ISSUE 4
ABANDONED
... Housed by these urban spaces, these concrete pillars, rivers of stone, towers of brick and mortar, floor to ceiling glass and metal. Without people, it is nothing but walls and pavement. We make this city, we built these mazes, gave them names, meanings and memories. This city is ours.
LIVE EXPLORE
CREATE
RESIDE
...
It belongs to the people who walk these streets, to you and I.
You are part if the essential lifeblood that brings these walls to life, that makes this place live and breathe. Every action, movement, uttered word and caught breath.
Our City, our streets. Our backyards, wet sheets, paved alleys and dark corners. Our business suits concealing inked skin, our cinemas, footpaths, rooftops and bridges.
IT’S ABOUT TRANSFORMING A SPACE INTO SOMETHING NEW.
Wild Rice talks to Brisbane street artist SkullCapper about creation, art and abandoned places.
Opposite page: Model: Palawasha Makeup: dunkle authentic Wild Rice Photography
THE SPACE FINDS ME. “I’m not about defacing property,” he said, “I’d never paste or sticker a school or hospital or anything, you know. But if it’s a run down, derelict or abandoned place then to me it just feels like a blank canvas, and we are giving it a new purpose, a new lease on life. It’s all about rebirth.” “To me, it’s about finding new spaces and interpreting them. The space finds me,” he said, “for most of the bigger works, it’s the location, size and features will determine the scope and design of the piece itself.”
“I like to use non-traditional spaces, I guess that’s one of the reasons street art appeals to me.” We stare at the walls, already laced with workds and images of artists who have seen the promise of the abandoned place as a blank canvas. “I’d rather create a really great paste up or design and put it up on a wall somewhere that hundreds of people will see each day, than confine my work to the walls of a gallery.”
I’D NEVER USE A WALL OF A HOSPITAL OR A SCHOOL. ONLY RUN DOWN, DERELICT OR ABANDONED PLACES. IT’S ABOUT REBIRTH.
“This is what I see myself doing for the rest of my life, it’s what gets me out of bed.”
#iamwildrice
THERE’S KIND OF A SET OF UNWRITTEN RULES AND UNSPOKEN ETHICS
...it’s mainly common sense, you learn them as you go, usually the hard way. Live and learn.
“However, sometimes you can’t help, there are limited spaces in Brisbane and as they get used, we have less and less space to There are some that are pretty put new work, so sometimes it’s straight forward- you don’t put unavoidable. your work up over someone “Again, there are unspoken ethics elses- it’s called ‘capping’ with that, if you are going to go over someone else’s art, you had better be sure that yours is better!’
THEN THERE IS ORIGINALITY; “If you design something too similar to another artists work, its called ‘Biting’, as in biting at their ankles. Usually you can assume they didn’t know and you can just go talk to the artist and work it out. “I try not to [collaborate often], there are a lot of politics involved in Street Art, it’s like highschool. There’s a lot of egotistical bullshit,” “I mean nothing is really original anymore, we are all just creating used ideas in a fresh way, it’s bound to overlap here and there.”
INTERVIEW WITH BRISBANE STREET ARTIST, SKULLCAPPER*
THESE streets are
OURS.
I AM WILDRICE JOURNALISM PHOTOGRAPHY CULTURE STYLE
Wild Rice, est. 2013, was created by Jessica Rhian as an exploration of the world and the stories of wonder within.
Articles/ Images / Zine Design by Jessica Rhian Art: Skullcapper Model: Palawasha Makeup by dunkle authentic Logo Design by Harper House
wildrice-online.com / @wildricetweets / iamwildrice@gmail.com