Post by sleepboy on Mar 23, 2009 22:07:01 GMT -8
An interview from myartspace
Brian Sherwin: D*Face, In the past you found yourself in a cell-- a work desk to be exact. My understanding is that at the time you doodled in order to express your individuality. In time the doodles became drawings on various materials. Eventually you created stickers, posters-- your art became something more than just a way to escape your day job. It turned into a message that defines you-- a voice.
Today your day job of old is just a memory. Can you reflect on those early years? What motivated you to take the leap, so to speak? What inspired you to cut your own path in life? Also, is it true that your mother spurred your first interest in street art?
D*Face: The origins of my work were purely self indulgent; a means of escape from the daily grind. Don't get me wrong I had a good job in a creative agency that I'd studied and worked hard to get, it just wasn't what I'd expected. It seems so often the case is that the journey to a place or a point in time is more enjoyable than the actual place when you reach it and I think that summarizes my path from what some would call 'education' to employment.
Those days were really naive and exciting, there was no preconceptions, no such thing as 'Street Art' there was just a few like minded people putting work up, this is outside of the more traditional graffiti, as there was always tags and throw ups going up.
It's was a pretty gradual process, first doodling away in any spare moment I had sat at my desk, then I thought if I replaced the paper (which I was throwing away most days) with adhesive vinyl I could make very basic hand drawn stickers to put up on my way home and on my travels across London, it became addictive and I was putting up more and more stickers and changing my routes to and from work, making all my journeys across London on foot, just to put more stickers up.
I was then spending every night drawing out stickers and I realised I had to figure out how to screen print... it was a very natural growth, built upon my own demand to put my work up, I wasn't even aware people were seeing these characters peering down at them from lamposts and walls, I didn't even care, I was putting them up for my own amusement, I was more interested in how long they lasted, how to make them last longer and how easy it seemed to link up routes across town.
I met up with fellow artist from around the world, The London Police, Shepard Fairey, Faile etc. and as I was spending every night in my loft printing stickers, painting posters, I'd go into work the next day and think what am I doing here, I could be so much more productive if I had the daytime hours and not just the graveyard shift, luckily I had a supportive girlfriend who encouraged me to quit my job to spend more time producing my own work.
Looking back on it now it all came about really naturally and in truth naively, I learnt as I went along, taught myself techniques and methods to produce my work, I've always had a DIY mentality which I get from my father, as a child growing up we didn't have much money so my dad encouraged us to make things and this mentality continued as I grew up and my interests developed into skateboarding and punk music, both of which were born from a DIY ethic, I'd build my own ramps, paint and shape my own skateboards and I guess that mentality has never really left me, I'm very much about being self sufficient.
My mum brought me the book 'Subway art' and that spurred my interest in graffiti, but that was way, way before any of my own activities and the term 'Street Art' was coined, so I'm not sure she could be held accountable for that really, I think skateboarding has more to do with it, but then again she did buy me my first skateboard!
BS: Tell us more about your thoughts on consumerism and popular culture-- and how your work offers, or at least explores, an alternative. For example, would you say that most people live in contradiction-- in the sense that they strive to be individuals while embracing every message that flashes on the TV screen?
D: The thing is life is full of contradictions, it keeps things interesting, certain people try to live out their lives through products and brands, it's excepted in our society that shopping is a 'hobby' and wearing brands depicts your of a certain 'stature' or 'class'. What I noticed recently with the down turn in the economy is that people are still going to the shops, it's as if their lives have become programmed to do that, no matter whether they have money or not.
I was at a shopping center recently and it was strange, people were walking round the shops but like zombies or vultures circling a giant rotting corpse looking for a 'bargain'. It was surreal, but at the same time really interesting, the backdrop of most shops 'Sale' or 'Closing down' signs covering the windows, made it feel like a film set or art installation.
I really don't want to come across like I'm preaching, because I wear Nike, I drink Coke, but if there's an alternative it should be considered.
My work has always been about a subversive intermission from the media saturated environment that surrounds us, I always saw the characters I was putting up as a break to to the advertising bombardment, it was also my escape from this world, I was surrounded by it, not just in the public domain, but at the time the marketing mumbo jumbo speak that I'd hear at work... it made me really cynical, I guess seeing and hearing it with my own eyes and ears made me want to spread the rot from the inside out.
You know, I've never said 'don't buy this brand or wear that label' what I've wanted to do is get people to consider an alternative or look at the brands that surround us with different eyes. The billboard liberation's I've created are my most direct way of instigating this.
Read the rest here.
Brian Sherwin: D*Face, In the past you found yourself in a cell-- a work desk to be exact. My understanding is that at the time you doodled in order to express your individuality. In time the doodles became drawings on various materials. Eventually you created stickers, posters-- your art became something more than just a way to escape your day job. It turned into a message that defines you-- a voice.
Today your day job of old is just a memory. Can you reflect on those early years? What motivated you to take the leap, so to speak? What inspired you to cut your own path in life? Also, is it true that your mother spurred your first interest in street art?
D*Face: The origins of my work were purely self indulgent; a means of escape from the daily grind. Don't get me wrong I had a good job in a creative agency that I'd studied and worked hard to get, it just wasn't what I'd expected. It seems so often the case is that the journey to a place or a point in time is more enjoyable than the actual place when you reach it and I think that summarizes my path from what some would call 'education' to employment.
Those days were really naive and exciting, there was no preconceptions, no such thing as 'Street Art' there was just a few like minded people putting work up, this is outside of the more traditional graffiti, as there was always tags and throw ups going up.
It's was a pretty gradual process, first doodling away in any spare moment I had sat at my desk, then I thought if I replaced the paper (which I was throwing away most days) with adhesive vinyl I could make very basic hand drawn stickers to put up on my way home and on my travels across London, it became addictive and I was putting up more and more stickers and changing my routes to and from work, making all my journeys across London on foot, just to put more stickers up.
I was then spending every night drawing out stickers and I realised I had to figure out how to screen print... it was a very natural growth, built upon my own demand to put my work up, I wasn't even aware people were seeing these characters peering down at them from lamposts and walls, I didn't even care, I was putting them up for my own amusement, I was more interested in how long they lasted, how to make them last longer and how easy it seemed to link up routes across town.
I met up with fellow artist from around the world, The London Police, Shepard Fairey, Faile etc. and as I was spending every night in my loft printing stickers, painting posters, I'd go into work the next day and think what am I doing here, I could be so much more productive if I had the daytime hours and not just the graveyard shift, luckily I had a supportive girlfriend who encouraged me to quit my job to spend more time producing my own work.
Looking back on it now it all came about really naturally and in truth naively, I learnt as I went along, taught myself techniques and methods to produce my work, I've always had a DIY mentality which I get from my father, as a child growing up we didn't have much money so my dad encouraged us to make things and this mentality continued as I grew up and my interests developed into skateboarding and punk music, both of which were born from a DIY ethic, I'd build my own ramps, paint and shape my own skateboards and I guess that mentality has never really left me, I'm very much about being self sufficient.
My mum brought me the book 'Subway art' and that spurred my interest in graffiti, but that was way, way before any of my own activities and the term 'Street Art' was coined, so I'm not sure she could be held accountable for that really, I think skateboarding has more to do with it, but then again she did buy me my first skateboard!
BS: Tell us more about your thoughts on consumerism and popular culture-- and how your work offers, or at least explores, an alternative. For example, would you say that most people live in contradiction-- in the sense that they strive to be individuals while embracing every message that flashes on the TV screen?
D: The thing is life is full of contradictions, it keeps things interesting, certain people try to live out their lives through products and brands, it's excepted in our society that shopping is a 'hobby' and wearing brands depicts your of a certain 'stature' or 'class'. What I noticed recently with the down turn in the economy is that people are still going to the shops, it's as if their lives have become programmed to do that, no matter whether they have money or not.
I was at a shopping center recently and it was strange, people were walking round the shops but like zombies or vultures circling a giant rotting corpse looking for a 'bargain'. It was surreal, but at the same time really interesting, the backdrop of most shops 'Sale' or 'Closing down' signs covering the windows, made it feel like a film set or art installation.
I really don't want to come across like I'm preaching, because I wear Nike, I drink Coke, but if there's an alternative it should be considered.
My work has always been about a subversive intermission from the media saturated environment that surrounds us, I always saw the characters I was putting up as a break to to the advertising bombardment, it was also my escape from this world, I was surrounded by it, not just in the public domain, but at the time the marketing mumbo jumbo speak that I'd hear at work... it made me really cynical, I guess seeing and hearing it with my own eyes and ears made me want to spread the rot from the inside out.
You know, I've never said 'don't buy this brand or wear that label' what I've wanted to do is get people to consider an alternative or look at the brands that surround us with different eyes. The billboard liberation's I've created are my most direct way of instigating this.
Read the rest here.
