Graffiti Artist CHES from Russia just released his latest Bodyart Project HOT SPRAY. There is a video, photos and Q&A´s with the artist to check after the jump!
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How would you describe your latest production?
I have always liked expirements and I’ve never limited myself by painting only on a vertical wall . Several years ago, I saw on the internet like the guys were drawing on a stretched film between the pillars. This idea seemed to me very interesting and I decided to try to do something similar. Instead of the street , as platform for creativity, I chose the forest landscape. I thought that the combination of urban graffiti and picturesque nature would look interesting on the photos. Сellophane graffiti or cellograffiti in the woods can be more attributed to the genre of photography than graffiti, cause it is the only part of the overall concept and it has no future life without beautifully done frame. Only if proteins and rabbits will become admirers of contemporary art . Several years I’ve experimented for all the seasons and in every one I’ve found it’s advantages. In the future I don’t want to stay only on the drawing nature and fonts , so I will find another ways of development in this new art form called cellograffiti.
Hundreds of artists out there make pieces every day.
How do you think could be your style defined?
Every day the number of street artists grows in geometric progression, many of them unwittingly begin to copy the elements that they have seen anywhere and anytime. I was starting to draw when there was no internet and to see pictures of other graffiti artists was really difficult. But in this case the process of development is very slow. Internet and mass media give us a continuous flow of different information and pictures. When I started to paint, it required 3 or even 5 years to draw something worthwhile, but now the young artist can successfully develop in one year. I’m not trying to be like someone, but you can always find the similarity of styles between different people, the earth is round. I know that people get to know my style and I notice how young artists sometimes borrow something from me. This process is completely normal and it should not bother if the style in which you draw is similar to someone else, you just think creatively in the same way. Maybe some years later you’ll move in different directions and it will depend on many vital factors. Certainly you can’t stupid copy other people’s work without using a single gram of your own energy and creativity. And those people who come up with something new (or rediscover and develop something which they have forgotten long ago) typically reach great heights on the creative Olympus.
What are your main influences – art and otherwise?
Our life and everything that fills it is the most extraordinary and wonderful that we have and it affects me. People who don’t stand still and give us the opportunity to admire to their works, inspire me. They show us that it is possible to do stunningly beautiful and interesting things.
A lot of artists want to be published on art blogs. It seems that in these days a painted wall does not exists without re-blogging. What’s your Pov?
Publication of own creativity on popular blogs gives you the opportunity to show your works to much more people. I feel perfectly normal to be interested in publication on the large graffiti and street art resource, but in this situation the most important thing is not to make it the initial goal.
Someone said: “a wall is a very big weapon”. Do you find the same nowadays, while we’re surrounded by millions of billboards? I mean, don’t you find even thinner the line between art and ads?
And what is graffiti in the massive manifestation? Is it something like illegal advertising of yourself, your name or your team? The purpose of advertising is to attract to object by any means. It’s increasingly difficult to surprise people by standard projects. Nowadays advertising is becoming more and more interesting, sometimes it’s borrowing elements of street art, public art, and so on. Commercial object is transformed into an art object and this fine line between advertising and art turns into smoke, which is difficult to see but you know that it is.
What role do you find galleries can play in helping an artist to emerge from the streets?
Communication between galleries and street art , as well as their mutual influence on each other, is a very complex and long-running issue . Can we call graffiti font composition which is made on the canvas according to the canons of street art specifically for the exhibition in a gallery ? Or more truly is it just work which is done in the graffiti style? Street painting has long ceased to be just dirty pictures on the walls , it has become part of contemporary art and it’s perfectly normal to expect a smooth flow of this trend in the space of exhibitions and galleries. On the other side we can see quite the reverse process when artists who are working in their studios and showing their creativity only in 4 walls, flow in the boundless ocean street . This symbiosis increasingly evolves and absorbs borders. Galleries help street artists who believe that the bright , well-kept space galleries also suitable for exhibiting their work as urban spaces . Another important point is that galleries help to keep the living of street art objects which have very short life on the hostile environment of the streets. And this is very important , since 80% of graffiti and street art is done illegally.
I had several talks with street artists about tagging. Someone would like to erase their past, someone says: “without tagging I would not have done bigger things”. What’s your Pov?
Tagging is a separate big trend in the street art. Though it was originated on the walls, but it has much more relationship to the lettering and calligraphy than graffiti. I like it when I see interesting tags on the streets of different cities, especially when they are correctly entered in the urban environment.
How has your work evolved over the years from when you where beginning? When you look back, how do you feel about your beginnings?
The time when I was beginning is quite different from the present. And this fact has its pros and cons. The big downside, as I wrote early, was the lack of information, good paint, etc., the process of creative development was much slower. And the plus is that I found the origins of culture in our country, I saw all of this kitchen from the inside. Spirit of the time, analog media, the first Russian graffiti magazines, internet portals, specialty shops are all in all my life – and I’m happy that I found this time.
Of all the projects you’ve done, which has been most satisfying?
I get more pleasure from the creation process than from the outcome. And so, over time, my meanings and thoughts about works constantly change and sometimes it’s really difficult to follow them.
What would your dream project be? I mean theme, location, size…
I want to be the first street artist who will paint graffiti on another planet or in Space)) What is cool photo: I am in spacesuit in space, doing a piece on the orbital station … Video on Yutube must beat views jump from the stratosphere))
What’s next for you? What shows or projects do you have planned?
I have a plenty of plans and about a lot of them probably it will be better not to tell when they are being prepared. If anyone interested in the news, you can always keep an eye on my pages in social networks. If anyone has any suggestions I’m always ready to cooperate and I am glad to new acquaintances!
Thanks so much for reading my interview and for your interest to my work.
facebook.com/chesdesign
instagram.com/ches_ches
vimeo.com/chesbrand
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Translate by Mi Marie (2014)