KASINO INTERVIEW FOR AREA 2010

KASINO INTERVIEW FOR AREA 2010 FESTIVAL

This is a copy of an interview DMOTE held with KASINO which can also be found at www.area2010.com.

1. Tell me a little bit about your background, education, history in art?

Born in Sydney, 1970. I have lived all over Australia. I have been painting graffiti pieces for the last 16 years. I have a Masters degree in Visual Arts. I was a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellow in 1997 and have received a number of grants and awards over the years. My field of expertise is Street Arts (in particular Graffiti), and Black Music post 1968.

I currently own and run BUTTER BEATS RECORD STORE and a company called 183 which designs and distributes t-shirts as well as licensing and distributing Hip Hop documentaries. 183 was started in 1992 and has produced and distributed over 35 000 copies of BLITZKRIEG magazine world wide. I have also made 5 hip hop documentaries which I have sold distribution rights to in Europe and the United States.

2. Apart from the usual media stuff (ie: subway art, beat street) what are your first recollections of graffiti here in australia?

The first graffiti I saw on trains was some shaky one colour tags that I painted on the seats and insides of an old wooden Brisbane train on the Beenleigh line, It was 1984 and I was in grade 9 and I was on the way to school. Next major clear and motivating piece was a panel I saw in Sydney the 2 years later. I used to travel to Sydney occasionally to see my father who lived at Miranda, Sydney. I was a huge Adam Ant fan and I used to tag in Red Posca pen APACHE at Miranda station and on the Cronulla morning train on the way to surf. One day I saw a train heading into the city with a wicked panel that was almost st door to door with an incredible white cloud. There has been no going back since.

3. Writers in australia have always been influenced by New York style lettering this is pretty accurate of you ? true or false? why do you think australians have followed this path?

It is accurate that Australians including myself have embraced NYC style graffiti and lettering as a stylistic and conceptual export. We tried to emulate and 10 years later some of us tried to better our New York peers.There is no burning the old school. This emulation is seen in most forms of pop culture. After a period of time though, a regional voice is seen. There is New York style graffiti is found throughout the world and one reason is that early NYC writers tried so many stylistic ideas that not much else is left with the western letter frames. It would be arguably if any Australians writers break the usual boundaries set up within this general concept of NYC style graffiti.

To clarify what we mean by this general concept of NYC style graffiti is the illegal painting of an assumed identity on the side of NYC MTA subway cars. Later came wall writing and eventually aerosol art murals. Graffiti artists are unique in that they use their assumed name as the formal subject matter of all their work. Instead of painting flowers or Abstract Expressionists inner most feelings, one illegally paints the assumed name on the outside of a train. This is the formal basis of New York Style graffiti.

NYC style lettering can imply a variety of styles. Personally I usually think of the format perfected by writers like KEL, SHY, DONDI and eventually DERO. That format is best illustrated but for now just consider it graffiti lettering usually around 4 to 6 letters of even and medium thickness with interconnecting pieces, there will usually be 2 or 3 arrows that come of extensions to the letters. These extensions usually come from the mainframe or backbone of the letters. The arrows purpose is to attack the outside world, to create movement and a sense of power and movement. They also indicate the designers flow and intentions.

A good example of this influence is Malcolm McClarens DUCK ROCK record cover with lettering by DONDI. This record cover is the single most influential lettering style prior to the release of Henry Chalfant and Martha Coopers book SUBWAY ART. Donald DONDI Whites letter frames, bits, arrows and cuts are all still used today by 100,000s of graffiti artists world wide. The cover also presented some of the prime tenets of the Zulu Nation concepts as well, the funkified ghetto blaster carried in traditional fashion by the Masai women, Afro funk through technological filters. Keith Harrings drawings in the background only heightened the experience. Kids playing together with jump ropes. The numerous antenaes that cover the radio indicated that they were tuned to many stations. The horns on the sides indicated it was wild and primitive.

4. Politics seem to be prevalent in most societies and cultures have you got anything to say about politics of writing ?

I prefer large P Politics over the small p politics anytime. I hate the interpersonal squabbling that this and other scenes can be reduced to. It belittles everyone involved, the listeners, the repeaters and the protagonists. Most of the best writers just get on with it and leave the slurs and squabbling to the internet geeks. For me the issues that graffiti provoke within large P politics are issues of public space usage, public transport control, surveillance issues, issues of class and public/ private property issues. Why can the COCA COLA company have billboards everywhere but why can not I put posters where I want them. In Brisbane there are large billboards everywhere, but you get $400 fines for putting For Sale signs inside your own car or if you put out garage sale signs.

For the act of painting illegal graffiti, of going to New York to write with kids from the ghetto are all political acts. The main reason I went to Bosnia and Croatia was to paint graffiti. To bring the seeds of art and life back to these war torn cities. Graffiti to heal, to counter act all the racist, hateful graffiti that both sides used. All throughout these 2 countries we saw army stencils to indicate areas of ethic cleansing. This topic is endless as I can read most things politically.

5. Do you think that a writers work needs a message, do you think being such a public artform that writers should take more advantage of this and use graffiti as a vehicle to speak on social issues?

The act of creativity and the reclaiming of the space is a message in itself. So a clear narrative message such as GREED IS BAD is not required and rarely works. The act of defiance, of creative freedom is made concrete. The authorities surveillance weakness is highlighted. Personally though I like sometimes to give the public clear messages ie; my NO MAN MY MASTER train that clearly featured a cop and soldier at either end. A year after painting that freight car I worked at the Amberley Air Base and a Commanding Officer told me without knowing I did it that it was his favourite graffiti piece, go figure.

I have read allot on the subject of Marxist or politically charged arts, and I feel that graffiti is unique as it is a true revolutionary artform. Space and materials are appropriated defying and beating the capitalist system for a while. Normal advertising is subverted and the capitalised space appropriated. It is a temporary art for its own rebellious sake.

End of part 1.

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