Behind TheWall

In This Issue3. Introduction

5. Art or Crime?

7. City of Colours

11. Bench Art Supply Store

15.Lisk Bot

17. Provide Interview

21. Golden Boy

25. 100% Not vandalism

27. Hello My Name Is...?

29 .Socially Unseen stickers

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INTRODUCTION

sian wilkinson-aka animal

cracker

Rebecca Hall -Aka Big Noodle

eden Wint-aka mad skilz

Socially Unseen are proud to present our first issue of Behind the Wall! We want to celebrate and show off the best street art in Birmingham and give you the low down on all the amazing events, shops and other places that inspired us to make this magazine but also because we think you’d definitely love them too.

Graffiti and street art have become a major thing across Birmingham today, and is used widely to send off a message to the public. In this issue we feature interviews, our very own stickers, a look at street artists around Birmingham and some very insightful opinions. Take a peak and we hope we satisfy your love of graffiti even more!

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eden Wint-aka mad skilz

Selina van-aka ruthless 1

Joe smallman-gough-

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What actually is graffiti; graffiti includes everything from painting, writing, spraying, scribbling on a surface in a public place.

When asking people’s views and opinions on graffiti you receive mixed descriptions; some describe it as freedom of expression, some see it as an alternative art form and some believe it is simply an act of vandalism; doing nothing to enhance the look and feel of Birmingham.

Peter Vallone, a New York councillor believes graffiti done with permission can be art but if it is on someone else property it becomes a crime ‘I have a message for the graffiti vandals out there, your freedom of expression ends where my property begins.’

Graffiti can be viewed as vandalism because

clean- up of both private and public property is costly for tax payers, property owners and businesses.In recent times graffiti hasn’t been met with such a negative connotation attached to it. Its artistic merits can’t be denied, graffiti isn’t just for vandalism; it is a tool that can be used to bring to light social issues occurring whilst also bringing communities together. An example of this would be the street murals created in January 2009 by a Birmingham artist called Mohammed Ali named the ‘Gaza Collection’.

The ‘Gaza Collection’ in true graffiti fashion was created in a highly populated area to ensure that it would receive a generous amount of viewers daily, the artist

Graffiti art or crime Graffiti art or crime

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wanted to ensure that everyday people would be reminded of what is happening in Gaza. The murals contained slogans such as ‘Free Gaza’ and ‘Free Palestine’. The Gaza collection was received warmly by the community and passers-by. Whilst in the making one supporter would deliver refreshments to the graffiti crew.

Ali did indeed have permission from the owners of the walls before beginning work on the ‘Gaza Collection’. ‘Legal graffiti’ has become a common practice.

The City of colours festival that took place in Digbeth on the 6th September, included over 100 artist from all over the UK, coming to Birmingham and using buildings, walls and car parks

as canvas, transformed it into one of the UK’s largest outdoor street art galleries.

Graffiti is still widely seen as a form of vandalism, aside from the financial clean-up cost, when an area has extensive graffiti, people tend to view it as a “bad neighbourhood.” Nearby property value may decrease its linked with crime and residents see view it as an eyesore.

However graffiti is rising in status and in some instances can be classed as valuable works of art eg a collection of works by British graffiti artist Banksy sold for more than £400,000 at an auction in London and work by Russian street artist ‘Pavel 183’ have also sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds. *

Graffiti art or crime Graffiti art or crime

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Imagine a festival lining the streets of Birmingham that is purely a celebration for street art… If this is something that appeals to you then you don’t have to imagine because on the

6th September this year Karl ‘Jekyll’ Paragreen and his girlfriend started up an annual festival called City of Colours and the first one was a massive hit with the public!

A staggering 9000 people turned up to transform the streets into an outdoor gallery.

It included:• Live painting from over 100 artists• Live graffiti battles• 6 different music stages with some of Birmingham’s best DJ’s• Break dancers• Beat boxers• Workshops for graffiti, dance and music• And much much more!

The atmosphere was electric and is a definite event to go to if you didn’t make the last one. If you did miss out though don’t worry! There is a series of street art tours running every Saturday at the moment so you can head down to that if you are interested and you can even have a look at the pop-up shop which lies in the Custard Factory in Digbeth (its in the centre area so its hard to miss!). In December there is also going to be a mid-winter showcase, which is going to be a definite must-see for all you street art lovers.

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Describing the City of colours festival as ‘an incredible day’, the man in charge himself, Karl ‘Jekyll’ Paragreen, let us give him a cheeky interview.

So, do you do your own graffiti?

I do, yeah but for the last 11 months or so I haven’t really had a chance to get my own work out there, like obviously I’ve got my own graffiti and stuff and that’s what got me into creating the City of Colours with my girlfriend and then… yeah. I just haven’t got the time to do my own stuff, like organising a festival is taking up all my time, but yeah, I do.

I heard there is another festival coming up soon, is that true?

We’ve got one on the 6th December , like a mini-winter showcase and that’s in the Custard Factory as well, so that’s not long now. This weekend (is the breakthrough marquee, where we’ve got live graffiti by the poolside. We’ve got artists like JN, Mr Savage, Enzyme and Liskbot as well. (Unfortunately it was on Saturday 25th for anyone who was thinking of going). For the winter showcase there’s going to be a graffiti battle by the subway train so that will be cool as well. I’m just trying to keep the ball rolling, with the Pop Up shop as well, we didn’t want to flat out finish after the festival you know.

What kind of graffiti do you do yourself, and what inspires you to do it?

What inspires me to do it? All sorts of artists, even people like LiskBot inspired me, always seeing his robots all across London, around Birmingham, that inspired me to think “Wow! If I could get my design out there…” I didn’t know him at first, and would think to myself “Who does these robots?!” I built up this mad picture in my head of this crazy guy who drew these robots, and now that I’ve met him he’s wicked, a wicked guy. You know, that inspired me to do my own stuff, and yeah! Anything and everything, positive things really, just people inspire me, and they inspire everyone else.

How did the City of Colours begin?

We begun with streetartbirmingham.co.uk and pretty much just documented all the art work around Birmingham, giving local artists sort of a platform to promote their work online. So that basically gave them a little webpage on our site, which had a little bio about them, so you know people have seen their work around Birmingham. It’s kind of like a nice little hub for people to go to find out more about the artist. And then from that website we kind of went to a lot of festivals in London, Bristol, they had like street art festivals and jams going on and Birmingham didn’t have anything like that, so it was kind of a thought of “Why hasn’t Birmingham got anything like that?” so we came back and thought “You know, why don’t we put something on?” and then from that we went through around 20 different names before we came up with the City of Colours, and were then like “Yeah! That’s the one” and it has just taken 11 months of planning to get it going, getting it on its feet. It was an incredible day.

‘’ We went through around 20 different names before we came up with the City of Colours, and were then like ‘Yeah! That’s

the one!’ ‘’

‘’ There’s just so much more that can be told through art rather than some stupid billboard that’s telling me to go and buy a

mcdonalds‘’

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scan me!To watch the interview

it comes under the same tree. Whatever you call it, it’s still art. You will find people who do stencils, people who do graffiti letters, and they tend to not like people who do stencils, they seem to think it’s cheating. It’s a different art form in a way, but it’s still art and I love them all whether it’s something drawing with a pen on a wall or spraying a stencil.

Last but not least, what is your favourite piece of street art in Birmingham right now?

That’s so hard! I have had 130+ pieces put up over that weekend of September, and I think my favourite piece from that weekend is probably Odyssey and Vibes, which is a piece in the Arena, and it’s a kind of real surrealism piece, where they’ve ever spray painting spaghetti, a camera, lips, a mouth and it’s just really quite abstract and surreal. Then I could say like “Ah! That’s my favourite piece today!”, it kind of changes day to day, they’re all kind of my favourite, it’s really hard to just have one favourite piece.

Interviewd by Rebecca Hall, Sian Wilkinson, Eden Wint and Selina Van

Written by Rebecca Hall

Do you see the walls of Birmingham, or the walls of Digbeth in particular as a way of putting across a message to the public?

Yeah! Definitely, everywhere really is a way of getting a message across to people. In town, between cities, the messages getting across on billboards, stuff like that always just seems to be about products and brands, there’s just so much more that can be told through art rather than some stupid billboard that’s telling me to go and buy a McDonalds and stuff like that. So yeah, it’s a better way of getting a message across, just express yourself rather than these real corporate brands that just seem to have these really prime locations that are meant to draw you in.

Do you like all types of graffiti or is it mainly just street art? Do you see any as vandalism?

Graffiti or Street Art? It is the same thing, but there’s always a wall between them, graffiti artists don’t like street artists, and street artists don’t like graffiti artists. To be fair, we are all doing our own thing, everyone’s being creative and expressing ourselves, whether you call it graffiti or street art, I think that

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An interview with...

Hidden inside the Custard Factory, you’d find a selection of small, independent and quirky shops; one of them named The Bench. This is where you can buy your hearts content in equiptment to satisfy all of your graffiti needs. Owned by a very cool guy who likes to be called by the name ‘Slobodan’, we went in there to have a little chat about his own opinions on grafitti.

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“I think that graffiti is a very useful powerful creative avenue for anybody

not just artists in general but to anybody that wishes to express

themselves.”

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What is your favourite piece of art work around Birmingham?

That’s a tough one. I do like the iron man Anthony Gormley in Victoria square. My perception of art in general is, “do I like it yes or no.” Yes, I like it; I like the iron man. It looks nice. And I found out it was done in intention toward the Black Sabbath song, The Iron Man. But I do like the shitty little tags in random places like toilets.

Do you like the street art in Digbeth?

I like art. In all places, on the streets, in a persons mind on the page on the TV, in printed media. I like art of all sorts. If you have to accompany a piece of art with two of three paragraphs of babble to explain where its coming from and what it actu-ally means then it’s not art, and it’s not inspiring.

Have you done any graffiti in the past?

Does writing on a pencil case in school count? I used to ride BMX so I’ve used aerosol cans. Its good fun, it’s a nice feeling. But it can get very addictive as well. People do get addicted to the incorporation of the art form on levels which other people wouldn’t really intend to partake. Adrena-line can be quite addictive.

What is your general opinion of graffiti?

My general opinion of graffiti is, it’s a good thing. It’s a positive thing. I’m probably not the best per-son to ask because I see the positive in all things. Graffiti and street art is as positive and as creative and as good to me as a song and dance. It’s… I mean art is a very board spectrum but if you nar-rowed it down to simplistic and creativity, which

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it is, I know that there is negative connotations around it but there’s negative connotations to song and dance too. I think that it is a very useful pow-erful creative avenue for anybody not just artists in general but to anybody that wishes to express themselves.

Do you think it is a good way of getting a message across to the public?

I think it’s probably the best way of getting a mes-sage across if it’s in view to the public. Not just on walls, but through posters and billboards as well. There’s no better way.

Interviewed by Sian Wilkinson and Rebecca Hall.

scan me!To Check out The Bench site

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Ever looked at a random wall next to your bus stop and notice a black and white robot pointing a ray gun directly at you? Lisk Bot has been jumping from city to city pasting his wonderful creations around places such as London as well as Birminhgam. The artist has been around for over six years now, pasting his work on billboards, along walls, even his stickers posted along lamp posts and post boxes. His graffiti work is fun, innovative and interesting when it comes to the meaning behind the robots. When Lisk Bot was asked why they were so determined to take out the human race, he said “I don’t know, they don’t tell me nothing.”Lisk Bot is a Birmingham based

graffiti artist, one of the many who participated in the City of Colours fetsival. Lisk isn’t one of the fame and claim artists but more along the lines of an annonymous contributor to the Birmingham art scenes. He doesn’t want his identity to be known - like a lot of graffiti artists now-a-days. For Lisk, it’s about the underground nature. He’s not making art for main-stream but really for his fellow artists. With graffiti becoming more and more temporary, it doesn’t help the artists that paste their work upon the walls. The weather as well as the govern-ment are conflicting subjects. Lisk’s robot army is in a way comical, using phrases such as, I don’t want to live on this plan-

et anymore!”, “Robro’s before hoes,” and “We strike tonight!”. He’s one of the artists you could ask anyone around Birmingham about and they’d know exactly who and what you’re talking about. “Have you seen those ro-bots around Digbeth?” And the recognition would be instant.

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“i don’t care. i do it for myself, and for other artists

that i admire.”

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What is your opinion on graffiti?That’s a big question. I think it just a part of everyday city life. It’s like litter and buses and advertising it’s just something that is part of

living in a city

Do you like it?Yeah I am in favour of it. I like some of it I don’t like other stuff in the same way that I like some

advertising and I hate some advertising and I love some art work but I hate some art work because there’s so much of it and so many people creating it there’s a huge

breath of stuff so yeah

So what kind do and don’t you like?I would say it’s very subjective, piece by piece. Generally what most people would say is I hate tagging but I love big colourful pieces, I wouldn’t say that because some people have really really nice hand style with their tags. And some tags are just... even though its just paint on a wall it’s has really really nice calligraphy almost. Some of them are just shit 15 year olds who can’t write properly. So yeah I like some stuff don’t like other stuff. And there’s obviously there’s a big division between graffiti and street art like do you any graffiti/ street

artist personally.

Not personally Basically people who write graffiti hate street artists. And there’s a big division in the community. They call them names like art fags. And when I talk about street art I mean things like posters, stickers, wheat paste, things like people who nail sculptures to walls. All that kind of stuff is very different to just graffiti which is

strictly markers and cans.

Do you think it’s a good way to get your message across?I think it can be if it’s done carefully. But obviously cause it’s so ubiquitous and it

Provide is a store located in Digbeth (near the centre of birmingham) which is must go for anyone intersted to purchasing the newest and craetive magazines out.whether yoour in need of inspiration or just want to keep up to date then provide is the place. So we thought why not ask Matt, the store owner a few questions.

ProvideInterview

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is everywhere you have to do something really interesting that stands out otherwise it will just get ignored, like you could write the most world changing message on a wall but if it doesn’t stand out no one is

going to see it

Do you thinks it’s an improvement to the walls/ makes what would be plain walls more aesthetically pleasing?Depends what the wall was like before. I don’t think people should be writing on

nice buildings. There’s certain unwritten rules like you don’t paint on churches, hospitals, schools. Really you should leave listed buildings alone. But if it’s like a shitty abandoned warehouse or an old office block or something. Government property

is fair game as well and advertising.

Have you ever done graffiti? If so what?I couldn’t answer that question (laughs). If you’re attaching my name to the interview then no I haven’t. But if it’s anonymous

then I may have.

What is your favourite piece of street art in Birmingham/Digbeth and why?There’s so much. I’m trying to think. I will say imbue Dumbo poster paste up. And

then he’s pasted big things around digbeth one on Bradford Street.

Why do you like it? Because it very strong graphically. And

I’m really into graphic design.

How would you describe the kind of people who like to graffiti? (laughs) well again that where you need to draw the distinction between graffiti artist and street artists because graffiti artists

are a very special breed of their own.(chuckle). They are rude, obnoxious and they don’t give a fuck bout anybody. Whereas street artist tend to be a bit more kind of left wing, hippieish, middle class kind of. Well that’s not true a lot of graffiti artist are middle class as

well. But you know how I said graffiti artist really hate street artist, street artist don’t really have a

problem with anyone. They just kind of get on and do stuff.

Matt

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Golden Boy“Forget street art, graffiti art or

whatever you wanna call it Golden Boy is just the cute kid with the glasses, a

poster a sticker; a slap tag. Yea there’s inspiration behind him but nobody cares

about that, people just seem to like a bit of Golden Boy on their way to work.

He’s nowhere near as prolific as some of Brums greats but it’s better that way,

stay quiet and keep yourself to yourself. It’s just a bit of fun…..”

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“I hate that it’s like... loud”scan me!

At what point do we declare street art vandalism? No matter where you are in the world, you will be exposed to different types of creativity in street art, from gigantic wall murals that have taken weeks to finish, to backstreet name tags on the walls of Birmingham. Digbeth, the bane of the creative community in Birmingham, is the central hub for all artists and graffiti artists in particular. We saw many pieces that were clearly created through pure hardwork, blood and tears, aswell as those that looked like they only took around 5 minutes. But why exactly are some pieces more acceptable than others just because they look more colourful, more complete, more bigger? We decided to utilise “Hello my name is...” stickers, doodle on them and stick them all around Digbeth, does this make us, the Socially Unseen group, vandals? Does it make us vandals if we

decide to paste them ontop of another artist’s work? Yes, this is what we call vandalism. Vandalism; Action in-volving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. Had we stuck the stickers onto a blank and clear area, this is what we deem not vandalism. However today, despite a beautiful piece of art being pasted ontop of a wall, the general public believes that this is the vandalism of the uneducated, of the delinquents, of those that do not respect private and public property. This however, is not the message we were trying to portray at all, we didn’t attempt to portray vandals that had no respect for the society, but as a way of getting a small message of a group across. This was our aim of pasting our stickers across the walls of Digbeth. It was 100% definitely not vandalism.

100% not vandalism

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what’s on your mind?

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With a large roll of “Hello my name is...” stickers in hand, we garnered together the identities of Birmingham.

“Hey! So what’s on your mind?” “What has been troubling you lately?” “How are you feeling today?”These are the types of questions that we have targetted towards our focused audience. With those thoughts in mind, we asked for them to be scrawled, doodled and personalised onto the stickers, showcasing the handwriting and artistic talents of the target audience.

So, what’s on your mind?

Hello my name is...

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pastingthe walls

Final outcome

All across the walls of Digbeth are personalised stickers of the local artists, we decided that we wanted to get ourselves out there aswell and leave our own mark. All persons in our group decided to design 5 logo/symbols each, and from that we would pick out which were the best and those that we could adapt into our final outcome. Below you can see the initial designs that we all agreed on and the eventual decision.

“We should stick it on a car!”scan me!

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