Alone

November begins and with a new month a new interview. This time we will take a closer look at the work and life of the artist behind the Alone (www.sintevision.net) nick. Animator, Illustrator, Graffiti writer and also master of the light and scholar of the color and digital postproduction while also an admirer of street decadence. Two worlds that meet each other with him. Enjoy.

When, why and why you began to paint in the street?

First image I have about painting is from my first tag. I was sometime around 1989. Back then they didn’t use to clean them as much as they do today, and I used to see them everyday on my way to school. For me they were something natural in the metro environment, like the rails or the handbrake. At the beginning it didn’t feel like I was doing something special. Until later, when I met other writers, I was not conscious that what I was doing had a name of its own.

It’s obvious that in Madrid, at that time, there was already a huge Graffiti scene. Where you aware of that? What names do you remember seeing in the walls?

No, I wasn’t aware. Like I said before I was completely unaware of what the scene was about. It wouldn’t be until 91, when I met Spok, that I would get, let’s say it this way, into the Graffiti dynamics (racking paint, spending more time in the tunnels than in the street…) Only from then was I conscious of the existence of a scene… of its magnitude! It was a big revelation, and immediately I was part of that little group of kids that converted the metro in his personal playground

I can imagine that… This is when you realized what kind of world you have gotten into!

Yeah, kind of. It was great because for the first time I was part of something. I had a quite nomadic life, my family was always moving from one place to the other and because I changed schools often, I never had a group of lifelong friends. All of a sudden I started to hang out with a fixed group of friends, strange people with whom I did weird things and that was cool. Learning to do Graffiti it was crazy indeed…

Who were the people you hanged out with at that time? Was this the moment your crew TBC was founded? Is that the only crew you ever belonged to?

That was the time I started hanging out with Spok, who has been my partner ever since. I also remember Tala, Sor and Cek of the FXC, who were bombing a lot at that time. Also Rhed, a writer that I met later on and that was a big influence because he didn’t worry only about painting but also about being informed. He was really focused on what he was doing. My crew began to form during that time, but suffered a lot of transformations. Our best moment was from 1997 to 2000. At that time we were Buni, Sha, Know, Spok and I. Later Colbie would join us, but the originals were always Spok and myself.

What you mentioned about information is important. That was something that then was much more different than now. What was your main source of information?

Basically the usual ones: Traveling, fanzines, people that came from abroad… You could subscribe to the fanzines, which was basically keeping in touch by mail with the editor. That was the best way to stay informed… We also exchanged pictures by mail, there was always somebody who collected pictures and we had meetings to check out the new pics they got.

The pictures thing is quite peculiar. There was always somebody who collected pictures in every city, even if this person wasn’t an active writer.

Yeah, but those were the less. The truth is that at that time, information wasn’t something accessible to everybody.

But that was the good thing, wasn’t it?

For me was great. Even if I was a little inexperienced, I knew what I wanted and what to do to get there, to evolve.

And what was that that you had to do?

Basically don’t stop drawing: at home, at school, with friends… We spent entire evenings like mad men, filing up blackbooks, sketching, doodling on handkerchiefs…

What you did back in the day was more bombing and trains, right?

No, not really. I love trains but besides two or three times it was always somebody else who took me painting, people from my crew. I was always more interested in the development of the letters, color combinations and the connections between them. I think the most important thing is the tag, is the base for the development of the rest of your stuff. Anyway, I always thought that you have to touch all fields to be really good.

I know there is people who think that the trains you painted (and the ones painted by TBC in general) were, at a certain time in Madrid, a revolution in style. What do you think about this?

I don’t think it was a revolution; we simply wanted to do panels with style, that’s all.

Coming back to what we talked about influences, now there is a big come back to the classic aesthetics of New York graffiti, and is have to say that this is something that you reflected in your pieces from long time ago, even when people didn’t share your vision and criticized you for that. Has that style been important for you?

There is something about Graffiti that I learned with time and that is innocence, the one a kid has one when he paints his first pieces and he is not influenced by what others might say about him or when he is not a slave of a certain style. This is something you can breath in 70´s Graff, something totally new, is the time I enjoy the most, the pioneers. Graffiti is for fun right? So I’ll do what I enjoy the most, and always knowing were than shapes and those arrows come from. I do everything with a lot of respect for the people that came before.

Who are your favorite writers of all times?

Ufff, Lots of them, I think I have a favorite writer in every city. But starting from the beginning:King Blade, Comet, Dondi, LSD 3, Slave, Butch 2, Kase2, Phase 2, Sento, Cavster, Pure, Ghost, Reas, Noah, Ven, Jaone, Delta, Rhed, Kami, Flood, Koas, Hask, Inupie, Twister… we could be like this all night.

We were talking about the respect for the origins of Graffiti, but you should agree with me in that staying visible in the streets implies an evolution, necessary for getting noticed among so many things around you. You, together with Colbie, were the first people I remember pasting posters and putting stickers in Madrid. Also the first ones in bringing back the classic New York tag with silver marker in a time when people were more interested in doing your multicolored sunday walls. What can you tell me about this?

Well, this was around the year 2000. At that time, Madrid scene was relegated to outskirts walls were people met to do big productions, and the city center, that is usually a hot spot in any city, it was really dry. I didn’t like that at all. My people and me have always been a downtown crew, and I had the feeling that the scene was stuck. This feeling, together with meeting BNE by chance, one of the most serious bombers at an international level, was what precipitated that change. Bringing back the Graffiti essence of getting up by any means necessary. Is obvious that stickers work great, the same as posters. Silver tags are really important because is were you can see the hand style of a writer, and is an easy way of working the street. Is great synthesis of Graffiti.

Can you talk a little bit of what you do nowadays on a creative level?

I work in cinema and advertising, as an animator, designer, art director or whatever needs to be done. Always related to the field of the most classic postproduction, the cinema one, which is the field were I worked the longest. Now I am working a little more for television. Is a smaller format that let’s you more creative freedom. In Spain we still have to pass the important exam of introducing design in television, something Saul Bass did in cinema in the 70s. This is what people are calling now Motion graphics, something will be omnipresent for the next decade.

Do you think that being involved in Graffiti in such an intense way is an influence on what you do nowadays? Do you think you would be doing what you do now if it wasn’t for that first tag you did in 89?

Graffiti changed my life, not so much for that sense of belonging to a scene, but more about the way I assimilate information. I always loved to know the name of this or that writer I liked, their crews, where are they from, what paint they use… studying Graffiti: knowing the name of the crews and their cities they are from, what type of trains are in this cities, the styles… Now take this method of learning and apply it to anything, it works. This is the most important thing, apart from being influenced, style wise, by Graffiti of the 70s and 80s or being fetishist about it. For example, now I see a “High Times” (first Graffiti zine made by Phase2), which on a technical level is quite poor, imagine, photocopies and black and white, but I think is incredible and brilliant.

How did you decided to study animation?

It was a curious decision. I have always drawn, I even went to a classic academy (anatomy drawings, charcoal, pastels) but I was a bad student. My father gave me the opportunity to study something I really liked. I found traditional fine arts boring (I was 17) so getting into cartoons seemed fun. I did that for 3 years, and I think that clearly affected my Graffiti and vice versa. My pieces started to be more cartoon and to simplify its shapes.

Can you tell me some influences outside the world of Graffiti?

Everything! After animation I studied graphic design, and I also was raised up in a really creative and artistic environment, so when I discovered classic designers like Saul Bass, Herbert Lubalin, Milton Glaser… caused a deep impression on me. I love the graphic design from the 60s and 70s, Victorian English typography or early 20th century posters. I also got a big collection of 70s and 80s underground comics, American and European that affected me in a big way. Of course animation from the 30s and 40s of the U.P.A. and from the contemporary U.P.A..

The decision of keeping your activity as a Graffiti writer apart from your professional work, has it been a conscious one?

Of course, for me from the beginning Graffiti has been just a way to have fun, a game, and a way to develop a graphic style… I don’t like to sell that part of what I do. I’m sure it has influenced my professional work but I don’t like saying, “I’m a Graffiti writer” to get a job. Some people that are not really writers use that because it looks good nowadays in the advertisement industry. And at some point in your life of course you have to work, right? And if it can be doing something you like, so much better but I like to keep some things apart from your work… I don’t know, it’s a tricky and very personal subject and the only important thing is trying to be happy.

Do you consider yourself an active writer?

Well, I do my stuff every once in a while but I’m never been that active. At least not anymore like an 18 years old kid can be, all full of energy. The problem is this: What happens when that energy is gone? Do you quit painting? And the eternal doubt: Quantity or quality? Well, I guess that the best is good quantities of quality stuff but that’s difficult. Now I believe in the idea that it’s better to paint during a longer period because it gives you a different view on things. I’ve seen many writers come and go very quickly, people that paint like crazy during a couple of years and then quit for good. After some time, nobody is going to remember then except maybe when you are drunk with other writers and somebody says “Hey, do you remember that guy? He used to bomb hard for a while, right?” I believe that it’s better to keep it going for a longer time although maybe you don’t bomb so hard.

Sintevision intro

How do you see the current evolution of the Graffiti world and the Street art phenomenon?

I think that’s good. Evolution is necessary, otherwise we die. I hate the kind of conservative and fundamentalist approach to Graffiti. For me Street art is just a label because there has been similar stuff to that from the 80’s. You are going to respect Keith Haring because it’s from NY 20 years ago and not the people doing similar stuff now? Like a zine I know says “The street is for free”

Working in advertising I guess that you will have an opinion on the use of Graffiti as a cool way to reach a younger audience.

Acceptance and inclusion of Graffiti in the mass media is something you cannot avoid anymore, it’s what I call bastardization. Let’s suppose that some cultural movement is born authentic but as soon as it’s seen as something interesting for a group of people it’s engulfed by the media to reach that people. You extract its essence and use only the aesthetics that can attract that people. In the case of Graffiti (more of a social than a cultural movement in my opinion) this has been happening for a long time now. Just take a look at Malcom Mclaren in the “Beat this” documentary surrounded by a bunch of b-boys in a scene where they are painting at Macys in NY. And it’s 1986! Because of that I think it’s important to remember and understand that culture as it was and it’s supposed to be and that’s done by the information. In the case of Graffiti, not that many people now that much about it.

Alone collaboration on “Mind Powers”

Something interesting that you would like to recommend to the Subaquatica.com visitors?

Yes, buy from Subaquatica! hahaha… No, seriously, this is going to ruin the whole interview but please buy products with a responsible attitude and don’t believe the different hypes and tendencies that are offered to us. Try to learn about the things that you buy beyond the social labels attached to them. Try to live the different artistic movements of your time before they are bastardized by the consumer society. And it would be good if people could develop their own opinions on things, which seems obvious but it’s in fact very difficult nowadays

What are your plans for the near future?

Who knows? Try working less and draw more, go back to paper as a medium. Let’s see if that’s possible. I might also go to the US to spend some time there and see how things move around.

Any project that you would like to do but never been asked to?

A good book about the history of Graffiti in Madrid, from a personal point of view and based mainly on the writers that made a contribution to this history. It’s never been done. Also, the same thing but as a documentary.

Interview by: Zirus the virus.

November 6th, 2006 05:23pm Administrador