living from their art.

For us... ... Shepard Fairey created the movement. ....Banksy created the market.

And even if you don’t agree with anything we’ve just written, we do think that both of these two guys deserve the full recognition and respect for what they have done.

We think that 10 years from now, the “Banksy Effect” will be recognised as one of the most significant moments in the contemporary art market.

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“The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don’t go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit.”

“You know what hip-hop has done with the word ‘nigger’ - I’m trying to do that with the word vandalism, bring it back.”

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Remember crime against property is not real crime. People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.

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“I like to think I have the guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in - like peace and justice and freedom.�

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If you don’t own a train company then you go and paint on one instead. It all comes from that thing at school when you had to have name tags in the back of something.. that makes it belong to you. You can own half the city by scribbling your name over it.

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“When the time comes to leave, just walk away quietly and don’t make any fuss.”

From graffiti to galleries His exhibition of new paintings is inspired from roots in modern graffiti and based upon metaphysical and ethereal ideologies

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rtist Doze Green once used only the brick walls, freight trains and alleys of New York as his canvases.

His artistry was not only unknown, it was illegal.

Years later, his pieces adorn art gallery walls from Milan to Manhattan and corporations commission his work.

"I never really thought about my work going legal," Green says. "I never in my wildest dreams did I think that painting subway trains ... would lead up to galleries and museum shows."

Gradually, more and more of his pieces appeared in galleries, and Green got more attention.

Meanwhile, Green began noticing that graffiti artists were not the only ones intent on reaching people in urban areas. Advertisers, going after younger and diverse markets, were employing some of the same methods he had used. "I started seeing advertising plastered all over buses," Green says. "Back in the day ... we used to tag trains top to bottom, and all of a sudden it was legitimised by these corporations."

Green, whose real first name is Jeff, got the nickname Doze in junior high school. Growing up, he says he used to fall asleep and daydream all the time, looking everywhere else but at the teacher.The name has stuck, Green says, because it represents who he is.

"I'm a dreamer. I'm always in another place, and I'm always in the dream state, so to speak, thinking about ideas. And that's where I reside most of the time — in the dream state."

Green's love for graffiti in junior high school first blossomed during a school-sponsored event. "All of these graffiti artists from Manhattan and the Upper West Side came down to do a mural. ... So in my art class, I joined the contest." Although he did not win, Green says the experience "sparked something in me."

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, Green says many of his classmates and peers joined gangs. "New York at the time was going through a serious recession," Green says.

"Kids really resorted to the gangs ... to kind of like say 'I'm a part of something.'" Green credits graffiti for keeping him out of the worst trouble — even if it was, generally, illegal. "[Graffiti] got me on a more positive direction towards expressing myself instead of smashing a window or smashing a head."

Green eventually started painting in a studio in Brooklyn.

One of his first attempts to make money from his craft came in a stint working as a graphic designer designing corporate logos. "It just wasn't fulfilling enough for me," Green says. "It was boring. It became redundant. I just started painting again."

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This method opened doors for Green, who has created large murals on street walls for companies wanting to reach a new market. "It helps them; it helps us," Green says. "It creates a great publicity for their image — youth oriented. It's now. It's fresh."

While his corporate work earns him a good income, Green says it can also lead to backlash among fellow street artists. "You can damage yourself if you work too much with too many corporations," Green says. "It ... destroys your legitimacy in the art world sometimes -- like people look at you like you're selling out."

A brand new Doze Green sculpt. This one is his take on the Hindi god of fortune, Ganesh. The elephant god is done up urban style complete with kicks, colored jewels and a matching boom box.

So Green is selective with the corporations he works for. "I won't work with certain corporations because of their practices overseas in manufacturing."

Green sometimes pairs with a disc jockey to create original works in front of a live audience -- be they potential clients, customers or city residents. The practice, which has been doing for 10 years, reflects his roots, when Green says he found joy expressing himself in front of others. “For me, it was almost like being a musician," Green says. "It was painting freeform ... no pre-conceived prepping, no pre-conceived nothing — just a man, an audience and his canvas alongside his music."

Through his corporate work and his gallery work, Green says he has been able to maintain his creative vision.

"I think I've retained that rawness and that truthfulness and spark that comes from the graffiti artist," Green says. "That will always be there. That's not going to leave.

"What I'm doing, it's a new vocabulary ... new ways of looking at the same thing ... Whether it's accepted by the elite or the guy in the street, what's important to me is people in general feel my work."

Vicious Miss Van Words: Caleb Neelon Pix: Various

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n artist’s impact is truly felt when their work becomes so familiar that it’s hard to remember what the world was like without it. When the Toulouse native and current Barcelona resident MISS VAN’s sultry female characters began to pop up on city center walls in the mid 1990s, they instantly possessed a timeless quality, as if women had always painted such graffiti in the streets. City residents developed relationships with their local MISS VAN characters. While MISS VAN’s work incurred the wrath of some feminists who found them offensive to women, on the whole it has a rare appeal that transcends gender-an appeal that also extends to the work that she shows in galleries.

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Of course, MISS VAN’s formula-painting wide-eyed female characters in the street, often on their own and separate from any other graffiti in the area, and usually done in the non-standard graffiti medium of latex paint-hasn’t been around forever. Ingenuity and success is often a setup for others to poach, particularly if one’s innovation is a novel way of painting something with such instantly accessible and broad-ranging appeal as voluptuous women. So MISS VAN’s style and formula were imitated. And while she was quite comfortable painting in the busiest of city streets, it didn’t mean she was especially outgoing. Her characters kept evolving, becoming less cute and more dangerously alluring — their sexy aura made all the more complex by their increasingly ambiguous facial expressions. The more she moved into gallery work and could work with the nuances of more fragile media than the streets would allow (pencil, for one), her characters grew even more sensitive, subtle, and delicately rendered.

SWINDLE/S: You call your characters poupees, which is French for dolls.

MISS VAN/MV: I started naturally calling them poupees because, for me, they were my babies, but not really human ones. So, for me, the poupees are between reality and fantasy. As I didn’t want to give them any names, I called them “Les poupees de MISS VAN,” as a part of me.

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S: I remember when I first started seeing your work in graffiti magazines in the late 1990s. While you’ve done a lot of refining along the way, it seems as though you didn’t try out a million ideas before settling into what you do. What was your learning process? Was there a “normal graffiti” phase for you?

MV: Since I was young, I’ve been drawing characters and animals. In the early 1990s, I started discovering graffiti with friends of mine, tagging a little bit and following them, taking photos and stuff. Then I wanted to be a part of it.

The characters came out spontaneously. I chose to use acrylic paint because I was using it while studying, and I found it more comfortable than spray cans, even if it wasn’t a graffiti style.

"I would like to paint on a big hot air balloon, floating around in midair" S: In the early 1990s, it looked like there was a movement of women who painted female characters in Toulouse, with you and FAFI and MADEMOISELLE KAT. MV: I met KAT at university, where we were both studying art. We motivated each other to paint some fresh and unseen stuff in the streets with acrylic paint and brushes.

At that moment, we didn’t realize that it was something new on the graffiti scene. We both influenced many other girls to do the same. Then some of them couldn’t find their own style, and it came out looking like a copy for many years. No names.

I guess we created something like a feminine movement in Toulouse, supported by the guys, and then the graffiti scene became more and more important in Toulouse. Also, Toulouse was a more tolerant city, and police got confused by seeing girls paint.

S: When you started to paint poupees in the street, the idea of painting a detailed character — in the street, no background, no graffiti piece next to it or anything — was kind of novel. Your use of latex paint was especially unusual. TWIST had been doing it in San Francisco, as had OS GAMEOS in Sao Paulo, each rather differently. It is a very effective way to work, and people respond well to it.

MV: I was using latex paint because it covers easily and the colors are bright and opaque. It doesn’t smell or make any noise either, unlike spray paint. I wanted to have a contrast. Within the urban context, my work had to be effective when you passed by the streets, like a big sticker on the wall.

S: Have you heard stories from people who have personal relationships with their neighborhood poupees?

MV: I want people to have any sort of feeling seeing my poupees, good or bad. Some of them are in love with my girls and others cross and even paint over the faces in black. I’ve met some guys that have had fantasies with my dolls and want to meet me, thinking I was like my drawings. I’m a little bit uncomfortable sometimes, but proud at the same time, provoking any strong feelings just using my imagination. Lots of people were passing by on the streets of Toulouse, every Sunday, trying to find a new poupee. It became like a habit. It has helped me to meet people and be a little bit more social.

S: You had some problems with people that felt your poupees were bad for women.

MV: I had problems with some feminist girls in Toulouse.

They were the ones painting the faces black. I guess it was a silly reaction because it’s just painted images and fantasies, and people need to see it with more distance.

It’s like something bringing you away for a few seconds, like daydreaming, when you’re walking down the street.

If someone crosses out or paints over my stuff, I prefer to come back and make a new painting on top and then see what will happen.

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S: How do you usually go about painting in the streets? What makes a city a good place for you to do your work?

MV: A good city is a city with graffiti. I look at walls, wood panels, the tags. In the 1990s, there were a lot of good cities for graffiti. Now they have started cleaning everywhere, and that makes it hard to find some cool places to paint, even more because I’m accustomed to painting in city centers.

MV: When they started cleaning Toulouse, I spent two years almost depressed because there was no possibility to paint on walls. But then I went to paint with some friends in Barcelona, and I was amazed by the crazy scene they had over there. I fell in love with the city, and I made a choice to move there as soon as possible. I was enjoying painting there for three or four years before they started cleaning. Now I don’t know where to go, but I’m staying because I still love the city.

"I can be copied, but my sensitivity and my fantasy stays mine" S: Graffiti is such a boy’s game. Do you think being a girl made it easier for you to get away with it?

MV: It must be the only boy game that I like. I guess it was easier to handle everything with the police.

S: Street art has exploded in the past few years, and you have become well known. Do you continue to be motivated to paint on the streets?

MV: Of course things are changing with time, and the laws made me lose motivation, in a way. I tried to keep on tagging and pasting posters as it became harder to paint.

I still love it, and I miss it. And I wish I could paint more.

Being famous didn’t change my motivation.

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MV: I am not really interested in working and making commercial products. I would prefer to follow my artistic way, building exhibitions and concentrating on my paintings. I really care about protecting my image, my paintings,and myself. This is my passion, and I want my work to last instead of becoming a product.

S: Your work is very sexy. You could paint pictures of boys, but you don’t. Why sexy? What does sexy do?

MV: The only answer is that I’m a girl, and being a girl means that I know more about girls than boys. Then again, I’m not too sure that they’re always sexy. They could be sad, melancholy, arrogant, or expressing any sort of feeling, just like us. It’s never been my purpose to only paint in a sexy sort of way. I just enjoy painting my fantasies without censoring myself.

S: What were some of the things you changed when you took your work indoors?

MV: Working indoors makes me experiment more with different techniques and media that I can’t use in the streets. When I’m in my studio it could seem boring, but it’s easier to concentrate on my painting and to make it evolve, trying some new things. In the streets, it has to be quick and precise to be effective. I like to choose a special place with nice architecture or a wall full of tags, a dirty wood panel, or any sort of detail that will make my painting more special.

S: If you got a wish and could make an artwork regardless of cost, what would it look like?

MV: I would like a painting of mine to cover a really big building — covering it completely. I would like to paint on a big hot air balloon, floating around in midair. I also would like to paint on nature, like mountains and trees, big rocks and stuff. OS GEMEOS inspire me to paint on really big surfaces, but I’m more comfortable with small and more delicate pieces.

Miss Van is exhibiting at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery with Victor Castillo from July 26 to August 23.

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the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

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K WORDS Jason Morrais PIX Anna Weiss

The city of Rosario, Argentina is making a statement.

The political street art on display shows a citizien that is not happy, a citizen that will no longer be told what to think.

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r e k Stenciled on the wall of the Instituto Politécnico of the Rosario National University in Rosario, Argentina.

It reads “WANTED - BUSH - INTERNATIONAL MURDERER.”

It reads “FUERA BUSH DE ARGENTINA”, “Bush [get] out of Argentina.” The S in BUSH is turned into a swastika. The signature is “PCR - JCR”, with the Communist hammer-and-sickle sign.

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The text reads “DARIO Y MAXI NO ESTAN SOLOS”, that is, “Darío and Maxi are not alone”. This refers to Darío Kosteki and Maximiliano Santillán, two young men who were killed by the police during a demonstration over Puente Pueyrredón, Buenos Aires, on 26 June 2002.

“PC” stands for Partido Comunista, Communist Party and the hammer-and-sickle is the Communist sign.

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Signed “PCR - JCR” (Partido Comunista Revolucionario - Juventud Comunista Revolucionaria, Revolutionary Communist Party - Revolutionary Communist Youth), the main drawing appears to show a group of demonstrators/protestors, with banners.

The text on the side reads “POR EL CAMINO DEL ARGENTINAZO” - “Along the way of the Argentinazo”, suggesting a nationwide popular revolt; significantly, on the top-right there’s a helicopter that appears to be exactly like the one who took President Fernando de la Rúa out of the Casa Rosada (government house) when he was forced to resign on 21 December 2001 after days of bloody riots.

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This is by a minority left-wing group, encouraging people not to vote. On the left it reads “BASTA DE VERSO K”, that is “Enough of the K bullshit”, where “K” is a well-known shortcut for President Néstor Kirchner. On the right it says “VOTÁ EN BLANCO ANULÁ O NI VAYAS”, that is “Vote blank, make [your vote] void or don’t even go”.

A stencil graffiti in downtown Rosario, Argentina. It reads “SER POBRE NO ES DELITO”, that is, “Being poor is not a crime.” It probably refers to the common right-wing characterisation of poor people, especially piqueteros, as criminals.

The emblem of the Socialist-Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror, stenciled on a wall in Rosario.

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KOMA-TOSE KOMA has a few tricks up his sleeve: as well as being a prominent French street artist, he also sketches, paints and designs graphics. These are a few pages out of his sketchbook.

words: Greg Fox pix: Lucy Merrimo Doodles: Craig Groenewald 33

“I started twisting letters and inhaling spray paint fumes in 1987�

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“There was a beginning.

Classroom boredom.

Notebooks margins scribbles�

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“Ahero and I founded The Silent Heroes crew”

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Disney cap R100 Safe as Houses

Breezy board shorts R350, General Jones

Retro tee-shirt R120, Keenan Kan

All City NRG drink R25, EatMeLive 38

Phat footwear R250 Keenan Kan

Converse R500, Jenna’s Lobe

Jimmy's ties R200, Save the Wales

Spraypaint meets textiles in these funky designer items...

Core Hoodie R700, Big Love Emporium

Junk Heels R300 per pair, Save the Wales

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