New Thing # 32 – Do something illegal, legally

This weekend I spent a very pleasant day in the company of various young chaps with names such as SoulOne, Revert, Phorm, 3Dom, Vomit, Jive, Vodker, Daze, and Da Mental Vaporz. Apart from the obvious grammatical anomalies, these were actually monikers for a group of international graffiti artists who had made the trip over to North London for the International Meeting of Styles Festival, a “graf fest” held at Highbury Studios.

Quite apart from the internal turmoil of being a Tottenham Hotspur fan within spitting distance of the Emirates while they murdered Blackpool 6-0, I approached this new thing with a certain amount of trepidation. Graffiti, as I mentioned in my last post, is an odd past time that is shrouded in secrecy and driven underground by increasingly draconian vandalism laws. Whereas the eponymous Banksy is lauded for his work as celebrities flock to “buy” a piece of wall art, the rest of the movement is forced to practice their artform under the cover of darkness with their faces covered. Quite what the reason for the silly monikers is though I can’t quite work out.

This is why free festivals like the MOS where artists are free to tag and paint without fear of persecution are so important. Highbury Studios had given over the frontages of various unused studios to some of the most skilled painters in Europe and they repaid the favour in spades. As you can see below from some of the pictures from the day, the works were both intricate and compelling. Click on each for a bigger version:

And then, naturally, it was my turn. Jim, the organiser of the event, gracefully volunteered to teach me the basics of graffiting. This involved using an enormous bit of plywood as, essentially, a spray paint doodle pad. It is difficult to get across in words how tricky it is to draw a straight line in black spray paint without it dripping all over the place. It requires an a surprisingly steady hand and, amazingly, “follow through”. I spent a good 20 minutes practising small straight lines with big sweeping motions and just about got the hang of it whilst simultaneously covering my hands in seemingly indelible black paint.

Then it was onto circles. Again, the trick seemed to be to do a couple of feinting circles first before actually depressing the nozzle. After 5 minutes or so I was producing pretty good circles and I started to feel quite confident. Then, suddenly, it was time to have a proper go. I’d decided to have a go at the 52 New Things logo as it seemed fairly simple for my first time. I did have great visions of splashing a massive tag across a huge section of virgin wall but after seeing the results of my first go, Jim had obviously decided that such a prime piece of graffiti real estate would be wasted on me. So, to the chipboard I went. The results were……well, disappointing if I’m honest:

Getting down to it

My effort

The finished product. Note my excellent "tag" at the bottom

To find out more about graffiting and how you can experience it at your home, work or festival, have a word with the nice men at The End of the Line and tell them I sent you.