Category: Interview

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Kaws for Interview Magazine

Been looking forward to this for the last week. Interview Magazine has posted an interview with KAWS, conducted by Tobey Maguire. While not exactly earth-shattering like Shepard Fairey’s comments in Interview Magazine about the AP case, it’s a good read.

There was one particularly interesting bit for KAWS collectors. This is going to get into a bit of art-world-collecting-and-commercialization-bullshit, so if you don’t like that sort of thing (and I know a lot of people don’t), I guess just skip the rest of this post. Maguire asks Kaws about his Kimpsons, Kurfs and Spongebob paintings. About the Kimpson series, KAWS says that he used The Simpsons’ characters because they are instantly recognizable around the world. Makes sense. Seems like some thought went into that. If you want to insert your brand into pop culture, take a brand that you and the rest of the world loves and identifies with and use that. But then about the Spongebob series of paintings, KAWS says:

I started doing SpongeBob paintings for Pharrell. Then I started doing smaller paintings, which got much more abstract. And SpongeBob was something I wanted to do because graphically I love the shapes. But honestly, when I’m painting SpongeBob, I’m not thinking, Oh, I loved this episode. Honestly, I’ve never even watched it.

My immediate reaction to that comment is that the Spongebob paintings are basically KAWS just phoning it in concept-wise. Does it mean that his Spongebob paintings are essentially just him doing things because people like them and nothing more? Maybe that means the Kimpson and Kurf paintings are the more “significant” works by KAWS.

On the other hand, maybe that’s just a natural progression for KAWS. I’d guess that most KAWS collectors haven’t seen many episodes of Spongebob, but they don’t have to. They’re familiar with the character. He’s that much of a pop-culture icon. In which case, maybe these Spongebob paintings are even more meaningful and significant that Kurfs, which are based on a show that KAWS and his collectors probably did grow up watching.

Anyways, that comment just threw me for a bit of a loop and I’m curious to hear what other have to think about it.

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Shepard Fairey says AP could “bankrupt” him

In an interview of Shepard Fairey by Iggy Pop for Interview Magazine, Fairey addressed his legal issues with the Associated Press. While it was good to hear exactly what Fairey’s argument is for fair use in this case and also his thoughts on copyright law in general (a topic I’m nearly as passionate about as art), the real bombshell is this quote from Fairey:

I think it’s fair use, but the Associated Press thinks it’s copyright infringement, and they’re really going after me. It would bankrupt me entirely if they won, so I’m hoping, for the sake of creative expression and political speech, that that doesn’t happen.

The best of luck to Fairey in his legal battle. The man has worked for two decades and could potentially see so much of what he has built up essentially thrown in the toilet all because American copyright laws are seriously screwed up.

For all those Shepard Fairey haters out there who are just hoping that he loses this case, think about the wider issues here. Here’s another quote from Fairey taken from the same interview:

The problem with copyright enforcement is that when the parameters aren’t incredibly well defined, it means big corporations, who have deeper pockets and better lawyers, can bully people. I don’t want to start making enemies in the corporate world, but there are plenty of cases. For example, there is a tradition of certain fairy tales being reinterpreted, and now, all of a sudden, a big corporation that has a mouse on its logo decides it’s going to copyright these fairy tales, which ends the cycle of these things being reinterpreted. What happens with these big entertainment companies is that they start to get a monopoly on the creation of culture. But I think that the more people participate in the creation of culture, the richer the culture becomes.

This case isn’t just about Fairey and OBEY. If he wins, it would be a real victory for artists and content creators in America. Though if he loses, maybe it will spur a change in the country’s copyright laws. After all, the National Portrait gallery has a HOPE painting as an official portrait of President Obama.

And just because it’s remotely relevant, here’s the song “Talkin All That Jazz” by Stetsasonic:

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All that Shepard Fairey news

Photo by Daniel Zana

Expect the next week or so to be filled with Shepard Fairey related news. He’s in New York for his upcoming May Day solo show at Deitch Projects. Here’s some of what’s happened already:

And I’d just like to note how much I love Shepard’s new flag image which appears to be one of the core images in May Day.

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Interviews with Jonathan LeVine and Justin Giarla

There have been two very interesting interviews with gallery owners to go online in the last week.

First, Juxtapoz post a three-part profile/interview with Jonathan LeVine (of Jonathan LeVine Gallery). Here’s part one, and links to parts two and three are at the bottom of each post in the series. Before reading these, I knew that LeVine had been in the art game for a while and had to taste, but the Juxtapoz profile explains exactly how that all came together, which is pretty interesting.

And on Wednesday, The Shooting Gallery blog posted a Q&A with gallery owner Justin Giarla. Okay, yeah, that’s going to be a bit of a puff piece, but so is just about every art or music-related interview ever. With three galleries now, Justin has his own little empire in San Fransisco, but somehow he still manages to sell great art and be cool guy.

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Banksy in Time Out

So Banksy is on the cover of Time Out London this week, which is pretty awesome of Time Out, and Banksy seems to be acknowledging that he has been embraced by the most gentrified segments of society, which is pretty honest of Banksy.

The real treat is inside the magazine though. Banksy has been interviewed by Ossian Ward, the editor of Time Out London’s art section. The full interview has been posted online, and here are some excerpts:

What’s this battle with Robbo and Drax all about, then?

‘I didn’t deliberately start a battle with Robbo – have you seen the size of him? In the ’90s him and Drax were infamous enough that we’d even heard about them in Bristol. The truth is I didn’t paint over a piece that said ìRobboî, I painted over a piece that said “nrkjfgrekuh”. But either way, I don’t buy into the idea a wall “belongs” to a certain writer, or anyone else for that matter.

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Can street art ever be shown in a gallery?

‘I don’t know if street art ever really works indoors. If you domesticate an animal, it goes from being wild and free to sterile, fat and sleepy. So maybe the art should stay outside. Then again, some old people get a lot of comfort from having a pet around the house.

‘It’s hard to capture the adrenaline of street painting when you’re in a nicely lit studio with the kettle on. Maybe the people who steal graffiti off walls are on to something – the edge is still there. But those people are funny – they ask me for a letter of authentication saying I painted a certain piece, but that’s basically a signed confession on headed notepaper.’

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What do you make of the financial value of your works? Do you mind people trading them like property or luxury goods?

‘My lawyer’s opinion is that the cops might not actually be able to charge me with criminal damage any more – because theoretically my graffiti actually increases the value of property rather than decreasing it. That’s his theory, but then my lawyer also believes wearing novelty cartoon ties is a good look.’

Read the rest on Time Out’s website…

Time Out have also contacted a number of street art bloggers (including Vandalog) for the locations of the best street art in London and Ian Cox has put together a selection of some of his favorite photos.

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Q&A with Augor

The Citrus Report recently posted a Q&A with California graffiti artist Augor. He’s a really interesting character.

TCR: You are an extremely active graffiti writer in Los Angeles. What is the atmosphere like down there these days? Who is getting up, who is making waves, in your opinion?

Los Angeles has always been the area where shit cracks. We do more, shine harder, and floss harder in every form of our lifestyle. It’s the city where stars are made so naturally being a graffiti writer in this town you adorn that same attitude of “making it.” MSK which is the crew that I represent has always had a choke-hold on the city and doesn’t seem like were going to be letting go anytime soon. If I had to name anyone besides us, I’d say my friend TANK, APEAR, and DR.SEX.

TCR: You are making a transition to gallery work, especially with the elaborate show at FIFTY24LA Gallery. The funny thing is, your work on the street was so elaborate and unique that it was hard not to consider it fine art. How is the approach different?

I’m approaching a larger audience. One that hasn’t seen me grow from a toy into whatever people consider is so great about me now. I’m not approaching the transition like “Okay, I have to bring my street shit into a gallery and try to fit my name on a square canvas.” I take it as a chance to re-create my vision in a new way that fits the space. I don’t want kids to think I’m changing up what I stood for. Some might not like the shift, but I think its good to play 2 fields at once. It’s kinda like a kid who has a loving family that trusts and adores him then he grows up and moves out. The outside world doesn’t know shit about you and its up to you to prove that all the positive shit your mom said about you was true.

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Read the rest of the interview at The Citrus Report…

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Robbo and Taki183 interviews

I Love Graffiti has posted two great interviews this week. The first is with graffiti legend Taki183 and the second is with Robbo (of fighting with Banksy fame).

With Taki183:

Taki, where did you grow up?

I grew up in Washington Heights, moved there when I was a little kid. A lot of Greeks at the time stayed with the Greeks, then that changed with the Heights, the183th street, hung out with everybody and it was a pretty nice place to grow up.

Is it safe to say Washington Heights was the birthplace of modern graffiti in New York City?

I would say the east side of Manhattan was the birthplace of graffiti because that’s where the media picked it up. They couldn’t give a crap what happened in Washington Heights or the Bronx. When it happened on the east side, that’s when it was in the paper.

When you started writing graffiti, what were you calling it? Did you call it tagging or writing?

I think we were calling it writing, but if we saw a subway car we would say, “Let’s go hit the car.” If you hit it from end to end, you’d “kill the car”— that was how we talked Part of the reason it became big during the summer of ’70 is because I was going to summer school at George Washington High School and my desk was full of graffiti. I had written my name and all these people would write on my table also. I already had a name and people were meeting me and they would go out and write. That was the big summer I was working as a messenger. I was in a lot of places and I just kept writing; as long as I had a marker I’d keep writing. It was addictive.

You were doing this solely for the purpose of writing your name?

Yeah, just to say I was there, basically.

Read the rest on I Love Graffiti…

And with Robbo (which was actually the English translation of an interview done for a Hungarian blog):

When did you start writing graffiti, and what did inspire you?

Robbo: Back in the late 70″s and early 80′ i was a young skinhead writing on wall’s before i new what graffiti was. About 1983 i had seen graff on tv. films ie; the worriers, at about that time i noticed a tag named KOSH and realized that he was a writer a well and thats where it all began.

How did you tell your parents, that you’d like to do this? What was their reaction?

Robbo: My mum was cool about it as graff was not the social problem that it is today. I never lived with my dad but when i see him he always said he new i was ok coz he See my name everywhere.

How did you feel, and what did you paint on your very first painting?

Robbo: My first piece was of (THE MASTER ROBBO) with a ghostbusters character. I felt very prod and excited.

What names and crews have you painted so far? When and how did your current crew founded, and what does it’s name stand for?

Robbo: ROBBO,ROB484,ROBSTER and ROBER. WRH (we rock hard.1986 till now)

WD (world domination. 1987 till now). PFB (only crew members are allowed to know what it stands for. 1989 till now ). My first crew was THE ART MASTERS (1984‐86).

Read the rest on I Love Graffiti…