Part 2 of the KASINO interview for the AREA 2010 FESTIVAL This is a copy of an interview DMOTE held with KASINO. The document can also be found at www.area2010.com. 6. Your crew is called ANARCHIST CREATIVE REVOLUTIONARIES would you describe yourself as a politically/socially aware person? Yes, I would. My crew is ANARCHIST CREATIVE RESISTANCE or REVOLUTIONARIES. A collective of like minded individuals trying to live with integrity and artistic creativity. I truly believe anarchist society should be the goal of an intelligent and fair society committed to progress. I am deeply committed against the economic terrorism committed by the large western powers and the general levels of force applied to all citizens. Most writers are socially aware but unfortunately unable to see alternatives other than lashing out. I feel most people are aware but prefer to avoid the issues behind drugs like television, alcohol and shopping. 7. You have travelled extensively and collaborated with some pretty famous people, any highlights? I love to travel, paint, meeting and working with creative and artistic people, so there have been so many highlights. I feel privileged to have met and painted with the following great and respected writers CRASH, DAZE, BLADE, BIO TAT, POEM, CES, ZEPHYR, REAS, WANE, WEN, DOC aka ARAB, COPE 2, KET, STAK TFP, CHAIN 3 aka TBAG, SENTO, BATES, DELTA, TWISTER, HEX, SKATE, and so many more. Trains are my fondest memories. My favourite panel ever being the train SEEN and VIC and I did in Westchester Yards in NYC in 1992. All my New York panels are highlights though, keeping the clean train movement going with guys like POEM, WANE, WEN, SENTO, SWET, SHARK, GHOST, KET.... WRITE AND UNITE!!! 8. Anyone you would like to work with? I would like to work with the dead, in the Highbrow Art world - KEITH HARRING or CAINE 1 for someone in the graffiti scene. 9. what levels of fame are you trying to reach? Is this important now that graffiti is no longer focused on the trains? I have also been lucky with opportunities to get my work seen by enormous audiences like MTV Europe which featured my work for months, thanks to a german boy band on high rotation. I have been interviewed on the Channel 4 news in NYC, New York Daily newspaper, my work was the backdrop for the Wu Tang 1997 tour in the states and Europe. I have painted at a number of festivals like LIVID where my audience has been 35 thousand party heads. My graffiti is clearly featured on a extremely popular skateboarding video game. I have got more audience then I expected already. I would rather talk in terms of integrity, audience and communication than fame. Fame is for me not a desire in itself. I do however appreciate the opportunity it presents. It can bring just as many problems as possibilities. I prefer to look at the benefits in terms of free travel, accommodation, painting, adventure, lifestyle and fun. I feel that I have communicated as much as I want within the graffiti network and I have been working on more wider and challenging audiences. The potential audience for the work is limitless. I have already become one of the best known Australian writers, one of the most respected in New York circles for my stylistic innovations and train bombing. Rather than trying to measure and amass fame, for me it has always been about the integrity of the work. When I owned BLITZKRIEG magazine I always limited the number of my own pieces in the magazine to 6 or 7. Other graffiti mags feature up to 50 flix of the publishers work. I would love to be one of those guys like Henry Darger who dies and they uncover 1000šs of paintings. The market place can be brutal. 10. What are your immediate plans for your art? Any goals you can share? Creatively I would like to play with billboards and large metal 3d letter styles in the future. I would ideally like to make some large sculptural letter styles. I would also like to continue my output of drawing up. I usually do atleast 2 hours a day and I have completed over 10 000 drawings over the last 14 years. 11. Tell us a little history about the hollow style. I am probably best known as the first writer in the world to ever paint a hollow style letter. To describe it imagine a letter that has had its inner removed. A doubling of the letter frame, one inside the other with the inner removed to empty out the letter. One letter frame is in positive space one in negative. I have painted over 120 of these style pieces around the world. Anyone that uses that formula is biting my style whether they realise it or not. Stylistic inventions in graffiti are few and I stake my claim very clearly. I have pioneered this stylistic device for the last 10 years first painting this style in 1993. Ten years later writers are jumping on this stylistic bandwagon. I am unusual in the graffiti scene because I am known for numerous different styles. Most writers work on perfecting one or two. I have painted so many pieces I need the extra stimulus of painting themes and a variety of styles. Some of these styles are known as the REMUS style, where the letters are hidden as characters for all the letters of the piece, I invented this style within graffiti when I started to go legal with my painting, I didnšt want anyone to know I was still painting my name. Other styles include the DALIREMUS, JESUS FURBALL, SCIENTIFIC SEETHRU HOLLOW, MULTISTYLIN, KISSTATIC FOLK and PIPEstyle where the letters are 3 dimensional pipes spelling out my name as well as the BUBBLIGRAPHY. I see style as a device not an end point. 12. Anything you would like to say in closing? Much love to Tash for all her love and support. Peace and respect to DMOTE (who happens to be my favorite aussie writer) and all participants organisers in this event. I feel a wicked selection of artists has been made and I look forward to seeing a lot of interesting work created. Check oneeightthree.com for more info on 183 and KASINO. WRITE AND UNITE. © ONE EIGHT THREE.