Your degree is in graphic design; traditionally, most people would associate this with print/web design. I have seen some prints you have made, but it seems that film dominates the work found in your portfolio. What initially sparked your interest in film and how long have you been actively creating films?

I almost failed my penultimate year at art school. I didn’t have a great love for creating typography or layout although I’ll always have an admiration for the work of others who do it well. I asked my tutors (Steve Rigley & Jo Petty) if I could go off on my own and try some video experimentation. Luckily, they welcomed the idea and I haven’t opened InDesign since. That was in 2008, the same year that I created the Radiohead video. I owe a lot of thanks to Steve & Jo at GSA for allowing me to take that risk.

What inspired you to create Big Ideas (don’t get any), and what exactly did the conceptual process entail?

It was never intended to be a Radiohead project. Dr. Roland Shregle from Ganjatron.net wrote a tutorial back in the dark ages of the Internet on how to replace a default sound file that’s inside every HP scanner. The original file is Fur Elise and was intended as an Easter egg for early technology enthusiasts. I couldn’t help but notice the excellent bass sound and so the next logical step was to find other instruments that would accompany my bassist. Look Around You probably inspired the final treatment.

I was watching a lot of old vintage YouTube videos that had ‘psychic mediums’ apparently demonstrating supernatural abilities. I wanted to create a video which shows that science and hard work can be just as impressive as fraudulent trickery. I had been sitting on the concept for two years, but couldn’t write any decent music. When In Rainbows was released, I found myself inspired again and decided that Nude worked perfectly.

Has Radiohead contacted you about it? What did they think?

Colin left a nice post on their blog. He called it “brilliant” which is very flattering. I’ve followed their music since my school days and value their work a lot. It was a surreal experience to find out that they had watched and liked it.

What camera did you film it on?

A really crap Sony consumer HD SR-8 camcorder. It’s all I had but it worked. A lot of time and effort was spent on perfecting the overall grade trying to make pixels look like film. I wanted the camera to be from the same era as all these forgotten objects with only the actual music being contemporary. A key theme is that they’re all crying out for attention, trying to prove themselves still worthy of existence in order to avoid the inevitable landfill. According to online feedback it made a few people quite emotional so it looks like the characterisation of inanimate objects was a success. Props to Paul Rand for advising to defamiliarise the ordinary.

Where did you find all of the hardware that was used, were you looking for specific models to create the right sounds?

One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure. The scanner was bought on eBay (as it had to be the particular model that Roland Shregle outlined) The ZX Spectrum was in the family, although I eventually used a different model for the audio (long grey one a +48k, also in the family.) It sounds much better but isn’t as visually recognisable as the small black Spectrum you see onscreen. A guy on an old mailing list actually noticed the difference in the beeps. Haha. If you feed the first minute of audio into your Spectrum at home, then your computer will play alongside my video. Thanks to Andrew Bruin for giving me the old Epson printer and my friend Daniel Glennie for lending me his oscilloscope. The problem I had with the Spectrums is that the viewer doesn’t have any visual feedback between the computer and the audio. So I wired it up to Daniel’s oscilloscope in order to get a visual representation of the audio. Thanks to Emma Keogh for the Granada Finlandia TV.

How long did the setup take?

I spent a full weekend alone in a studio filming it but had to throw all the footage away as I was plagued with sync issues. It was a very low-budget project so even transporting all the equipment to the studio was a huge problem. I took a few days off then tackled the studio again. This time I only needed a few hours and everything worked perfectly. You wouldn’t have seen the video if it hadn’t worked that day, as I graduated the same week. I had degree show stresses and honestly thought I was wasting my time making computers make noise. The online reception gave me a huge confidence in my work, and I’d like to thank everybody who offered their support. It really meant a lot to me.

Since college – it appears you’ve directed a number of music videos, was this your original goal or has it grown into an interest after you started school?

It was through necessity. The upside of the digital era we’re in is that a lot of skills are portable to different industries. I find it hard to tell people what I do for a living other than “make videos”. I’d like to call myself a director, although those projects are only recently becoming more frequent. Art school gave me an essential understanding of the importance of a solid concept. Everything else can be picked up.

Is there any specific influence for the aesthetic found in most of your films?

I found out early on that it’s effective to use nostalgia to stir up emotion. It’s the same gimmick that Hollywood is using to cash in on all of the re-makes of franchises we love from our childhood. A lot of my personal work reflects the past as I’ve often thought that we took a wrong turn somewhere in the late Eighties. I have tried to treat each commercial project as a unique piece of work and not get bogged down into a distinct aesthetic while keeping my inner-artist content with personal projects.

Your Frightened Rabbit music video feels quite a bit different than your others. Is there any specific reason for this?

There are two sides to the stuff I do. When I create work for myself, I’m in complete control and only finish when I want to show the world. The Frightened Rabbit video was a lot of fun and I really like the band. It was a commercial project to pay the bills.

What is the idea behind the flashlights in the crowd?

We only had £600 (including my fee) to make the entire video. To avoid spending money on lighting I asked all of the unpaid extras (Frightened Rabbit fans found on Twitter) to bring flashlights. I think it worked well considering the limitations of the shoot and helps strengthen the nautical/submerged/sinking theme. I’d love to do a decent-budget video for them as I think that they’re the most refreshing band to come out of Scotland in recent years. They deserve a huge international financial backing.

Do you have much time for personal projects? If so, are you currently working on anything?

I’m a very lucky person. The Scottish Art Council recently awarded me their 2010 film fund. I’ve been given a budget to create a new “major piece of motion graphics” and have been working on it almost exclusively since January. It’s a film about a magician who is in love with a video-game simulation of his dead wife. He has a moral struggle between self-delusion and being honest with reality. It’s based on some research I did while writing my dissertation, I’d secretly record Glasgow psychic mediums giving “readings” to members of their spiritualist congregation. It’s really exploitative stuff. My film won’t be as direct, as I’m using the metaphorical world of video games to tell my story. The Daily Mail [Fox News of the UK] didn’t understand my concept and wrote about the film here.

You directed and designed for The Navigators’ music video. Have you ever worked on a project like this before? What was it like to direct the video after designing the matchboxes?

I have never done project like this – this was in my charge from the very beginning till the end. The actual direction wasn’t hard, it was all about the finalized designs, good locations and capable editor (thank you, Petr from asfalt.tv, again.)

How did you get the idea for for the video? Why matchboxes?

I had the idea of matchbox video in my mind for quite a long time. I am a big fan of vintage and retro graphics, especially Eastern European [graphics] (Czechoslovakian, Polish, Hungarian). Matchboxes with its messages had a long tradition in communist Czechoslovakia, they were used mainly for communicating quite dull or weird messages, such as “Don’t stir vegetables while cooking;” “Tetanus kills;” [and] “Fertilize half of the fields this winter.”

How did you make them?

I was interested in designing each matchbox as if it worked on its own but together they’d build a consistent collection of lyrics. The very first idea was an old mad man showing his collection of matchboxes, as if he just has coincidentally found out that the words on them are very similar to the ones in the song.

Mr Fuksa designed a booklet for The Navigators’ record “My Place.” He created matchbox-style graphics for each track on the album.

How long did it take to design all of the matchboxes? What became of them?

The whole design of matchboxes took four days. I was working overnight and my wife was not very happy…I saved some of them form me and my friends, but the majority of them were handed out at the party for the very first run of the music video. They were handed out for free and became a huge hit! I designed the CD cover and the booklet in the same design style.

How do you know The Navigators?

This was my first encounter with the band. I was trying to find a band who sings in English and have a good song full of lyrics which would be suitable for this idea of mine. My friend got me a tip for the Navigators and we found out that we have similar sense of humour and we literally clicked.

What projects are you working on now?

I am working on a second music video for Navigators, writing some ideas for two more music videos for other bands and meanwhile I do freelance designs for companies from [the] US, Netherlands and Czech Republic.

Do you hope to continue with production work, or do you want to do more design work?

I would like to do half and half. I can’t currently decide what I’d like more, whether shooting or designing. I really like to put my twisted sense of humor into everything I do and I don’t mind if it is moving image or the still design.

He has recently received international attention from his stop-motion film of Iceland’s volcano Eyjafjallajökull which has received neary two million views on Vimeo. It was shot on the Canon 5D MarkII on a stage zero prototype MILapse motorized dolly track built specifically for stop-motion. This trip to Iceland was pure self-motivation, paid out of Sean’s own pocket.

You mention that you went to Iceland to out-do the mediocre pictures you were seeing in the news. Amongst the comments left for the film you say that this trip was of your own accord, payed out of your own pocket, and I can imagine it was quite expensive. How were you able to justify this trip?

I had just finished doing some well paying jobs and thought why not?! Its like a vacation.

How soon after the initial eruption happened was your trip planned?

It was planned 2 days before I left.

Were you afraid that the volcano might not be as active when you arrived? Were you expecting as much inclement weather as you came up against?

I was afraid and honestly was not expecting much but I had to try. The weather was worse than I expected but at least the volcano didn’t die on me.

How many locations did you try out?

Not sure, I think everywhere I shot was pretty much in the video. I got some shots elsewhere on the island to just fill my time but they were not relevant to this volcano video.

Did you have any problems operating the motorized dolly outside in the cold weather?

Weather wasn’t a problem. The flights over were the problem. All the flights that I was redirected on caused a part on it to break and I had to salvage what I could. Luckily I got it working a little bit.

The plane near the end of the film appears to be in the middle of nowhere. How did you come across this? How much time did you have to scout out locations before shooting commenced? Were there any particular locations that you weren’t able to make it to?

Many locations that didn’t work. I just shot as much as the little amount of clear weather allowed. The plane was first seen in a Sigur Ros music documentary. Ever since I saw that I wanted to check it out. Luckily for me there was a giant cloud of ash in the background.

You’ve shot films through a variety of mediums: film, DV and DSLR. But it looks like you’re primarily heading in the direction of the 5D. Why did you choose to shoot this on the 5D instead of other mediums?

I am not at all heading in the direction of the 5D. In fact I have only shot one piece on the 5D in the video mode. This piece is all comprised of stills shot in RAW that look far far better than the video. If I had my way I would shoot anamorphic 35mm film, or 70mm film in a wild dream.

How much grading did you apply to the film?

Took a while to process the files. Some images are HDR some are not. Color correction helped match the difference.

I can’t imagine how many flash cards you must have required to be shooting a time-lapse film in RAW. How many gigs did the final project take up? How much time was spent rendering the project?

About 4 days of rendering. Cards I probably filled up about 300 gigabytes. That is a small amount compared to other shoots, haha!

Is another trip to Iceland in the works? If so, how soon?

Not sure yet but I sure hope so. There are talks of June and August.

I recently wrote about the Australian production company, Blue Tongue Films, and decided to take a deeper look into two founders, Joel and Nash Edgerton. They have received 25 awards since they began in 1998, including a Short Film Award Honorable Mention at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Since 1992, they have directed, produced, acted, edited or wrote in over 90 films.

The Edgertons provided interesting insights into both their inspiration and background, especially if you are considering a career in the film industry and require some guidance.

Blue Tongue

I know you two were already involved in the film business, but this was acting and stunt doubling. What was it that inspired both of you to start directing and writing?

JOEL – It really came from a need to be noticed in our separate fields. The medium we wanted to work in was film, but the bi-product of creating showreels for ourselves (and that’s what our first film was) was that we fell in love with filmmaking.

NASH – Yeah basically we had so much fun making Loaded (which was intended to be an action scene for mine and Tony’s showreels and an acting scene for Joel and Kieran’s) and suddenly we realised that ultimately we wanted to tell stories and make films. But if I think back – going to the video store when our parents first got a Betamax player and hiring movies every chance we got is probably what really started it. We just didn’t think of it as something we could do as a career at the time.

How and why did Blue-Tongue begin, how did you get connected with Kieran Darcy-Smith and Tony Lynch?

JOEL – Blue-Tongue began as a name when we needed to formalize things for our group bank account to make our second film. Tony was a stunt mate of Nash’s and Kieran was a buddy of mine from drama school and wanted similar gains from the project as I did. We dragged Kieran in to write the script for our first little film.

NASH – And at the time we couldn’t really find anyone to help us make the films and so we ended up having to take on most of the roles behind and in front of camera ourselves – and we really we had no idea what we were doing so it was hard – but such a great learning experience whether we knew it at the time or not. And from that it grew.

If you had to pick a favorite… Which would it be out of all of the short films that have come from Blue-Tongue?

JOEL – I love Bloodlock for the reason that it was truly a joint collaboration, it was made at a time when we knew almost nothing and during that film we all grew up as filmmakers… As directors, actors and writers, not to mention producers.

NASH – Yeah Bloodlock was a pretty special time – it took nearly 2 years to make.

Nash is so ready to eat…

The Square

Blue-Tongue had only directed short films prior to the release of The Square, and there have been two more features released since then. Are you guys planning on narrowing the focus of your productions into more feature length films, or will short films always be the main aspect of Blue-Tongue?

JOEL – I have a feeling the form of the films will all depend on who wants to do what at any given time. The task of a full length is film is so consuming that I imagine we may always return to shorts when the ideas arise that suit.

NASH – Yeah I don’t think we are going to give up on shorts just cause we’ve been making features. Some ideas and stories are just meant to be short. David, Spencer and I were talking the other day about each trying to make another short this year. Oh and actually the first feature we were involved in was The Magician directed by Scott Ryan.

Sundance 2010

What were some of your favorite films from this year’s festival? How was it compared to other years?

JOEL – Not being biased but I was so taken with Animal Kingdom. I felt so proud to be involved in it. I also loved Hesher for similar reasons. My favourite film made by someone I didn’t know was Waiting For Superman.

NASH – This year was really special having a lot of the gang there. I felt the same about Animal Kingdom and Hesher. There is something truly inspiring about seeing your friends work on the big screen. They both premiered on the same day. That night Joel and I got back to where we were staying and started writing again. I also loved Boy, Waiting For Superman, Cyrus and the Banksy film Exit Through the Gift Shop.

I saw that you (Joel) were there to accept the award for David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom. Was this a frightening experience, or do you not mind being in front of crowds?

JOEL – I actually got very nervous accepting David’s award. I don’t mind crowds, but usually its easier when you are speaking someone else’s words. David didn’t provide me with a speech so I felt nervous that I wouldn’t represent him, the film or the excitement surrounding the event with the right sentiment.

Present & Future

Are either of you working on anything currently?

JOEL – Yes.

NASH – Haha.

I came across (and quoted in an article) this quote, “for too long short films have remained the forgotten art form; a consistently underrated medium that has never been given the exposure it demands.” What do you think of this quote and where do you see the future of short films?

JOEL – Short films are a necessary art for people moving into bigger films. A way of cutting your teeth on the medium in a smaller way. But the short film becomes a skill in itself… How to tell a compelling story in such a short space of time… to give a great sense of charater and place and atmosphere in such a short time.

NASH – The internet has really given a larger life and an audience to short films that they have never had just playing at film festivals. I think short films are really special and sometimes because of the freedom and lack of interference can potentially show you a filmmakers true voice more than a feature film can. And then I guess other times they can be complete shit. :)

The Inksie Staff would like to thank Blue Tongue Films as well as Joel & Nash Edgerton for their responses. If you missed our earlier post on Blue Tongue, note that Nash’s film The Square is slated for a US release of April 9th. Check your local theater for listings. Please have a look at some of their films as well as their blog for updates on upcoming productions.

Sorry I’m Late is a fantastic short animation by director Tomas Mankovsky. This was shot at the Amadeus Centre in London in December of 2007. The film was shot with a 1:1 ratio, successfully shattering my expectations of the limits of film and animation. Documentation on the creation of this piece can be found at the film’s website.

Mankovsky wanted to build the illusion of a moving ground. To achieve this he initially moved the camera with a set background. Then he decided this wouldn’t work.

Instead of moving the camera for each frame we thought we’d make a fake floor out of pillows and other random stuff we could find at home. If we moved the floor for each frame it would give the illusion as if someone was walking forward.

The set

Plenty of light was needed in order for it to work.

Tomas explaining how the shark attack will work. There was no guide for the animation so "everything was based on gut feel".

These films come from the Korean artist and animator Choi young-hoon under the moniker NXK. The still frame Vimeo had for RUN.RUN.RUN was enough to draw me in. It exhibits bold and detailed line drawings combined with a very quick frame rate. It’s reminiscent of old 2-dimensional adventure games in many ways including even the music. I can’t help but feel bad thinking of my dust-covered Sega Genesis when watching this.

Immense amounts of time must have been taken to direct this piece to its final form. It’s apparent that every element, down to the smallest detail, has been thoroughly planned out and executed. The characteristics of the wood in the forest area is fantastic, lines and shapes are passing by at lightning speed with unique forms and textures emanating from each tree.

Decalco X stomo utilizes a unique approach to stop motion and the use of paints. Encompassing all aspects of the medium: how the colors bleed into one another, the consistency of the substance, its reflective nature, the heightened texture it can shape on paper and more. There must be a story behind each of the sheets of paper, but it remains an unsolved mystery in my mind. By the end of this second animation the viewer begins to see this repeated character as NXK’s emerging trademark.

NXK is making a place for himself amongst animators and will hopefully continue to produce and collaborate with other artists. With his uncommon blend of styles there is a wealth of new material pleading to be manifested.

Blue Tongue Films, a highly-regarded Australian production company, has created a number of popular films over the past few years, and are one of the most well-known short film production companies in the world. Four notable directors founded this venture in 1996: Joel & Nash Edgerton, Kieran Darcy-Smith and Tony Lynch. They have expanded the list of directors to include Luke Doolan, Spencer Susser and David Michôd.

Blue Tongue had an interesting beginning. The Edgerton brothers were both involved in many big-name films before they started their own creative work. Joel acted in Star Wars: Episodes II and III, portraying Anakin Skywalker’s step-brother, Owen Lars. Nash Edgerton was Ewan McGregor’s stunt double throughout the Star Wars prequels.

Its great to see that they continue to stick to their roots. After making a major hit, many smaller studios stop making shorter films. Blue Tongue brings together large feature-length productions but continues to create fantastic shorts.

I find this exciting because short films are still a growing (but somewhat unrecognized) form of filmmaking. Many people associate short film with something they see on YouTube or so-called “student” film making. Film critic Suchandrika Chakrabarti expresses my exact opinion when she says, “for too long short films have remained the forgotten art form; a consistently underrated medium that has never been given the exposure it demands.”

They have produced a number of short films since their inception and have even gone on to create a couple feature-length films. One of them, The Square, is on a limited theatrical release around the States starting April 9th. David Michôd’s feature-length drama Animal Kingdom was awarded the World Cinema Jury Prize this last Saturday at Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Michôd has directed some of my favorite of their films. Here is a short film he made a couple of years ago, titled Netherland Dwarf:

15" × 19" posters printed by Nick Sherman to promote the documentary Typeface

Typeface, a new documentary film by Justine Nagan, tells the story of an extinct profession and reveals the world surrounding woodblock typography.

Wood type is shown through the lens of the Hamilton Type Museum, a once-famous type foundry. The film takes place in three different areas in the Northern United States: the Museum in Two Rivers, WI; Post Family artists’ collective in Chicago, IL, and; Purdue Univeristy in West Lafayette, IN. All play into Typeface’s story:

The museum’s … existence is critical to the worldwide design community who are passionate about the history of their craft and its function in the contemporary field. They believe the future of the industry may lie in the past.

Advertising of the late nineteenth century demanded larger, more decorative type. Type foundries cast less metal type for display because it wasn’t economical in large sizes. Manufacturing out of wood was cheaper and allowed for more intricate characters. Pantograph machines – mechanical copiers – allowed multiple characters to be produced quickly and efficiently. The Hamilton factory became extremely successful: by the late 1800s they were one of the leading manufacturers of wood type. They soon bought competing foundries from around the States, then raised their prices. The factory, as well as the town of Two Rivers, has a rich history that comes along with this era.

From the beginning, I was a bit skeptical of a new film on design and typography. There have been a slew of design-related documentary films released since Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica came out in 2007. The ones that stand out are the films made by filmmakers outside of the graphic design community. This film was directed by documentary filmmaker Justine Nagan and produced by both Maria Finitzo and Gordon Quinn, all are part of Kartemquin Films. The entire crew appears to be quite well-versed in film making.

The one thing I truly appreciate about this film: it concisely tells a story of an inanimate object in a captivating way. There is a history and future. So many different perspectives exist when approaching the subject, and I feel this is thoroughly executed throughout the film. Designers and typographers are interviewed. They are only end-users of wood type, so pantograph operators – the cutters and shapers – become an important part of the film.

It’s quite exhilarating to see these blocks of type being put to use after such a careful crafting process. The letterforms are beautiful. I can’t imagine how strange it would be to handle it after seeing so many examples of it on my computer screen year after year. To put my opinion into perspective: my wife and I are seriously considering travelling over 2,000 miles to Two Rivers just to visit this wonderful museum. If it inspires us to drive that far to play with wood blocks, I consider the film a great success.

The Journal would like to thank Ms. Nagan and Kartemquin Films for promptly providing a screener to this wonderful film. We wish you the best of luck for your premiere. If you, dear reader, live in Chicago, be sure to go see the screening. The premiere has sold out, but tickets are still available for the Jan 30th-Feb 4th showings.

Work in Guatamala City by street artist Above during a South American tour in 2007.

At The Journal we spend a lot of time discussing design. More specifically, we talk about user interfaces, graphic design and typography. To take a break from the norm, Inksie’s Dave gives us a tour of one of his inspirations, street art.

Before the computer, graphic design was necessarily tactile. The primary exports of the industry were things like books, posters and periodicals. Type was physical; images were on negatives; layouts were sketched.

Street art and graffiti get back to these sensuous roots. They are art for the everyday, the masses. They manipulate a reality beyond the digital. They are about seeing things in a different way, about an experience, a message. They are about expression.

What’s best part? Its free.

Perspective + Comparison

Street art is, in appearance, similar to the graphic design world in many ways. Graphic arts easily relate to crafts and prints. Even though stencils and spray paint are similar in form, street art and graffiti seem to not be valued in the same manner. Banksy’s work shows up on popular blogs every now and then, but its quite rare to see any other street artists receive recognition. Its a bit frustrating for me, as this was something that sparked my interest in art in the first place. So, I decided to collect a few of my favorite street artists’ work and explain what I find so special about them.

In this time spent studying and finding new things about these artists, I have found a difference between what is considered Street Art versus Graffiti. These artists want to be categorized in their respective fields as it is becoming almost competitive. While searching, I came across a blog that puts this into perspective.

From the position of Graff artists, there has been a lot of apprehension towards Street Art. In one sense it is disappointing to have this perception of dichotomy between ’Street Art’ and ‘Graffiti.’ However the differences between these styles and the tribal politics of Graff have rendered some level of competition inevitable. It is very important to recognize that these differences are major, and that behind them is a vast difference in ideas, aesthetic approaches, culture and history.

Defined: Graffiti is traditional spray painting or tagging while Street Art can be any form of art pasted on walls such as stencils, sticker posting, wheatpasting, street poster art, installations, etc. John Fekner put it plainly when he defines street art as “all art on the street that’s not graffiti.”

Above

"You may not get arrested painting illegally in broad daylight but you sure do get interrupted by curious people passing by," states street artist Above on his website.

I came across Above not too long ago, after reading about his mobile projects that he has ran across Europe, North America, and South America. He started graffiti at a young age. His Above logo, an arrow pointing up, is all over the streets of Paris and Californian cities, an evolution of his Sign Language Tour.

His process is quite involved. Each of these arrow mobiles requires 15 steps to complete. When asked how he makes these:

Good ol’ fashioned wood. I use a jigsaw and still have all 9 of my fingers. So everything seems to be going smooth. After the wooden arrow is cut some other elements such as gluing fabrics, and textiles on to the wood as well as screen printing words and design elements onto the fabrics complete the process.

He even hit up our hometown (Portland, Oregon) and did an interview with a local paper Willamette Weekly. They asked him if people seem to like his arrows. This project took years to create, and his only concern is if it evokes a legitimate human reaction or emotion.

I’m not sure if people like them as much as they seem to evoke a lot of curiosity and imagination as to how they got up there and what they mean. I like that aspect of the arrows: they’re vague. Each reaction holds its own true validity.

There are more and more films being created of these street artists doing their work. It’s always nice to read about them, but getting the chance to see it happen in real-time is a whole different experience. A New York based graphic artist collective recently teamed with Above to create this film of his South Central tour in 2007-2008, making their way from Rio De Janiero to Mexico City.

Banksy

Banksy has proven to be among the most influential artists throughout my ‘artistic’ experiences in life. His work was what initially piqued my interest in art. In  stenciled graffiti, he could ask the most profound of questions and make a bold statement with an ordinary graphic. I found it especially interesting that he kept himself hidden. This seems somewhat necessary in the line of work that he does, but to literally never reveal yourself to take credit for any of your work is quite a feat. This makes a big statement about him as an artist, since he disregards himself and puts his message first. To him its not about recognition. It completely changed my concept of what art was and what it could be.

Apparently, he is releasing a documentary about his work aptly titled Exit Through the Gift Shop. It had it’s first screening at Sundance yesterday. This will be the first-ever recording of him creating his work. I can’t wait for this to be released, it almost makes me want to fly down to Park City this week to see it.

Ellis Gallagher

Keith Haring was a large influence in the artistic community in many different ways. He was a very outside-the-box street artist with his many famous subway pieces in New York. Ellis Gallagher is one that has been influenced by his work and has taken it in his own new direction. He replicates shadows of found objects on the street, tracing them by the shadows they cast. It appears his process is much more involved than Haring’s. He takes so much into consideration with each piece: everything from the size of the object to the different colors of light.

It’s sad in many ways because his works wash away very quickly, usually not lasting any longer than a month. These are all chalk drawings; they become ruined after either foot traffic or rain. This makes the artwork feel much more limited and each piece more unique.

Os Gêmeos

Os Gêmeos, Portuguese for The Twins, is the name adopted by identical twins Otavio and Gustavo. They are among Brazil’s most influential graffiti artists. Birthing out of the South American hip-hop era, they happened to run into not-yet-famous American graffiti artist Twist. They fused styles from both cultures, creating a unique breed of graffiti. This style was usually in the form of uncommon illustrative portraits featuring yellow-skinned people that were “taken from the yellow tinge both of the twins have in their dreams.”

They were forced to create their work outside of popular locations such as subways, and instead created on surfaces of large buildings. This was one thing that drew me to their work: its all on such a large scale, as opposed to so many other graffiti artists who mostly work within their own physical reach from the ground.

Swoon

I was excited to include an artist with a style that seems almost unheard of, wheatpaste. I would love to come across a piece incorporating this style. Wheatpaste is an adhesive created from vegetable starch and water. A print is placed on top of the paste to adhere the artist’s image to a surface. Swoon has been heavily involved with craft-based art projects and uses salvaged materials. The subject matter in these prints varies quite a bit, from very beautiful intricate characters, to purely metaphorical imagery. They are quite striking, very detailed and appear to take a long amount of time. There were so many of these that I want to feature, and it was hard to even pick these five.

108

The Italian artist 108 evolved from graffiti into street art. After spending time reading articles and seeing peoples’ lives devoted to user interface design and information architecture, I thought it quite hilarious when I read 108’s self-described direction: “[the] …firm intention to make visual chaos.”

I must admit: he is quite successful, and I thoroughly enjoy it. 108 seems to love his persona, and the mysterious nature of his large scale works. It’s a very interesting and unique take on street art.

I hope you enjoyed my collection of street/graffiti artists as well as some insights into their work. Please share some of your own, I would love to see some new material.