LTRHDS Interview – Two One – T.

February 20th, 2010

logo Born 1985 in Yokohama Japan. TwoOne’s interested in art was initiated by the famed but unfortunately recently buffed 2km graffiti wall of his home town. When Two arrived in Melbourne at the age of 18 he became involved in the Melbourne street art scene and has since developed into one of the cities most prominent artists, both on the street and in galleries with The One Thousand Can show in 2008.

Two is joining the LTRHDS show with his reinterpretation of the letter T.

TwoOne’s website. twooneelephant.com. More information about the one thousand can show click here.

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Last time we talked it was for your 1000 Cans show. Where has your art taken you in the meantime?

I have been involved with a few group shows. I had my second solo show So Far that included painting, sculpture, lino cut prints, and installation works in October 2009. And I have been working on a live performance project called Lo2’s Fleet with Melbourne legend mc ELF TRANZPORTER. I paint, cut wood, construct sculptures, and while doing it all I also make sound with the equipment that I use to make the visuals… So my art has taken me in lots of different directions.

There is a dreamy, zen-like quality to your work. Where do you find the inspiration for your impish little world?
I used to get lots of inspiration from my dreams, but now I get more inspiration from everyday life. It’s the world everyone sees, but everyone sees it int heir own way. I like seeing the world as it is. No expectations, no sugar coating. I don’t particularly try to make my work zen or dreamy.

Your works are an oasis of peace and balance. Do you inhabit that same bubble? Does your art insulate you from the world and its worries, or does it represent a state of being that you are striving to reach?
I’m not creating work to escape from the wold. I guess I can maybe say it is representing a state that I’m striving to reach, because when I create I try to make something that I haven’t seen before. This process is like striving to reach the next state, and normally when I start a new project I don’t know what that next state looks like.

Goldfish are a motif that keeps popping up in your work. Do you keep fish yourself? How important is your relationship with animals and nature to your work?
I don’t have fish myself, but animals and nature are very important to me, because that’s where all the life comes from. We can’t live with out them. At the same time I think that the relationship between nature and myself isn’t so important when it comes to creating. When I draw or paint them, I bring the canvas’ character out from them.

So it’s more of a relationship between canvas and nature. I think that’s because I have been working on wood a lot, wood seems to bring out more organic images in my head. I don’t know why that is or how it works. but that’s how I feel. And now I’m start to feel a soul in artificial things, stuff that’s human made.

They makes me want to do something with them. I imagine it’s more about where I channel my head… everything around you could become interesting and important.

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LTRHDS interview – Usugrow – S.

February 19th, 2010

logo6-300x2561231-1 There is a dignified beauty to the work Usugrow.

Fine attention to detail, the motifs of skulls, flowers, decay, rebirth applied with traditional Japanese aesthetic, projects such as Shinganist and remarkable product design for brands such as Adidas, Vans and FTC have gained legions of fans for this Tokyo based artist.

Usugrow joins LTRHDS along side fellow Tokyo artists Bene, as the creative team “LUVVINE” to bring us the letter S.

Usugrow – Usugrow.blogspot.com

Bene – omoandoki.blogspot.com

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You have described yourself as a Shinganist–an outsider. You seem to have adopted a very simple way of life… In consumer-driven Japan do you feel like an outsider? Or do you feel that your art is distinctly Japanese?

Certainly, I chose to live very simply in this consumer society… My lifestyle is like a cave person, digging up a potato and exchanging it for a necessary thing. However I don’t consider myself in this world as an outsider even though other people say so.

Sadly but also happily, I am surely a part of society. There are lots of crappy systems… On the other hand, there are also the systems that help us in society. Everything has two sides. You can’t just nibble here and there. I think it’s important to strive and fly the flag… I am not willing to run away from there.

You might get drunk with your mohawk hair, crying against society at a punk rock club, but you will be lining up at the ATM to get some cash and using a post office to send mail to your friend. Don’t you think it’s inconsistent? I am definitely a Japanese artist. You can tell that from my work and lifestyle, in a good and bad way.

Your work tends to feature skulls and motifs of death, yet it has a great sense of peace and beauty to it. To what extent is this a reflection of your own philosophy towards being? Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person?

I used to draw skulls before because they just look cool, but things have changed recently. There is no more interesting motif than a skull, and I think they fit my philosophy. A skull is a symbol of death, but it also represents a life at the same time. A skull is not originally a skull from the beginning.

You lived, died and became a skull. I want to treat a skull more beautifully as a symbol of universal nature in everyday life. Isn’t it good to have a beautiful skull? I don’t enjoy the feeling of discomfort or consider it cool when a kind of skull appears in a horror movie or on the cover of a heavy metal album causing an unpleasant feeling.

Sometimes I like such a mood just for fun, but it’s not what I want. Also, regarding your question if I consider myself to be a spiritual person, I think everyone has a spiritual feeling and feels that in their everyday life.

For example, when you win a lottery, or when you get a phone call from someone that you are just about to ring. It totally depends on how you feel it… Some people think it’s spiritual and some people think that they are just lucky. But I am sure there are some senses that you can feel but can’t explain well.

The subject of your work shares much in common with traditional tattoo art. Have you ever considered becoming a tattooist? Are you directly inspired by traditional Japanese tattoo art?

It’s a tough question. I was influenced by tattoos because I used to love traditional Japanese tattoos, Chicano style, primitive tribals and their history, so I’ve used it in my work before. I actually used to tattoo people sometimes over ten years ago, but I stopped a couple of years ago.

I don’t have good skills and my attitude towards tattoos became more clear. I don’t want to open any stores or become famous as tattoo artist.

Tattoos are a very personal thing and you’ve got to be responsible for the people you tattoo. It’s totally different from product design or fine art. You’ve got to work with one person responsibly and you’ve got to live a life that makes a person feel honored.

The thing I was most influenced by is not the design of Japanese tattoos, but the traditional spirituality. There are lots of tattoo studios, but all the tattoo artists that I admire are working consistently in a very quiet place, not at an open studio.

I would love to study and begin again ‘cause it’s very creative and I should be responsible for those people that I’ve tattooed before in my practice. So, if I ever begin again I wouldn’t want to tell anyone. This may sound annoying, but it’s not true that money solves problems.

The punk scene had a profound influence over your work. Why do you think music has such an immense power over the way we think and relate to the world? What makes music so powerful and seductive?

As I mentioned above about the spiritual thing… Music is quite spiritual as well. You feel so high when listening to a fast punk beat or heavy metal sound, and you are healed by top-forty cheap love songs that pop into your ears on the street.

We should leave it to the scholars to find out why this happens so we can all live everyday in a creative and positive way by devoting ourselves to music. People have been healed by the power of music since primitive times, so music will never die. Same thing with art. After all, we are all spiritual and primitive animals, I think.

Your art is so precise and delicate… Are you a perfectionist? Are you one of those artists who will destroy a whole piece if one line is out of place? Or are you more relaxed and willing to let your pen guide your hand?

Sometimes I am a perfectionist, sometimes instinctive. Yes, I will destroy a whole piece if one line is out of place, depending on the piece. But this doesn’t happen every time. It totally depends on the work or its purpose. I think it’s necessary to make a choice in everyday life… Whether to believe in your intuition or do everything perfectly.

As for my work, I need perfect details in order to make the comfortable intuitive lines stand out. After all, everything has two sides and it’s important to know both sides, I think. And it’s my philosophy of my art and life.

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LTRHDS interview – Bonsai – R.

February 18th, 2010

logo6-300x256123 Bonsai has been making art for as long as he can remember. Born and raised in southern Victoria, Bonsai moved to Melbourne in 2001.

He was drawn to the city by the rapidly growing graffiti scene. His work soon developed beyond restrictions of the traditional graffiti style into more organic forms. Within a short time, the form of graffiti itself gave way to a more abstract and composed painting style, consisting of murals, digital artwork and eventually fine art for an endless list of group exhibitions.

Bonsai’s work has continued to define its own language, uniquely expressing the artist affinity with nature, native cultures and geometry. Returning to nature, in order to focus on the development of his art, Bonsai is currently working from a self-sustainable, mud brick studio in country Victoria where he also now resides.

www.bonsaiorganics.com

There’s a wholesome, worldly wisdom to your work. You seem to be scratching for a more timeless and peaceful state of being, unburdened by the frivolous pressures and insecurities of the modern world. Do you have a firm philosophy that informs your work? What cultures have shaped this way of thinking?

I guess my work represents the way that I view the world… I look for individual stories in people, nature and landscapes. My aim is to capture the story and portray it in my work.

I just concentrate on enjoying my work, pushing boundaries and perfecting my craft, the rest just turns out the way it does.

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Asian motifs feature prominently in your work, but you lived in South America for a period? Tell us about this experience and how it has enriched your art.

The dedication to traditional textiles had a strong impact on my work.

Like the old ladies in the Peruvian mountains that spend twelve months weaving a poncho or a rug simply to keep their family warm and to pass on the tradition to their children… It reinforced that attention to detail really pays off in self-satisfaction.

I find that I’m constantly trying to introduce more traditional crafts like leather and woodwork into my work.

You’ve left Melbourne to start a new more sustainable life in a mud brick dwelling in the country. What prompted this radical change in lifestyle? In what ways has it been a liberating experience?

It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, move to the country, get off the grid, grow some vegetables and get away from all the distractions of the city and just concentrate on my work.

hummingbird3 I’ve learnt so much about nature and sustainable living that has helped me to put things in perspective, refine my work and at the same time expand it. Sometimes I spend up to ten days in the bush without seeing another soul.

By about the seventh or eighth day I start to get a bit of cabin fever but I enjoy it because it allows me to be ultra productive and develop some pretty deep thoughts.

Where do you think the world will be at the close of your lifetime? Will selfish indulgence bring us to the brink of ruin or do you sense there is a collective change emerging in our relationship to the planet and each other?

I’m not sure, I just know that I’m doing my part to make a little difference.

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LTRHDS interview – James Greenaway – Q.

February 17th, 2010

logo6-300x2561231 Half a lifetime of 16-Bit video games, anime, fantasy art and prog rock, these are the elements that sit on the surface of James Greenaways work, but so much more lies just underneath and it’s this that has developed Jagi’s cult following over the last decade.

James Greenaway first came to notice through the surreal promotional material he created for his underground breakbeat and jungle parties, in the successive years he has developed into one of Melbourne’s most sophisticated emerging artists.

For more information check www.jagiart.com

Jagi’s artwork is based on the letter Q.

Your intricate landscapes remind me a little of old platform computer games. What sort of influence has gaming had over your work?

An enormous influence I would say. I spent most of my childhood sitting in front of the television playing Sega consoles. When Sonic the Hedgehog arrived in the early nineties, I remember how hypnotized I was by the blurring intricate landscapes as I watched the demo in numerous shop windows run though the first few levels.

Later I would come to understand the true sophistication of the design of the early Sonic games and how influenced by art deco design they were.

Having said that, when I look through old drawings I made when I was under the age of ten, the majority of them are landscapes from fictional video games I would imagine.

My first friend at school had a Commodore Amiga and I believe it triggered something in my imagination at a very early age. Even to this day I have a profound adoration of all imagery that came from the early decades of video gaming, everything from inappropriate box designs to extremely low-res and low-colour pixel art.

.I’ll bet your Amiga friend had a copy of Shadow of the Beast.

Hmmm, I can’t remember… I do know that I soon got my own Amiga and I had a copy of Shadow of the Beast II, which was similar to the first installment, but had a darker, stronger atmosphere and more consistent graphics.

But yes, I’m familiar with the Shadow of the Beast series and their fantastic style and production values..

Incredible sound tracks too by David Whittaker and Tim Wright.

.The worlds you create are ruled by fantastic feudal warriors and overlords. Do you flesh out each character’s full personality and background story in your head? Is there a mythic Jagi master narrative that envelops your creative terrain?

Interesting question. I wouldn’t say I flesh out ‘each’ characters full personality, or even at all.

When I design a character I want him/her to remind me of classic archetypes from old school manga and video games, such as the unwilling young hero, the nomadic bad-ass lone wolf character, the wise old mentor who is always touching up girls, the evil villain’s right hand man who near the climax of the story realizes the error of his ways and turns on the evil master, the evil master, the adorable flying furry turtle who turns out to be the last survivor of an ancient race of omnipotent god breeders…

Yeah anyway..

So basically the ideas attached to any given character are loose but are profoundly awesome. I have come up with several ideas for story lines that could be good for films or video games, but that is usually a separate creative process to drawing and making art.

And yes there is a mythic Jagi master in this world. He is a shape-shifter and appears in different forms from picture to picture.

You can never be one hundred percent certain who he is, but generally he is depicted with some kind of godly power of creation over the landscape and creatures in the illustration.

.Jagi-Land seems like quite a hedonistic realm. Is it an escape from the uptight anxieties that govern life on the real world? Or are there darker currents running through your work?

Yes I’d say it is an escape. Not just from anxieties of the real world but also from boredom with it.

I often day dream while I’m out and about and wonder why things cant be more interesting then they are. I’ve lived a very sheltered life and felt very out of place throughout most of it, so these landscapes are just depictions of the way I wish people and places could really be.

I don’t think there’s anything too dark in my artwork.. Sex and violence sure, but those aren’t enough to truly disturb people anymore.

You strike me as the sort of guy who just drew endlessly as a kid…Your penmanship is remarkably fine and precise. Have you given much thought to exploring other mediums? Can you imagine your characters somehow leaping out beyond the gallery frame?

Hehehe thanks. Yeah I’ve given thought to some other mediums.. Would love to do sculptures and figurines one day, but my main priority at the moment is in developing video games.

Although it involves the same techniques that I usually use for art (digital illustration), I think it’s a medium for storytelling and entertainment that is more powerful than film, music, or art, for the reason that it can incorporate all of the above into an experience like no other.

At the moment I have a storm of game ideas thundering around inside my head and I’m working towards making those dreams a reality and starting my own video game studio.

With any luck I will have a playable demo of a video game on display at my next exhibition.

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LTRHDS interview – Sync – P.

February 16th, 2010

logo6-300x25612 Originating from Adelaide, Sync relocated to Melbourne in 2002 partaking in the raise of Melbourne as a globally recognized city for street art.

Syncs unique vision and style has since become synonymous with Australian street art throughout the world. As Sync patrols the boarders of infamy and fame with his prolific attack of the streets, his iconic characters The Spektapods, visions of life from deep space who inspire his work via inter-dimensional transmission, mostly inhabit the tight knit alleyways of Melbourne city but have been sighted in strong numbers as far as Tokyo and New York.

Sync’s artwork is based on the Letter P. Check Syncs website for more.

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How loose would you say your style is? All of those stringy lines look quite meticulously ordered…. Do you map out each piece like an architect or does it all just intuitively flow through you?

I’d say my style is loose like Brain Ticket. Its a never ending spiral
of confusion versus clarity. Being a Gemini offers me the pleasure of
being torn between two worlds, one being perfection, symmetry and parallel whilst the other is total chaos……quite possibly i am
insane and somehow manage to function within society without getting in too much strife.

Those “stringy” lines are meticulously ordered in a
sense but nothing is ever as it seems in this world. There is no doubt that it flows through me intuitively, i never sketch my work and allot of the time i work in felt tip pen straight to the paper or just line up my work on the wall in one hit.

I never made a conscious decision to start drawing like that, it just happened through constant experimutation and wanting to get work onto a page, canvass or wall as fast as possible. I dont have a huge amount of patients when it comes to producing artwork.

That mostly stems from doing graff and wanting my work up as fast as possible.

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Tell us about the Spektapods… Where do they come from and what do they represent? Are they here for a reason?

Well, where do i begin??? They could represent blood sucking corporate entities that literally suck the life out of anything and everything.

You be the judge, i cant give concrete answers. Thier origin doesnt necessarily have to be taken literally in the sense they came from outer space but more like the interstellar reaches of my brain. The brain is like a universe unto itself you know.

Early days of Spektography started with a simple tag and developed into a headless human and a head in a laboratory. Ill be honest though, sometimes things happen too fast for me to digest and i end up having to create a story to support the images.

Thats not difficult but the stories often merge and mutate over the years causing overlapping and contradictions and thats where the origin of the Spektapods can get a bit crazy.

I think its just better almost to make your own way through the maze and create your own story. After all, i dont even know where i came from , let alone where they came from.

You went to art school before taking to the streets. What is true ‘art’ to you? Does it denote a certain level of technical skill or competence, or is art a measure of the struggle that goes into creating a work or expressing an intangible idea?

Been doing graff since I was in primary school, that counts as art on the street to me, tagging is wicked fun, defiantly when I was at art school my views did mutate, that was when I started doing more character based work on and off the streets.

Do you think that Melbourne is still a vibrant arts city despite the implosion of the stencil scene and the recent crackdown on graffiti?

Melbourne will always be a vibrant city. The “implosion” of the stencil scene doesn’t mean the city loses anything. Melbs was a vibrant city even before the stencil explosion.

As for the crack down on graff, that won’t make any difference I think. It takes more than tough laws to keep a street artist down.

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LTRHDS interview – SASU – O.

February 15th, 2010

logo6-300x25612 The next in the line of LTRHD exhibitions interview is with Tokyo artist SASU whose bright floral explosions are a fixture amongst the busy street of Tokyo.

SASU is one half of HITOTZUKI (Sun and Moon) a creative duo consisting of herself and husband KAMI, who is also in the LTRHDS show.

From hidden pieces in ally ways to massive murals, several stories high, SASU’s prolific colonizations of Tokyo is marked by a seemingly endless array of projects and commissioned pieces.

Sasu joins LTRHDS with the Letter O. Check out Sasu’s blog. sasu.hitotzuki.com

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Tell us about how you found KAMI. Would you say that the creative process you share comes about naturally?

I think naturally… We used to draw on paper napkins while we would sit around drinking tea. Using markers gradually changed to paint, and paper napkins became walls.

Then afterwards, we started having exhibitions with the two of us. At first we were using the name KAMI+SASU but as time proceeded, we made the name HITOTZUKI (sun and moon).

r0021554 We both published in a free paper so we knew of each other. A friend of mine was taking KAMI to the airport when he was leaving for NY, and the friend asked me to tag along for the drive.

That’s when I actually met KAMI for the first time. I was also leaving for a trip in few days. When KAMI and I were talking we realized that I would be leaving on the day KAMI was coming back. So we kept in touch and met at the airport. Since then we just started hanging out.

In what ways would you say KAMI has influenced your artistic style? Is there anything special you have learnt from his methods?

His sense of direction is different from mine. I also feel that he is very manly, and I see myself through him.

We both use paint as a media when working on our work but the process, the way of painting, the colors that we choose and the time spent on each things is very different. In the beginning he taught me about the materials. I didn’t know there was canvas, nor acrylic paint.

The other thing that I admire is that he continues to seek his own original style. He told me that I should have faith in things that only I can do. I mean, my complex during my childhood was about being different from others so his advice helped me out a lot.

KAMI’s work is simple, smooth, and Zen pop? If were to describe the HITOTZUKI’s work in music, I would say that KAMI makes the beat and I add the melody.

What inspired you to create your art? Is it a reflection of your own internal vibrations or a mirror of the world around you?

I’m not really sure but I was always interested in the way people live and feel, in nature, in the unknown universe, the world, and our every existence.

Whether it is big or small, I try to express what I view and my sensations…. things that have moved me. I feel that there is a lot of sadness in life, and by expressing those feelings through art is the key to healing the wounds.

What I paint is how I am, how we are. Whether it is for the good or for bad, our art is everything that we are. We both hope to evolve, and the way we feel about things are similar. I don’t have to try hard, I can be myself, and perhaps that allows us to communicate deeper but then again I feel that we just simply click.

akasaka_08_ Japan seems like a very fertile culture in which to be graphic artist. Tell us about how living in Japan affects the mood of your art.

I think Japan is very peaceful and rich as a country. In the past, there was dark sadness such as the war, however I feel that people are striving not to make the same mistake, and in order to do so they have created this playful culture.

I’m not really sure about the meaning of Japanese pop art, but I used to like Sanrio characters which I think influenced me a lot. It wasn’t the anime or manga. When we had to sketch in art class, my drawing would always end up graphical. I just liked drawing that way from the start.

I never really thought I was going to start painting. When I became aware of street culture, I thought maybe this way I will be able to paint, that I didn’t have to do things in certain ways. Then, I felt just right. And now from that background, and from the places that I traveled, I take in the culture and the scenery, my emotions from every day into the artwork.

You strike me as a very positive and assured artist. Has it always been that way?

I think I am an optimistic person but at the same time, sometimes there is a side of me that’s not. Yet when I hit rock bottom for some reason I naturally go back to thinking positively and moving on.

I strive to stay earnest and simple, for there was a side to me that was chaotic at one point, I didn’t want that any more so this became my style. I started painting as a healing process for myself, but when my healing was fulfilled I felt that I wanted to share my art with others.

Now I want to concentrate on my artwork so that I can be satisfied. If this comes naturally then I am very lucky.

It’s a lifetime experience, also work done with KAMI, HITOTZUKI.

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LTRHDS Interview – Zid Zoom – N.

February 14th, 2010

The second interview in our LTRHDS interview series with Australian artist and Perth born low-brow art dirtbag, Kid Zoom.

Fresh from a recent trip to the states, where he was one of the youngest artists to contribute to the Nimbus Vapor group exhibition by Ron English, Zoom is joining LTRHDS to re-create the letter N.

www.kid-zoom.com

Your works twist and contort like a childish nightmare. From what memories or inner tensions do these monsters emerge?Or are they horrors from the ‘real’ outside adult world?

I like to destroy and reconstruct icons and imagery from, yes, sometimes my childhood, sometimes from the ‘outside adult word’, though i wouldn’t say Im consciously making a distinction when i work.

Your vintage Playboy series caught my eye, in which you painted your gnarled caricatures directly onto musty old Playboy covers. Tell us about the way that sexuality is interpreted by your decrepit style.

I’m interested in sex as an after effect of being used as a form of human weakness to make money. But to me I’m not sure if Playboy is still really a relevant image of sexuality in this day and age, In my work It’s more interesting as an icon.

I imagine you have a lot of fun creating such outrageously loose characters. What is it about drawing wrinkly decay that fascinates you?

It’s never really occurred to me to paint any other way.

When did you decide to turn your wild doodlings into an artistic career? Does it surprise you that people are so engaged by your art considering how visceral it is?

I’m constantly surprised when people buy my work. I don’t make the prettiest work, I cant imagine its easy art to live with.

It became a career by accident. I’ve always loved painting and I’d been painting on walls with mates since high school. After they all moved on I just kept going.

Zoom’s reinterpretation of the letter N will feature in the LTRHDS show launching this February in Melbourne. check www.ltrhds.com for more details.

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LTRHDS interview – Anthony Lister – M.

February 13th, 2010

logo6-300x2561231 Anthony Lister is joining the LTRHDS with the letter M.

Born in Mexico, raised in Brisbane, Lister now lives and works from his New York studio and was recently listed in the Australian Art Collectors Magazine 50 most collectible artists.

Lister work references street art, expressionism, pop art, comics, cartoon and mass media, he has often stated that he is not trying to make a statement with his work but to reflect the world around him.

Interview by David Haggar of Dickerson Gallery

www.anthonylister.com

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While it is somewhat easy to disregard the way the media affects our everyday lives, it is also very difficult to avoid it altogether. Your artwork continues to draw from cartoons and comics. How does television, the internet and film influence your creative process?

I remember visiting my grandparents as a child and they always had at least one radio and a television on really loud all of the time.

I’m not sure if that had an effect on me but i find myself feeling more comfortable with techno-static around.

In the same sort of peripheral acknowledgment of technology in order to feel comfortable i paint what is around me and a lot of extra influences just pop up along the way.

You paint at a fast pace, so much so that I think most would assume that you arrive at your subjects through an instinctual painting process. However, I have seen many of your sketch books that illustrate how often you draw. Are these books something you have on you all the time – at the ready should ideas come to mind?

Yes and no. more so when i was starting out. i still carry a book with me when i travel and when i am in the studio, but these days i like to draw on whatever is around, like a used envelope or a receipt.

And when preparing for an exhibition do you work from these sketches or smaller studies, marking up a canvas?

Yep just like that.

For years now you have focused on superheroes as the principal subject of your paintings. What drives you to use these iconic figures?

The superheroes allow me to explore ideas of godliness, corruption and pain in a way that is easiest understood for myself and my colleagues.

Many of these characters morph into each other. At times our childhood heroes appear like yesteryear’s wash-ups, ravaged by consumerism and throwaway pop culture. Are they acting out the way you believe modern day society behaves?

And ancient society. I use superman to represent god or a cop and Darth Vader to symbolize the devil or a cop. it is what it is. its always been like this i presume. history repeating itself in a new form. etc.

The use of the diptych has featured heavily in recent shows of yours. These works echo rorschach inkblot tests in their composition. What is it that lures you into this repetition of the figure?

I am interested in the act of problem solving. by painting two pictures in a mirrored composition, outside of it being down right tricky, it allows me to exercise my decision making and deal with my own aesthetic problems i lay out for myself.

Artists often comment on the how their work is shaped by their surroundings. How has the move from Brisbane to the Brooklyn impacted your practice?

Just the fact that i can order food until 5am alone makes a huge difference to my practice.

Several of your early works can still be found throughout the streets of Collingwood and Fitzroy. Aside from private and public commissions, do you get the opportunity to paint in the streets any more?

Yes.

There are many complexities to consider when trying to find the distinguishing line between art and design. A project like LTRHDS forces both artist and audience to cross that line. How have you responded to being given a ‘brief’, in so much as a single letter as the subject?

Its all a bit of fun really.

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LTRHDS interview – KAMI – K.

February 11th, 2010

logo6-300x2561231-1 Born in 1979 and raised amongst the traditional and natural landscapes of Kyoto. Kami was first introduced to street culture through skateboarding the mentality of which still heavily influences his artwork.

Kami’s artwork is massive, simple, elegant and along side that of his wife Sasu with whom he forms the creative duo HITOTZUKI (Sun and Moon), can be found all over the world in the form of murals and productions.

Kami’s unique approach to graffiti has influenced generations of artist in Tokyo, placing him at the center of the countries street art community.

KAMI’s blog

Tell us about how you and SASU came together. Did you find each other through art or was it more of a random meeting?

I met SASU in 1999 through a free paper. We both used to publish artwork in it and I knew of her. Then I coincidentally met her through a friend. We just naturally started to do artwork together, we both liked drawing.

During those time period we used to do a black book session. We would draw at home or outside and pass the black book to each other continuously. Even when we were together we just drew on notebooks and stickers, and that just elevated.

What inspires and amazes you about SASU’s art? How would you describe her style in a few words?

The thing that inspires me about her is that she shares similar thing yet at the same time has some things that are also completely different. I am learning to see things from different perspectives and how the opposite sex thinks.

For example we will work on the same things (a mural), but the time we spend on each parts and the process is different, and that difference is what interests me. SASU’s work is like a “shining explosion.”

There’s a real holistic feel to your work. What compels you to create your art? Do you feel it allows you to communicate with each other in a deeper, more meaningful way?

I travel a lot and what I see and what I feel influences me, such as the scenery of nature and different cultures in different places. We talk about the feelings such as breathing, decide on a direction to take it and then reflect it in the artwork. I also like trying to mix the background of my upbringing in Japan into my art work.

Would you say that your work is partly influenced by the bright and playful nature of Japanese pop art? What is it about Japanese culture that inspires such joyful imagery?

What I am inspired by is my daily life, the experience throughout the day, and things that I liked when I was a kid, such as manga, animation, the sensation of skateboarding, trips, music and the four season in Japan. Not much from Japanese pop art.

There’s an earnestly simple optimism to your work… Would you say you are optimistic person? What hopes for the future does your art express?

I always strive to be optimistic. Though, in reality, as humans, we experience both negative and positive things. However we try to create the positive energy, and I think it also gives us confidence to move forward too.

And that becomes the fun part about it. Of course there are times that I’m not optimistic, and when I’m like that I tend to detach from the negativity, not to stop and to move on forward.

As for the future, I would like to visit various countries and paint walls… it is

where it all began. I believe it’s the most important and exciting movement.

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LTRHDS interview – Mr. Jago – J.

February 10th, 2010

logo6-300x2561 Bristol Based Mr Jago, a pioneer of the doodle, founder member of Scrawl Collective and a veteran in the street art movement and much respected among his peers.

Growing up in a small town, Jagos interests in art and design with influences from classic Marvel comics, graffiti and hip-hop culture have help forge his unique freehand style and distinct colour palette.

Jago has worked with some of the biggest international brands such as Nike, Puma, Xbox, Yohji Yamamoto & Boxfresh to name a few.

Mr. Jago joins the LTRHDS exhibition with his reinterpretation of the letter J
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You’ve mentioned how your new works feature latent characters battling against the landscape that subsumes them. What does this struggle for definition represent? Is there a reason why your figures so overwhelmed and obscured by their surrounds?

The figures are meant to represent us and our doings. I imagine our cities, pipes and power lines sprawling into the landscape like a giant alien parasite in a science fiction movie.

A synthetic entity gorging itself and expanding, with no Godzilla to slap it and tell it to bugger off back to its own planet. The battle in my recent pieces is me playing with the conflict between man and nature… looming figures scour their way across the landscape like storm clouds leaving destruction & noxious gases in their path.

Your fantastic landscapes look like giant gassy nebula clouds… even though you have moved away from your anime-inspired art, tell us about the way that science fiction continues to inform your abstract style.

It seems that in the space of my short lifespan a lot of what was science fiction has already become science fact.

We are constantly bombarded with the evidence of our impact on the environment, so the worlds I imagine in my work could be our own. A common landscape in science fiction (old and new) is a planet sapped of all its resources, a toxic and hostile environment in which mankind is left to scratch out an existence.

The clouds in my paintings are the imagined fallout from the damage done but like oil and fossils the clouds could also be us.

You seem to be working a lot with triptychs lately – why this choice? Has the sprawling nature of your work been a gradual development or did you make a conscious choice to start painting on a larger scale?

The triptychs came about simply from me switching from canvas to paper. After several frustrating attempts at fitting my marks within the dimensions of a single sheet I chose to adopt the same attitude

I would when approaching a wall piece: simply by spreading out and adding more paper, I gave myself more space to work within, and this ended up leading to a slightly more panoramic look to my landscapes.

175 Working in a call center did you ever think you weren’t going to make it as an artist? How close did you come to throwing it all in, and what kept you going?

I think if anything it was the call centers that lead to me having a career. The longer I spent in them the more it became apparent that I would lose my soul (and my marbles) if I stayed in that line of work.

There was no time to talk to your fellow ‘slaves’ and not much fun to be had either, so the only tactic to stay sane was to draw. I worked with my friend Will Barras, and we would pass doodles back and forth to try and make each other laugh, often ending calls prematurely!

This went on for a while until Will made the leap and got out to pursue his career in illustration.

Before long I took Will’s lead and used my evenings to scan drawings onto my Mac at home and then colour them up; and after shopping them around to record labels and magazines with little success, my big break came when Ric Blackshaw saw some flyers I’d been doing for club nights in Bristol.

He included some of these designs in the first Scrawl book. Before long Ric was getting enquiries about my work from some pretty big clients. It was the confidence boost I needed to leave the ‘battery farm’ vowing never to return. When things are tight the memory of my time in the call centers helps to keep things in perspective.

Was Rolf Harris really one of your earliest artistic influences?

I grew up with Rolf’s happiness on the TV. It was his large scale speed paintings that I admired the most.

At school I was told I was good at art but like most children wasn’t very confident with someone looking over my shoulder as I worked. Rolf just got on with it. I loved the way he would bang on the colour not once appearing to worry that his painting could go wrong. He was the king!