PAINTNUTZ Og GANG GRAFFITI

38
SUMMER 2008
TSK
SPIT
CLEAN
IN FOCUS:
PAINTNUTZ
HFU
TRAINS AND
TREMORS
O.g. GANG
GRAFFITI
CHICANO HANDSTYLES
$ 8.75 US / 9.99 CN
UP REINVENTED: MORE PAGES, NEW LOOK!
BITS ’N’ PIECES
WORD IS...
WORD IS...
...that the Stockholm Court
of Appeal has sentenced SL’s
former security chief Kjell Hultman to a year and six months
in prison for corruption and
breach of faith.
The Court noted that the
fine of some 420,000 SEK ($
68000/€ 44740) he was previously ordered to pay stands.
When SL in the mid-90’s hit
...that the city of Stockholm will
reserve another 20 million SEK
($ 3,2 million / € 2,1 million) for
increased buffing in 2008. Part
of the money will go to mobile
cleaners who are to intervene
in “urgent” graffiti cases. This
increased graffiti-fighting measure is occurring despite the
fact that graffiti itself is not on
the increase, admits Transport
back against graffiti, Hultman
received fake invoices from
Falck Security.
In exchange, Falck Security offered him travels and gifts.
Commission head of graffiti
Claes Thunblad.
...that the French police have
used Fotolog to catch active
graffiti writers.
...that graffiti is seen as a growing problem in Caracas, the
capital of Venezuela. Venezuelan papers report that beefs
between various graffiti crews
have split the city and that
nothing is sacred in the writers’ struggle to be seen. With
the authorities inspired by the
Broken Windows theory, the
future looks bright for the city’s
buffing and security firms.
...that the Metrorail train company in Cape Town, South
Africa’s third largest city, has
lost control over its trains. The
city’s writers have taken over
the insides of cars, and the
outsides are regularly decorated with pieces.
...that billboards in Caracas
are the new black for the local
writers. These are now surrounded by barbed wire and
electrified fences in the battle
against “estos jovenes”.
6
“Handwriting analysis of tags is one of the worst
things you can get into” -Rolf Berzell, NLFS
have launched handwriting analysis
as their latest anti-graffiti
weapon.
According to Rolf Berzell, a handwriting expert
at the National Laboratory
of Forensic Science, this is a
nigh impossible task.
“It is very hard to identify a graffiti writer using this
method, one of the worst
things you can get into, actually,” he says.
The police send photographs of tags taken in town
to the NLFS in connection
with a search of a suspect’s
home. The analysts must
then compare the photographs with material found
in the suspects sketchbooks.
THE SWEDISH POLICE
General stylistic traits, such
as size, inclination and penmanship in every symbol are
examined during the comparative examination.
The problem with these
methods is that tags don’t
constitute handwriting in its
usual sense, and therefore
do not conform to classical
graphology, in which you
analyse letters written on
paper with an ordinary pen.
Another problem is that
many younger writers have
the ambition to imitate older ones, which makes it
even harder to connect one
person to a certain signature. This is a phenomenon
Berzell is well aware of.
Moa Stridde
GRAFFITI WAS THE CASE
Cultural heritage branding? Three of the four suggested pieces, Dragon, Fascinate and Highway. All of them made in 1989 and still existing.
GRAFFITI PROPOSED FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE BRANDING
be preserved for the future?
Jacob Kimvall and Tobias Barenthin Lindblad think so, and have submitted a proposition to protect four Stockholm graffiti pieces as part of the nation’s heritage.
They claim that graffiti has an important
value for cultural history. If the pieces, or
the buildings they are painted on, are given national heritage status, the owner
of the buildings will be responsible for
their preservation. The proposed pieces
are four burners, painted with permission
between 1989 and 1994: Fascinate by Circle and Tariq, Midsummer Madness by
Akay and Spade, Highway by SHOF Crew
SHOULD GRAFFITI
...that leading Swedish daily
newspaper Dagens Nyheter’s
coverage of graffiti is as wretched as ever. After regurgitating Kjell Hultman’s and SL’s
propaganda for years, the
well-paid journalists on the
city beat now join the bandwagon of the graffiti police and
the city council’s united front
against graffiti.
p. 61Ë
“KET” Maridueña risked over 20 years in jail for
graffiti on the New York subway. He got away with a fine.
In October of 2006, KET’s home was searched. His computers and historical photos being used for a book on the history
of New York City’s graffiti movement were seized. The following year, KET
was arrested
on suspicion
of graffiti-related crimes
in
Queens,
Brooklyn and
Manhattan.
After a long
struggle he avoided a jail sentence, but the message – don’t
write books on graffiti in New York – was clear.
“He’s a three-time loser now,” one high-ranking law enforcement official said to the New York Daily News. “If he takes
another pinch, he’s going to jail.”
Björn Almqvist
and Red Dragon by Ziggy and Disey. Few
other Stockholm pieces from this period
remain.
Britta Roos, head antiquarian at the
County Administrative Board, who is
handling the matter, thinks it is important
to find some sort of protection for graffiti, but says that the chances of achieving
national heritage status is small.
“I’m not convinced that national heritage is the best thing for graffiti. But it’s
an important matter. It’s important to raise
the question.”
The Bromsten industrial zone in north
Stockholm is to be rebuilt, which might
entail the demolition of the building Fascinate was painted on.
But the City Planning Office is to suggest that Fascinate is maintained and that
the tussock of grass in front of it be turned
into a park.
“I think the painting can ornament the
area. It’ll be clear that it has value,” says
planning architect Per Wilhelmsson.
But first, Stockholm’s zero-tolerance
advocating politicians will have to approve the plans.
Malcolm Jacobson
JOURNALIST Alain
Outsides and insides of a Metrorail
car in Cape Town, South Africa.
The new target for the writers of
Caracas, Venzuela.
NEW POLICE ANTI-GRAFFITI
WEAPON PROVES USELESS
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
GRAFITTA - A NEW ARTFORM
IN DECEMBER 2007,
the Gothenburg Art Hall was taken over
by the new art form Grafitta.
Seven artists with a background in graffiti created a
gigantic painting on the walls
of the hall. The art producer
Carolina Falkholt describes
the idea as participatory culture, and a continuation of
modern graffiti.
“Graffiti is counterculture,
while grafitta is an art form
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
that says yes. We want to be
seen in a legal manner,” says
Carolina Falkholt in the daily
paper City.
The large paintings acted
as a backdrop to activities
that took place in the hall
throughout the month. The
event was well attended and
appreciated. Read more at
www.grafitta.se.
Kristoffer Ekman
7
FOCUS | TSK
FOCUS | TSK
�� �� ��
�� ����� ��
�� �� ��
�� ��� ��
������
TASTY SKILLS ON
BARCELONA TRAINS
TSK
Barcelona,
Spain
Sioc,
Vino, Blue,
cky
Ro
d
Rioga an
1994
TEXT:
Torkel Sjöstrand
PHOTO: TSK
TSK painting the Barcelona Subway
Barcelona is the city that attracts people from all over the world. Most people warmly recall the mirrored train windows and white subway cars. But
the city is changing, like everything else. UP improved its inter-European
communications and got hold of The SicKopats, who have been holding the
Catalan fort for more than a decade.
Sun, Sangria, La Rambla and
Camp Nou. Most have arrived here for
one reason or another. Someone may be
accompanying their family on a holiday in
the sun, most of the others are broke and
have been thrown out of Barcelona Sants
after six weeks of hardcore interrailing. It
is certain that many have encountered, passed or been passed by The Sexy Kids, The
SicKopats, Tasty Skills or just plain TSK,
Catalans who have been a recurring feature
on the trains of Barcelona since 1994. TSK
is comprised of two Real Madrid fans, one
shifting supporter, one disinterested party
and one who supports Renfe. Or as they
describe themselves: “TSK is Blue, Vino,
BARCELONA.
Rioga, Barcelona regional train
10
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
Sioc, Rocky and Rioga. A gang of friends
dedicated to painting graffiti on trains. The
crew was born with the express purpose of
painting trains, and that’s what we’ve done
ever since.”
They speak of TSK in terms of a family
that shares an idea about graffiti. With a
simple style adapted to trains, their pieces
are appreciated by writers far beyond the
Spanish borders.
“But it’s always harder to renew simple
styles,” observes Vino, though he seems to
have no trouble developing his own style.
“A simple style makes it easier to paint
quickly,” says Rioga. “Vivo rapido, pinto
rapido.” He lives as fast as he paints.
11
Swedish graffiti is growing increasingly stronger. In Gävle, the HFU
crew holds the fort. With a particularly well-developed feeling, they
have put colour to walls and Regina
trains all around this fire-plagued
town. Moreover, they have a thing
or two to say about biting, Stockholm patriotism and the pros and
cons of the internet.
TEXT:
Torkel Sjöstrand
Crew
PHOTO: HFU
Sweden is a large country,
spanning just over 1,500 kilometres from
north to south. Its population of 9 million
is hardly confined: there are 22 Swedes per
square kilometre.
Somewhere in the middle, north of
Stockholm but south of Sundsvall, is Gävle.
Its 70,000 inhabitants have a pretty
good ice hockey team and a somewhat
lesser football team. The town is an important nexus for northbound traffic and also
burned down a number of times in the 18th
and 19th centuries. Nowadays, a gigantic
straw Christmas goat falls prey to the city
arsonists every year. Apart from all this, the
graffiti gang HFU is to be found in Gävle.
IN TERMS OF AREA,
32
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
It was seven years ago that Cunt and
Zofer, inspired by the ubiquitous Kevin
Bacon classic Tremors (Hotet från underjorden), founded HFU. They painted,
time passed, and at present HFU has been
joined by G-sus, Ebay, Enter, Ghen
and Scag. They are a bunch of friends
whose greatest interest is writing graffiti, which they have done - alot.
Let’s begin there.
What is it you like about graffiti?
Ebay: The freedom to decide when, where
and how I’m going to paint. Creativity and
excitement.
Ghen: It’s a good way to spend time with
friends and not think about work. I haven’t
really got a goal with graffiti. My job takes
up a lot of time, so I paint when I can.
Enter: It’s fun and relaxing. To see your
pieces and tags afterwards is one of the high
points to me. What’s more, I’ve met a lot of
people thanks to graffiti. Without it I’d probably never have met my pals in the crew.
Cunt: I love to write where people can see
what I do. Graffiti is a statement, to claim
public space. Just that part does a lot for the
art form. I can say whatever I want. Which
I do, without compunction and brownnosing. Some people don’t like me because
I’m too honest, but I want my voice to be
heard.
33
TEXT:
Tobias Barenthin Lindblad
CAPTIONS: Howard Gribble
PHOTO: Howard Gribble
Los Angeles gang graffiti was already around in the early 20th century. Still
some basic characteristics look the same. UP has spoken to Howard
Gribble, who photographed this expression in LA in the early 70’s.
sounds mildly surprised on
the phone. He is a shade over 60, and more
laconic than most Americans I have spoken
to. The interest in his pictures of gang graffiti has been greater than expected. Since
last autumn, the first 60 pictures he put up
on the internet have received 25,000 hits.
Gang graffiti is hard to get into. Though
Gribble’s own captions offer much interesting knowledge, I feel like a novice after
looking through the material on the web.
Letters are exchanged for numbers, representing districts, streets or gang names, and
there are several abbreviations. Gang graffiti
“It’s taken a long time, but better late than
never,” says Gribble about this reawakened
interest. Since then, he has put up another
hundred or so images of Mexican gang
graffiti in Los Angeles.
”The original gangster graffiti of this period
was of a purer form than that seen today,
with much emphasis on artistic flourishes.
This is, of course, still vandalism but from
an earlier and more innocent time”, he says.
communicates much more direct information than tags. It functions as a newsletter,
border demarcation and is a tool for warnings and threats. There aren’t many pictures of old gang graffiti. One milestone of
fine examples is Gusmano Cesaretti’s 1975
book Street Writers. The 70’s seem to have
been a golden age for graffiti among Mexican gangs in LA.
HOWARD GRIBBLE
The letters then were just basically square.
Almost every stroke was a straight line
38
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
Block letters with drop shading but still within genre of Chicano graffiti. It has
been said that ”Wilmas” is Wilmington in Spanish. While this is not true, ”Wilmas” was the name adopted at least 50 years ago by gang members from the
Los Angeles Harbor area community of Wilmington.
”W S” stands for ”West Side”, as opposed to their cross town rivals on the ”East
Side”. This is an important distinction to Wilmingtonians, who have a long and
my impression too.They’re better
than the ones they do today. I just don’t see
very much of any kind of graffiti that is good.
I don’t see it, but I know it’s out there,” says
Gribble. “Back in the 1960’s, when I first
started to notice graffiti, it didn’t have the
interest of the media. Back then they just
reported about gang incidents. There was
nothing about the gang culture. This particular form of gang graffiti was only in the
LA area. It started right here and didn’t
move out for quite a while. It took some
time to expand to the cities along the coast
and to other Mexican areas.”
“YEAH, THAT’S
a lot of people are interested in it.
Maybe the outlaw image of a gang is what
attracts people to it. The gangster culture,
for whatever reason, is big in the entertainment industry and the rap performers show
gang graffiti in their videos.” Gribble got a
camera in 1970. Having grown up in a mix”TODAY,
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
violent history of feuding over these respective territories. Among those represented on the roster at right are: ”Pollito”, ”Sapo” (frog), ”Wino”, ”lil’ Man”,
”Oso” (bear), Owl and ”Chino” (China-man).
It should be noted that, while ”wino” is American slang for an alcoholic or
”bum”, it is also a desirable and frequently used gang nickname.
ed Los Angeles neighbourhood, and curious about urban life and photography, he
discovered that graffiti was a perfect motif.
around everywhere. Most other graffiti tended to be the usual obscene scrawl. It
was an aspect about urban decay that interested me. At some point I thought about
doing a book, so I went into it more like a
project. I was systematic about taking the
photos, tried to get to all the faraway areas
in LA. Growing up in Los Angeles, I knew
the city well. I went to the Hispanic areas,
driving around looking for examples.” But
there was to be no book this time. Cesaretti was first, and when Gribble saw Street
Writers he didn’t feel he had anything to
add. With photography as a lifelong interest, he moved to other motifs, such as the
low-riders he presents on the internet. By
photographing these cars, which are often a
part of gang culture, he has met many gang
“IT WAS
39
TOP OF THE LINE
TOP OF THE LINE
agree with Pink that trains beat most other
formats, but at the same time, I feel that
Lady Pink’s definition of graffiti becomes
rather narrow. Isn’t graffiti a pictorial tradition that encompasses a number of different formats, techniques, expressions and
locations? The word is used both to denote
a certain action and a certain type of image.
gleam in their eye when I say I have written a text on it. Ikaros emailed me: “Fun to
read about this wonderful super wholecar!!!
Easily one of the all-time burners in Swedish history!” Skil, too, has named it as one
of his greatest sources of inspiration, and
he claims that it and a few other wholecars
from the same period still set the standard
Look out, you crazy erasers! Here is a
piece you can’t handle
It doesn’t really matter much, because in
any case, Lady Pink does point out the important differences between train and housefront graffiti.
And even I have to admit that there is
a special feeling when a really well-made
wholecar rolls into a station. The best I have
ever seen in real life is “Look Out Crazy
Erasers!” made in 1991 at the Jakobsberg
layup by Erse, Kaos, Rustle and Serw.
The piece became legendary in Scandinavia despite only being in existence for
a few hours. Many Swedish writers get a
58
for what can be done in European graffiti:
“Crazy Erasers sort of set the mark. Even
if it is still the best, in Sweden anyway, and
no-one has beaten it, at the same time it says
that this is feasible, and therefore possible to
improve on. The piece exists on photo and
people have seen it. It’s not bullshit or some
Photoshop cheat.”
When I interviewed Swedish artist Petter Zennström in UP #14, he said he marvelled at the way graffiti writers can magic
away a whole train car with a little paint.
When I look at “Look Out Crazy Erasers!”
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
I know exactly what he means. It is as if the
piece has commandeered the carriage, and
that the different letters are struggling with
each other to find room, climbing towards
the roof of the car. In the middle of the piece
we see Calvin (from the Calvin and Hobbes
comic strip), screaming as if in horror as he
repeats part of the piece: “Look out!”
What does the text really mean? The
words don’t form a proper syntactic sentence. Something feels left out – a poetic
compression that opens it up to different
interpretations. Who is supposed to be looking out? Does it mean that the piece will
soon disappear in the chemical fluids of the
cleaners? In that case, it might read “Look
out, here come the crazy erasers!” Or is it
a warning to the cleaners, as in “Look out,
you crazy erasers! Here is a piece you can’t
handle.”
Perhaps this is to interpret the piece
excessively. It is likely that Kaos did the
character, and judging by the lettering style,
Erse has done “Crazy Erasers” and Rustle
“Look Out”. The word Erasers is very close
to Erse. All the letters except the A are already there. It might be nothing more than
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
him working an Erse sketch to Erase, and
then on to Erasers. Graffiti is probably more
often created with a sensual urge for shape
and painting as well as a need for adventure than out of an intellectual and poetic
sensibility. The words are to be looked at, at
least as much as read – if not more so. And
when writers talk about rhythm, it is more
often a visual experience than a musical or
poetic one.
But how does the piece look? I recall it as
quite unbelievable; I have never seen its like
on any Swedish train. Today, when I return
to the pictures, I note that this judgment
probably remains to this day. However, the
style is not quite as sharp as I remember
it. Taken separately, none of the letters are
fully-formed; they don’t have the individual
aspect as those of Slice or Caster during the
same timeframe. Instead, the strength of
the style lies in the relationship between the
letters and the flow they create together.
The sum is therefore much better than
the parts, and what a sum it is. The piece is
bursting with colour, and shimmering just
like Oldenburg’s Latin American bouquets,
with fantastic technique and finish. A ty-
pical feature is that the signatures are not
written but painted into the piece. Most
of the letters are monochrome in different
hues of green, blue, purple and pink. Presumably, the writers ran out of paint since
the character’s skin and hair colour appears at the end of the text. The outlines are
burgundy, and behind the swarming letters,
a mint green background appears here and
there.
Skil points out that the letters lack
highlights, and cites the contour colour as
distinctive of both the piece and the early
90’s: “The burgundy lines were typical of the
time. Black is a safe bet that most people
work with today, but burgundy is very nice
for an outline. And it works well with almost all the colours, as you can see here. It
goes with green, blue, yellow, and pink.”
Though the piece may have run down
the gutter once the graffiti removers’ acids
done their bit, the remaining photographs
have ensured it has become a living part
of Swedish and European graffiti history.
“Look Out Crazy Erasers!”
59
WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?
WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?
THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE
After a cat-and-mouse chase lasting almost three years, the conclusion came
in the shape of an unholy pact between writers and guards. The piece at
Årstaberg, south Stockholm, became a symbol for the beef between one
of Stockholm’s most famous crews and the anti-graffiti squad at the CSG
security company.
It began with a silver piece by Star, one of
the more trendsetting writers in the classic
crew AOD (All Out Destruction). He did
the piece one night in late 2005 on a bridge
foundation at the newly-built Årstaberg
train station in south Stockholm.
“I did the piece a few months before
they opened the station,” he recalls. “I was
going to do colour outlines but didn’t have
enough, so I just did a chrome fill-in and
background. I was planning to finish the
piece on a later occasion.”
The piece remained without outlines for
a few months before Star finally finished it.
“Around this time, Kere and I had done
a few pieces at Hornstull and Liljeholmen.
One night I was out with Klick. We did a
StarKlick piece by Street at Hornstull. But
we noticed something was up. When we
looked up, we saw two guys sneaking out of
their car. We immediately knew they were
64
guards, so we hid our cans and walked away
calmly. When we passed them, I gave them
a big smile. I used to see the CSG guards
quite often, and I can imagine they were
pissed off because they couldn’t catch me.
But they didn’t have a clue who I was.”
The next day, several pieces by the AOD
crew had been crossed out.
Torkel Sjöstrand
Sjöstrand &
Tobias Barenthin Lindblad
TEXT:
PHOTO: Torkel
Instead of fixing the pieces, Star waited.
“I thought it was pretty funny because
they’re so damn pathetic. I figured they’d
stake out the wall and pick me up when I
tried to fix the pieces. So I didn’t do anything in months. Two of the pieces were buffed during that time. But the one at Årstaberg remained, crossed.”
Irok got it all on film, the guards
spraying, the car number plates,
all of it
“I found out they’d crossed out the StarKlick
piece we did that night, an AODS piece by me,
Atom and Kere and the Star piece at Årstaberg.
It was clearly the same people who had crossed
all the pieces. They had used the same paint
and written ‘fag’, ‘fucking cunt’ over them.”
The Årstaberg wall was popular and several other writes got in touch and asked if
they could go over the slashed Star piece.
But Star insisted that he would fix the piece
at some juncture.
“A good six months later I did another
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
The Star piece at Årstaberg was crossed out by the anti graffiti squad from the CSG security company. Writing things like “whore” over the piece
piece and on that occasion I fixed the
Årstaberg piece too.”
In the piece, he wrote “Ya mama” as a
greeting to the guards.
“That got things going. Just a few days
later they came back and crossed it again.
They wrote “Fucking
fag” or something on
it. You just laugh at
that. Idiots.”
As before, Star
kept his cool and did nothing about the
crossed piece.
“Now people knew about the crossing.
There were a few activists who wanted to go
there with baseball bats and beat the guards
up. Another guy wanted to film it if I fixed
the piece. But I waited.”
Instead, another piece came to the fore,
an AOD piece Star made at Aspudden, not
far from Årstaberg. After his previous experiences, he was pretty sure that it would be
crossed out too, not least because the piece
was close to a subway yard where the CSG
guards often gathered.
Another AOD member, Irok, handled
the matter.
“Irok settled down and waited nearby the
piece with a video camera,” says Star. Of
course CSG turned up and crossed out
the piece. Irok got it all on film, the guards
spraying, the car number plates, all of it.”
“I was furious,” says Irok. “They crossed a
Irok’s demands. Then he offered Irok a job.
“He said they always need people on the
inside. ‘We have our MISes, but we always
need more,’ he said, referring to the fact that
the crew MIS leaked a lot to them a couple
of years ago. Fuck that. That they even asked
just motivated me more
to mess with them,” says
Irok.
“Since then they
haven’t touched any of
our AOD stuff,” says Star. “It was a fun
thing. They were so pissed off because they
couldn’t get us and then it ends like this.”
Star’s Årstaberg piece was buffed in the
autumn of 2007.
“It’s a pity, I was actually planning to fix
it again,” says Star.
Since then they haven’t touched any
of our AOD stuff
# 38 | SUMMER 2008
lot of our pieces that weren’t anywhere near
the tracks that CSG are contracted to guard.”
Irok called CSG and arranged a meeting
with the company brass.
“Håkan Unal, one of the big cheeses at
CSG, was put on the spot when I called his
cellular phone and explained what I wanted.
But he chickened out and sent CSG’s head
of personnel to meet me instead.”
Irok had an hour-long meeting with the
head of personnel, a man in his forties.
I told him that CSG should keep to the
tracks and above all, not touch any AOD
pieces again. Otherwise I’d hand the film to
the press and the police.”
The CSG man reluctantly agreed to
65