Raw Ink Magazine – July 2012 by Raw Ink Magazine

magazine

In this Issue: Liana talks to Kim from Dead Letter Circus

brisbane gold coast tweed coast Issue 11, July 2012

www.rawinkmagazine.com

Ruth interviews not one, but three street artists in Hide’n’Seek Liana reviews the Surfer’s Paradise Festival

THE RAW INK TEAM

Roxy Coppen

Graphic designer and editor. roxy@rawinkmagazine.com www.monkeywingdesigns.com

Ruth Dunn

Journalist. ruth@rawinkmagazine.com

Liana Turner

Journalist and photographer. liana@rawinkmagazine.com www.liana-anitra.tumblr.com Cover design by

Roxy Coppen

Hello minions, Hope you’ve been enjoying these chilly, rainy weeks on the east coast ;) We’ve had a lot of fun writing these articles and showing them to you this month! We’re also very excited to present you our first collaborative competition! That’s right, we’ve joined forces with the epic clothing brand DEVILLAIN and created a t-shirt comp! have a read further down for more info! Once again, if you know of any creative events happening in your local area, or would like to contribute to the magazine, feel free to send us an email to: roxy@rawinkmagazine.com Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on our Twitter-tweets. We’ll see you next month. From,

The Raw Ink Team xx www.rawinkmagazine.com www.facebook.com/rawinkmagazine.com www.twitter.com/rawinkmagazine.om

contents Paradise Festival’ 18 ‘Surfer’s Liana Turner

Letter Circus’ 28 ‘Dead Liana Turner

Young - Tattoo Artist‘ 32 ‘Josh Liana Turner

Movements’ 42 ‘Lost Liana Turner ‘Hide’n’Seek with Asio’

52 Ruth Dunn

with Chosin’ 62 ‘Hide’n’Seek Ruth Dunn

‘Hide’n’Seek with Dove’

72 Ruth

SemiPermanent Event Speakers Include...

Toby and Pete / Paul Davies / Beastman Beci Orpin / The Monkeys / Bec Winnel Andrew Quilty + More To Be Confirmed 4

Brisb

bane

30 August 2012

Top creatives come to Brisbane to discuss their work, their lives and their philosophy on creating innovative and inspirational art and design. Semi-Permanent, Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most inspirational, and affordable, creative festival.

Event Organiser

For more information & to purchase your tickets:

www.semipermanent.com

Sponsored By

Printing Partner

Media Partners

Artwork by Loretta Lizzio www.lorettalizzio.tumblr.com

art by

jamaica.gozalez1@gmail.com 11

surfer’s

parad

festiv

Surfers Paradise is no longer just about the beaches and the nightclubs. Sure, the beach may not be the most desirable destination in July – and clubbing got old a few months after we turned eighteen. Surfers Paradise Festival, however, is an entirely different kettle of fish. The brainchild of the Surfers Paradise Alliance – which consists predominantly of Gold Coast business people – the festival aims to rejuvenate Surfers Paradise and surrounds during the tourism off-peak season. From beach parties to street parties to short film festivals, there was something for everyone. Surfers Paradise Alliance CEO Mark Winlaw says business had been low in the area for the last few months, but it was expected that the festival would bring a 50-60 per cent increase during June and July. Local business-owners believe the festival has a significantly positive impact on business during the winter months, but express concerns about how their business will keep up approaching Summer; the refurbishments of Cavill Mall appear to have a prominent effect on business. 18

dise

val

iana turner

The first taste of the festivities was the Opening Ceremony. A crowd looked on as a parade of glitz transformed the main stretch of Surfers Paradise; women on stilts strode before the Samba-Blisstas troupe and an array of bobbing hand-painted lanterns. The parade, aimed at bringing about a sense of togetherness â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for locals and visitors alike â&#x20AC;&#x201C; continued along the streets to the beach, where the audience was met with a stunning fireworks display.

“Launch It”, originally a one-day beach party, was this year transformed to a threeday event. Taking place on Surfers Paradise Beach from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th June, “Launch It” put on display talent both from the local area and further afield. The likes of Ash Grunwald, the Hoodoo Gurus and Sneaky Sound System, all provided at no cost to an all-ages audience in the brilliant Gold Coast sunshine. 22

Perhaps the most diverse day of all, however, was the One Way Street Party. The likes of Millions, Last Dinosaurs and Fairchild Republic attracted an impressive crowd on Alison Street whilst Electric Lemonade and the Headland Pedlar among many others set a relaxed scene at the Park Stage. A handful of artists created masterful pieces of work before the audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes, while the backstreets were lines with markets and food outlets. Yet another stage was set up inside the Magic Bus â&#x20AC;&#x201C; just to make the viewing experience that bit more interesting.

All in all, Surfers Paradise Festival, held annually between June and July, transforms the glimmering Gold Coast into a place thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a little bit more special, where people are drawn together to have a bit of genuine fun; the kind of fun that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give you a hangover or too much of a sunburn.

DEAD LETTER CIRCUS

Liana Turner talks to Kim Benzie You’re currently working on your second studio album; I’ve heard word that it’s going to be a lot more electronic than your earlier work. Yeah, we were actually working on it just now; we start recording tomorrow. It’s always a big one for bands – the second album- so it’s going to be really cool. After 29

saying that – about it being more electronic – that’s been sort of immortalised – a snapshot in time – and it’s something we’re asked about all the time. At the time, that’s the direction the album seemed to be taking. Now it’s becoming a more even mix of everything – well, almost. There’s not going to be any dubstep! It’s really just the next chapter for us. In what ways will your upcoming album be different to “This is the Warning”? It’ll be emotionally a lot darker and heavier. Perhaps most importantly for your fans, is there a definite release date as of yet? We’re basically just going to record for now, but it’ll be released early next year. You’ve been touring a bit this year – across Australia and the US. How do you feel your recent tours have been received? The American touring was awesome. At first, we were still very unknown. It’s like going back in time to our first gigs in Australia. It’s the most exciting thing – walking onto the stage and no one knows who you are. You’re not sure whether or not you’ll be that band who plays while people go to buy beer, just waiting for the headliners. In the past, you’ve played alongside the likes of Karnivool, The Butterfly Effect and Muse. How does it feel to progress from supporting act to headliner? Awesome, really awesome. It hasn’t been a quick journey, though. It’s great, especially when you come back from touring in the US. It’s easy to forget – playing in Australia it’s almost like the songs belong to the scene more than the band. I mean, our first show after the US was in Lismore I think, and it’s just so different. When you’re playing in the US it’s like starting fresh – because it hasn’t even begun to snowball over there.

Josh Young

Ta t t o o A r t i s t Let’s face it, tattoos are cool. For quite a while, the part of my brain that’s into photography and pretty things has had a school-girl-crush on the very idea of them. Sure, there are always going to be some tacky ones kicking around, but it’s been a long time since tattoos have been reserved for the non-taxpayer – and brilliant tattoo artistry is becoming more and more prominent everywhere you look. I recently had a chat to Josh Young, a UK-born apprentice tattoo artist currently based in Brisbane. At 22 years old, Young’s art is of a striking sort that tends to catch your eye instantaneously. My first introduction to his work was at 33

a party a few months back. We’d been watching street artists adorn the exterior of a warehouse with their work, when suddenly I had a piece of paper in my hand. It was a painting of Young’s, and I was instantly captivated by its style. Of course, no one simply picks up a tattoo gun and starts from there. Young has had a preference for creativity from a young age. After joking somewhat about the cliché of learning to draw before learning to walk, he says: “I always liked art, always concentrated and worked harder in art, so it was a natural progression.”

“I went through a scribbling stage, then a graffiti stage,” says Young, “I was always going to do something with art.” Young initially studied graphic design, but soon concluded that it was not for him. “I didn’t like graphic design,” he says, “Sitting in front of a computer all day, just churning out masses of work.” The tattoo art apprenticeship, which can last anywhere between two and six years, isn’t the sort of structured education where it’s all about the piece of paper, says Young. It’s undeniable, there are some cheapand-nasty tattoos out there, and this has a tendency to give artists such as Young a less-than-gleaming name. He does, however, recognise the deeply entrenched, rich history behind it all. “I like the history of it, and why people got tattoos – it was all bikies, pirates, underworld, it had meaning,” he says. Then there is, of course, the question of why people get tattoos in the first place. Should they have meaning, or are they just an 34

extension of our personal aesthetics? Young is in two minds about this, but at the end of the day says “Doing it for the people is good for business; people think it’s nice, cool, visually appealing.” Essentially, to the tattooist, the body is the canvas – albeit a more challenging and interesting one. “It’s the hardest thing to work on,” says Young. “You really have to think about it; you can’t paint over it or scribble it out. You’re performing on a human being, and that’s important to understand. At the same time it’s a really innovative way of doing art.” Tattooists have a fairly distinguishable advantage, it would seem, from many other types of artists. “I like seeing friends with my art on them,” says Young, “And having people ask about it.” Every artist wants to be noticed, but it’s made a lot easier when your masterpieces can be seen everywhere, in virtually any context, right? “Canvases are shut up or thrown out,” says Young, “But tatts are forever displayed on a person – a walking advert.” Josh does not look past the unquestionable importance of appreciating a broad range or art. “You need to be good at everything, and a range of styles,” he says, “And to learn from everything. My personal style is leaning towards far more traditional work with a sense of realism.” He emphasises the significance of keeping an open mind, stylistically speaking, when it comes to creating art. “Don’t try to specialise too much at first,” he says, “It’s about first building expertise and later delving into what you like most.” Young has, of late, been looking into lettering and Japanese/Oriental styles. He has also been extensively researching prison tattoos. He hopes to soon release a book on prison tattoos. “I’ve been collecting as much information as possible,” he says. Finding such information isn’t necessarily all that tricky; as it happens, some of Young’s clients are exconvicts and thus are able to give first-hand 36

information. “I’m looking at the history of prison tatts, the machines they used and the way they used ink,” says Young. The truth about tattoo art is this: it’s not something you simply decide to do, because it sounds cool. Yeah, it sounds mighty cool – but if there’s no passion driving such a decision, it’s a poorly made one. Indeed, there are many who think of it as the sort of glamorous career one can just walk into. “I’m a tattoo artist” is always, always going to sound charming in a bar. The problem is the inexperienced getting their hands on professional equipment – “It’s like saying you’re a dentist if you pull out someone’s teeth with pliers,” says Young, “It’s frustrating when people think it’s just an easy ride.” “If you’re not passionate or fully committed, you’re not going to make it,” says Young, “It’s not just a job, but a lifestyle.” Young describes his apprenticeship as one that cannot be completed half-heartedly. “You have to be a hard worker and quick to pick things up in order to move forward,” he says, “In the first year you get treated like shit. You fetch cigarettes, mop the floor; you do everything to gain respect and trust. It’s like a family – difficult to break in, you have to work your way in. It involved cleaning toilets, dancing on the tables if they want you to dance on the tables. Then they allow you to get glimpses of what it’s like. And it’s all unpaid.” Having to work multiple jobs simultaneously may at times be taxing for Young – particularly when he was working four jobs on top of his apprenticeship, making sleep practically non-existent. Surely, it’s only a special level of creative passion that could keep one going through all of this. “At times I thought of giving up,” says Young, “But I decided I was serious and passionate enough to see it through. The commitment is one of the hardest things, but it’s getting a little bit easier. It’s rewarding to see it pay off.”

Young says that there’s generally more work off the clock than on, something which few people unfamiliar with the profession can appreciate. “You’re never going to get worse,” says Young, who speaks of the consistent hard work required of him. Young stresses how imperative it is as an artist to be constantly looking at new creative styles as a means of continuously evolving. “One thing I don’t like is being told what to do. I don’t like the idea of doing a job where someone is telling me what to do,” says Young. He claims this comes from a childhood full of travelling – where a sense of freedom was ubiquitous. “I like the idea of being able to pack up and leave, start somewhere else, and pack up and leave again,” he says. Tattooists are advantaged, says Young, because they are able to take the job anywhere – much preferable to being stuck in a suffocating office environment. “I think it’s one of the best careers in the universe,” says Young, “It’s worth the pain and struggling in order to achieve that goal.” Young draws inspiration from an array of sources, most notably his fellow artists. He also finds himself being inspired by music lyrics from a wide array of styles. Young is also an avid artist when it comes to painting, canvas work, murals and commissions. He also intends to soon release a sketchbook containing many samples of his work. “I would like to say thanks to the guys at the Gold Coast – to East Coast Ink and Universal Ink for being such a lovely bunch of people,” says Young. To see more of Young’s work, check out his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=526256074

lost movem There’s something a little bit distinctive about holding a party in a frosty warehouse, where semi-naked women aplenty line up for body art and the walls, once stark and lacklustre, are progressively covered with artworks over the duration of the night. This is what Lost Movements part one, held in Brisbane’s West End in May, was all about. The sounds of various bands filled the building and its surrounds. Cucumber vodka was poured – and consumed – en masse, and friends gathered around a crackling fire. Lost Movements is a not-for-profit, artist run initiative. Its aim it to support artists through events which fuse music and the arts. When I arrived, I didn’t know a soul, save for the friend and co-worker beside me, but that hardly mattered. I was instantly overcome with the intensity of culture that played out before me. “I thought it would be cool to have a warehouse party as the first show to launch a band,” says Lost Movements organiser Joel Chant. “That grew into an idea of getting artists involved. I guess I was really inspired by the whole concept of Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol’s Factory. So that grew into an idea of having a party to launch a band and getting a bunch of local artists fromBrisbaneinto a warehouse to paint the whole place.” “The Factory was a place people could go to and hang out and do all their work together…I guess we want a place like that where we can hold events every month or so,” says Chant. Fairly successful in living up to its aim, it indeed felt as if Andy Warhol had risen from 42

ments

liana turner

the grave and brought all these people together. It made me wonder: what would Warhol have made of this? I artists lined the walls so tightly that navigating between the rows of paint tins was a struggle, even to a seasoned veteran. The scene took me back several years to the HSC art studio where I’d spent much of my time. To be fair, I’d never been remotely intoxicated whilst at school – although the events of the evening made the wonder why on earth not. Brisbane is brimming with talent – both artistic and musical – but how much opportunity is there really out there? Not quite enough, it would seem. “There’s lots of artists in Brisbane but there’s not really anywhere people can go just to paint and meet other artists without a monetary side involved,” says Lincoln Savage, fellow member of the initiative, “So we are creating a way that people can paint and show their work without having to worry about how much it costs.” “We are not-for-profit, so we work through the help of sponsors. If we can throw another event that goes well…we might have a permanent thing if we find a permanent venue,” says Savage. No, it’s not just another way of taking advantage of the local talent – not in the slightest. If I respected myself a little less, I might start quoting Jessie-J; the truth is, it’s not always about the money. “What we are doing is completely for the artists,” says Savage, “We aren’t making any money off it. The most we get out of it, and the most the artists get out of it, is cross promotion and helping each other out; everybody coming together to help make a scene, so to speak, in Brisbane.” “We just want to raise the awareness of local artists,” says Chant, “Just getting them out there for people to see. When I first came up with the name Lost Movements, I was thinking it would be cool to start a movement because movements have been lost over the years. That’s the whole idea of the arts movement. Everywhere we go, if we do more events and start travelling with them, potentially it’s 44

going to start a movement of all these other warehouses doing the same thing. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just a support for the local artists and musicians.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Â The folks at Lost Movements are currently undergoing plans for their second event. For more information on the collective, visit their website: lostmovements.com or Facebook page: facebook.com/lostmovements.

HIDE ‘N ‘SEEK PROJECT Hide ‘n’ Seek Project is a one year writing project that will include articles about Brisbane street and graffiti art, as well as interviews with some of Brisbane’s best street and graffiti artists. New material will be published each month exploring the Brisbane street scene and the artists that work within it. This month I interviewed not just one, but three artists involved in Lost Movements. Read on to check it out! If you’ve spied some street/graffiti art in Brisbane and want to publish some photos or let me know where it’s at email me! ruth@rawinkmagazine.com

HIDE ‘N ‘SEEK WITH

RUTH DUNN

With just 2 years of street art under his belt Asio brings a sophisticated style to the Brisbane streets with his large scale, precise and creative photographic compositions. Interested and involved in art from a young age, street art became a means through which he could powerfully express his ideas and share his artworks with the public. What motivated you to start making art? I just had to get something out. I had an idea and realised its potential to get whatever’s inside of me out. So art was the means to do that? Yeah I think Blek le Rat, he’s a famous street artist, he once said that all artists have a scream inside of them and once you find your medium and your instrument you get your scream out. That scream can be an angry scream or a happy scream; it’s just a scream like expression. What kind of scream do you have? Well…I try to be thoughtful about putting a message through my pieces… but the act of putting it up in itself is like ‘rarrrrrr! Take that’, you know. I started off doing pieces of people smoking weed and stuff ‘cos I was thinking about the perception of society about ‘stoners’ as a subclass…but it’s everyone you know; parents, doctors, lawyers... I just wanted to get the imagery out there to desensitise people to it. That was my initial scream. But then I changed completely because I thought that could be too offensive to the general public and it was getting pulled down pretty quick. I didn’t want to get a bad name for myself in that way. So I started thinking about landscapes and more art based ideas rather than culturally based statements, which is a more satisfying scream. In your artworks I’ve noticed you have some skull images, people riding bikes, and landscapes. Do you want to talk a bit about the content you work with now? Okay then, after doing the negative stuff, like the figures smoking weed and that sort of thing, I started to think about what I would like to see, what a pedestrian walking down the street would be really stoked about. So with the landscapes, I thought it would be really sick to just walk past a wall that was just 54

like a forest or a creek, and people could just relax and sit next to it. I’ve really liked doing landscape photography and the process of going out there and finding a really nice spot. So you take all the photographs yourself? Yup, they are all my photos. Each photo I take is a decision I have made about the overall piece, and then when I’m putting it up I’m thinking about size and how it’s going to fit together. In this way each piece of paper I paste-up is a decision I’ve made about the overall image. It’s similar to someone painting; they are making lots of little decisions/brushstrokes, these decisions are about the overall image and combine to form the image. They are similar in my mind at least. Can you tell me a bit about the process of your work? I’ve got a pretty basic studio where I can get models and objects in to photograph. With the landscapes I’ll have to go find a spot, whether it’s a spot I’ve seen before or I’ll just go bush walking and find a spot. Once I’m there in front of what I want to photograph in the studio or outside, it’s normally a process of sizing up what I’m gonna take photos of and figuring out what detail I want each photo to have, which parts I want to really capitalise on and which parts I would like to exclude if I could, or minimize. Is that why you do some details bigger than others in your work? Is that a similar thing where you want to accentuate certain bits and minimize others? That’s just when I’m thinking about the scene; so maybe there’ll be power lines over there, I’ll take a photo here and I’ll take a photo there, and you won’t see the power lines. Or if there’s an ugly part on a skull I’d just not include it in the photo. But when it comes to that focus or some things looking bigger and smaller in my work, I kind of like to not get it perfect…I try and shoot it as raw as I can. From the first photo to the last photo I don’t stop and think about it. I have already thought about it and I sit down and I take all the photos and I like it if some photos are blurry next to a really detailed photo… or the foreground might be in focus in one photo, but the photo adjacent to it might have the background in focus. This contrast is something I enjoy working with. It

will just provide more interest for the eye to go around and study the image. Just out of curiosity, is there any relation between the way you put together your photographs and the way Imants Tillers creates one artwork from the combination of different canvases? To be honest I don’t really know Imants Tillers because I didn’t really go to art school or anything. The way I put my photos together is just something that came to me through studying Cubism. I thought about the idea of making a picture out of multiple points of view of that one object or scene and jamming them all together. I just thought I could try and do that with my camera and then I thought it looked cool so I kept doing them. I did it for like 2 years and then I found out about wheat pasting. So I had this idea and I was making them on the computer and printed one or two off on photo paper and glued them all together with superglue and stuff like that, just for myself. I never really knew how I could get what I wanted…I wanted it to cover the walls and I didn’t know how I could do that, and then I saw a few docos on street art and I thought f*** yeah I can do that. How do you manage not to get caught doing such big works on the street? I guess I’ve just been lucky. I have been caught once by detectives…and they kind of sat there and scratched their heads for ages and called up their bosses and stuff like that. Eventually they let me go and said that they liked it but they didn’t really know if I was allowed to do it and I should just go home. So ever since then I’ve thought that if I get caught it’s not gonna be so bad anyway. No guts no glory sort of thing. I also found out from a couple of my mates that wheat pasting is technically littering anyway, though I’m not sure on the scale I’m doing it. I’m not really a vandal; I’m just gluing my s**t to other people’s s**t. I’m just leaving my s**t behind, not really wrecking anything. How often do you go out doing street art? I try to go out once a week, otherwise I just feel s**t. Because… I dunno do you have a hobby? Like something you love doing? I like to write… Yeah well if you didn’t write 55

in a month or something you’d just be like ‘ugghhh give me my pencil’. You make the time for those things that you do like. I don’t think I’ve ever not had the time. What do you do when you’re not creating art? I go to uni and go to work… just a normal person. I kind of treat the street art side like an alter ego, split personality sort of thing. It’s my escape from my reality… and I think the whole idea behind my paste-ups has been so someone can look at it and escape from their own reality for a few seconds and just imagine that they are at the beach… that they are off in some dream space. I think of myself as somebody who’s always trying to escape. Do you like to choose particular spots to put them where you know someone’s going to see it and enjoy it? Yeah, it takes some practice. At the start I put things up very publicly and it was gone the next day. You start to learn why it was gone; whether it’s the council cleaning it or it’s too low and people have come along and ripped it. When I do see a good spot I usually take a photo and come back and measure it. So you try and make them last as long as possible… Well paste-ups have a higher entropy than paint so they will never be truly as permanent. With this in mind I realised that if you are going to the effort of making a large poster like I do from time to time then it should get the best opportunity to survive the elements. With wheat pasting I try to choose places where it’s out of the weather and out of the wind so the glue lasts longer. It’s just what I’ve learnt from my own experiences. So a lot of thought goes into it… Yeah, I guess. I used to see walls and think ‘hot dang, it’s a blank wall, that’s awesome,’ and now I just see walls and I think ‘its a good location but it faces the sun all year round etc...’ Weighing up the pros and cons… Yeah, and then finally you see a golden spot that’s like… a wooden surface, sunk into the wall, quite a big space, and you start to think about the best time of day to come back. 56

What are some good things about using wheat pastes as your medium? A good thing about wheat pasting is that it’s nice and quick. With spray painting it takes longer and you are more likely to draw attention to yourself from the noise. So if you can make it at home and then put it up nice and quick you should be going for the spots that are harder and more public. It’s also paper, it’s gonna get taken down or fall down eventually, so who cares if it’s gone really. But if you are going to rock up and paint a big piece, you’d be really cut if it was gone the next day, but not so much with wheat pasting. It’s kind of more like a bombarding. Can you tell me a bit about your involvement with Lost Movements? I got involved because of Lincoln, who started the Anomy house to encourage street artists in Brisbane. I went along to their first event and did a big wall that was 5 by 4. It seemed like everyone was having a great time, and I think it’s a really exciting idea. I just can’t believe the organisational skills these guys have to get sponsors on board and find people to provide a space to hold these events. It’s great. Kudos Shout out to Brisbane street artists and anyone else who play a big part in your artA shout out to everybody that’s doing something for the streets of Brisbane, the fact that people put their ideas out there and legally on the line- ‘tag em back’. Shout out to Anomy project, Lost Movements, and I guess Lincoln Savage at the end of the day… he’s got me and others legal walls and a few other things. Also a shout out to my close friends and family. To look at more of Asio’s work head on over to www.flickr.com/photos/69354500@N06/

HIDE ‘N ‘SEEK WITH

RUTH DUNN Chosin is a Brisbane graffiti artist specialising in aerosol to create high energy artworks. He explores human forms, astronomy, and physics to inform his flowing, carefully designed compositions. I had a chat to Chosin about his ideas, experiences and motivations. How did you first become interested in making art? That’s going back a few years now… I think for most of my life skateboarding was the biggest vent that I had to express myself because where I grew up there was no place to express yourself at all. Then I moved house and decided to build a studio out the back because I had sketched up a lot of ideas but never had a place to produce them. Once I set 63

up the studio I started producing work; very simple stuff and just really experimenting. I got the same excitement doing art that I was getting out of skateboarding so they both paralleled each other. I just kept doing it without any money involved up until about 2007 when someone finally offered a couple of hundred for a canvas. From there on in I had that commercial basis to what I was doing at the back of my mind, but I still have the substance of the artwork. So that’s where it all started, and now it’s become more of a lifestyle. 64

So I take it you would call yourself a graffiti artist? Yeah, definitely a graffiti artist. People like to call it street art or public art, but it’s still graffiti. It’s just that a lot of the street art was possibly graffiti artists playing with new technology and doing new things. How did you get involved in graffiti? Did you start out as a graffiti artist or were you doing art before it? Art was always there, but I mean I failed art at school because there were so many

restrictions. My black books were always terrible and my ideas were never set out properly. My work was usually done spur of the moment and that’s probably why I failed art for the most part. I remember getting an award for excellence in art at the same time I was failing at school, and I was just getting frustrated and angry, so that’s when I started to do graffiti. The art scene just wasn’t equal to the energy I was producing. Along the way I tagged along with other artists who had the same mindset and we just kept going at it.

Are you a self-taught artist? Yeah. Most of it was born out of pure energy, thoughts, frustration, the need to express… and it just comes out, you get into a moment of just painting and you put all your physical energy into it and you exhaust yourself. Have you had any figures in the graffiti or art scene that you have looked up to and drawn inspiration from? Definitely. When I was first starting out it was more the European scene. A lot of the European artists were doing a whole new 65

level of wild style that I was seeing in Brisbane. Brisbane style now…some would argue it’s pretty much dead because there is no stimuli coming out of what’s on trackside or what’s going on around the walls because the city has pretty much gone in the opposite direction. But as far as influence goes for me… ahh there’s so many… the old-schoolers… Just the way they would talk to you, even if they weren’t such a good writer, you would listen to them and they had so many stories to tell that inspired you and got you fired up and back out there. But sometimes it can come from just watching TV and being engaged in what is going on around me. I notice you do quite a few paintings of people. What is it about people that you like to paint and why do you choose certain people? I started with people’s faces because they seem to have more identification than just doing the rest of the body. Then I started to delve into the body itself. I think the female form was initially attractive not only because it’s the opposite sex but because of the way it would flow. You could play around with female hair and the way it flows around the body, and you could create a really nice image from that. I was interested in curves and the way layers would sit on people’s bodies and how you could manipulate it the way you wanted to. Does that feed into the way you paint your large organic works? The organic approach comes more from science mags and other related journals. I was definitely heavy in astronomy and the study of physics and stuff like that. Everything has this really interesting visual imagery that the natural world produces and I try to insert that into lettering and play with new styles and textures. Do you still do much non-commissioned work on the streets? Yes, I’m still doing stuff on the street. That will never go away. Not even with the heavy penalties? No, you’d have to permanently disable me in order to stop me. What gives you that really strong drive to keep 66

going? There’d have to be a couple of elements. Given that the city is very hostile and the fact that if there’s anywhere to paint in the world this city is sterile…I mean it needs a good international taste, it needs more international artists to come here because it is kind of regarded as the forgotten town…It’s always been static to me. I guess the problems I see around are also fuel; it fuels your anger and you can put that anger into art. It doesn’t matter what medium; it could be walls, it could be canvas, it could be just writing… sometimes my images come from just writing and ranting off the top of my head. It’s not hatred, it’s just anger and you just try and channel that… ‘cos God only knows where I’d be if I didn’t have a place to channel that.

for just about anything. This whole Stair Gallery is a new concept the boys from Laced are playing around with as a space to run continuously because Brisbane still lacks good vibrant alternative galleries. Its priority would be to establish a national and hopefully international connection to artists, as Brisbane always seems to be the one place that gets ignored. Given the fact that Brisbane produces a lot of good artists it doesn’t get much, if any, recognition.

How are you finding the graffiti restrictions in Brisbane? I’m a little disappointed in trackside because Brisbane’s really cracking down on the whole buffing thing. At first it was irritating, now it’s just really painful. They seem to be stepping up their game and I don’t know why…It’s not going to do anything. They can clean the walls until their arms fall off but the city’s still dirty. You can’t bring back social standards by just cleaning walls.

How do you find taking your work from the street into the gallery? Is it hard or just an extension of what you do? Yeah, it’d have to be an extension. If you take graffiti that you do on the street and put it in a gallery where people are sitting back and looking at it as an object it kind of looks like a joke. When you put graffiti into a gallery like that it loses its potency because graffiti was built for the streets to do a certain thing. You can take the mechanics and certain aspects of what you do in graffiti, it’s just now you have more time to sit back and put some more substance into your work. It’s still got the energy, just not the same full mechanics of what would be done on the streets.

How do people respond to your work? Some people have weird interpretations of my work…like I remember selling work at South Bank illegally and one little kid walked past and said it looked like carnival; like fun and happiness. Then this other kid came along and pointed and they saw the seas of hell in one of my canvases. So that’s sort of interesting, it makes it a lot of fun too. Yeah so you never know how someone might interpret it… Yeah, and this is why I still love doing gallery shows, because everyone has their interpretation of what they see. You recently did a gallery show with Cezary Stulgis, Guido and Fintan Magee. Can you tell me a bit about that show? The show presented 5 artists and a Live DJ set downstairs, sort of as the whole hip hop collective under one roof. The gallery space is fairly large and can compensate 68

What did you enjoy most about it? I do miss the energy that a lot of the hip hop galleries produce. A good mixture of music and art that is engaging and motivating. I forget just how powerful it can be. It puts you in a good mood.

So there’s a different process to creating a work for a gallery than one for the street… Yeah, I’d have to say the first element is time. You have limited time on the street. Given the illicit nature you’re constantly on edge, depending where you are doing it, and all your senses are turned on their highest. Whereas with a gallery it’s a lot more relaxed, it’s very casual, it’s sort of the end point of what you would normally do. It’s an interesting difference… It really is, there is no adrenalin in galleries. To me graffiti is like skating; you have the same energy output, that rush you get…and you just love that fixation, you have to keep going back to it.

What other things do you take part in as an artist? I do a lot of commission work which will range depending on people’s ideas. If someone wants a tattoo I can design them a tattoo. I try to keep my range fairly general as far as being creative and try to adapt to all sorts of principles everywhere to keep my options open. That keeps me treading water financially. So you are good at adapting to different situations… Yeah, I haven’t hit a wall yet creatively… as far as art practice, it just keeps going. I let my art practice transform if I am inspired by something. It could be stimulated by travel, you know, sometimes when you go to international waters and meet other people in different cultures it can start a whole new angle to what you are doing. I think that’s probably the next endeavour… travelling outside this city and going to other cultures. So you think that would bring a lot of transformation to your practice? I reckon that’s the next step. Okay, so before we finish up, what do you think of Lost Movements and how did you find the first event? It was interesting. It had a lot of energy; it combined live music, live art, and body art. Lincoln stepped away from just focusing on graffiti and street art and tried to really embrace all fields of art, which is a really hard thing to do. It’ll be interesting to watch as it starts to transition into whatever it’s going to become. It could go from Lost Movements to just Movements, who knows. Shout out to Brisbane graffiti artistsBear, Bela, Kid Wiz, WTCS, Bad Brains, Sykez, Eksoe AM Crew, Cean, Arouse, Cruel, Expel, Erus. To see more artworks by Chosin check out www.facebook.com/drahtfunk.art

HIDE ‘N ‘SEEK WITH

RUTH DUNN

Dove is an emerging Brisbane graffiti artist working with spray paint to produce large scale characters. I caught up with him to discuss his art practice, his involvement with Lost Movements, and his up and coming group show at Jugglers Art Space. When did you first get into art? I’ve been doing it from a young age; I’ve always been into drawing and stuff like that. But in terms of graffiti, I started painting about 3 years ago originally doing traditional graffiti letters but I now focus mainly on characters. What first drew you to graffiti art? Well I guess through skateboarding, it was always at the skate parks and I’ve always liked it… So it was part of the culture? Yeah… plus just through friends, because they were doing it. What do you value most about graffiti art? I like going big; the idea of large scale images painted on a wall really appeals to me and it just makes people stop and look. That’s why I love graffiti, you’re not often restricted with space…and I just find it easier to shade and create depth with spray paint rather than with brush. Is that the best thing about the spray can medium for you? Yeah and just the way they shade. I paint characters a lot and I always use shading and I find it’s a lot easier to do than say with a brush and paint. Do your characters have their own personality? I wouldn’t say they have their own personality but they do have a similar appearance…When I’m painting for myself, I tend to paint faces that have a gaunt and really aged look to them. And I often paint them without pupils because it adds to their threatening appeal. Why do you choose those? There’s just more detail in it compared to say a smiling face, and I just love how the face wrinkles around the eyes and forehead in 74

an angry expression and I’m always trying to improve on it. Has that been something you have always been interested in? Yeah, I think it’s just because that’s how graffiti characters usually are. They always seem pretty gaunt or aggressive, and have that staunch appeal. How did you learn to paint like that? Did you have any kind of mentor? Nah not really, I just got into it with my friend Korekt and I guess he taught me the basics, but from then on I’d just put it down to practice and trying to paint as much as possible. Can you talk a bit about Lost Movements and your involvement in it? I think It’s great, people coming together to paint, it’s really cool idea. There hasn’t really been anything like it done before. It’s run by artists, and a whole heap of artists came to the first event at the warehouse. I just got invited and painted a character on the outside fence. I’m not really hugely involved, so I don’t know what they are doing next…guess we’ll just have to wait and see… What’s next on the agenda for you? You mentioned you’re doing a commission today right? Yeah, I’m painting a few characters at a Mexican restaurant. I’m also participating in a group art show in about two weeks called ‘Favela’. Have you ever heard of Jugglers? Yes. I’ve been involved in an emerging artist development program at Jugglers for the last 6 months. There were about 6 of us doing it and we ended up getting a group show out of it. So that’s on the 29th of June.

while I’m painting one job and people will approach us and ask if we’re interested in doing something else. That’s great that people are approaching you and you don’t need to ask to paint… Yeah, takes a lot of the pressure off. Also, I’m taking 6 months off uni next semester and I’m going to be trying to get as many jobs as possible. What are you most looking forward to about taking some time off to paint? Just painting as much as possible and getting my name out there, trying to get known. I’ll possibly be starting up a small business with a few other guys, trying to do commissioned work for any businesses whether it is mural work or canvases. Lately I’ve been finding there is a demand for it; you just have to look for it. For the Jugglers show is it going to be in their outdoor space or will it be inside on canvases? It’s a gallery show so it will be inside, it’s supposed to be on found objects and stuff like that. But there will probably be a production out the back that we will be doing for it. Will this be your first show? Yeah, first one… How do you think you’ll find the cross-over from street to the gallery space? I still don’t think I’m ready for it really. I don’t think I have a style developed for smaller canvases. I’ll just be painting my characters a lot smaller with other mediums on canvas, but I want something more than that. So you’re going to downsize your characters? Yeah, and just trying out different methods… with paint pens, brush and still aerosol.

In the last couple of months I’ve also been getting a lot of commissioned work, which is great. I’m finding I’m getting new work every time I finish another job.

So sounds like it’ll be a bit of a developmental stage in your art… Yeh, definitely.

How do they find out about you? A lot of them are just through posting my work on Facebook and also through Jugglers art space. I’m finding I’m also getting them

Shout out to Brisbane graffiti artists and other peopleI’ll do a shout out to Korekt, Lucks, Peter Breen from Jugglers Art Space, Getbie, and Ontic.

Keen to see more of Dove? Go to www.facebook.com/brandon. warrell?ref=ts