Interview: A Graffiti Artist in Brighton

Ask anyone who knows Brighton and they will all tell you the same thing. It is a beautiful, busy, cool city with expression on every corner.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, art of some description marks the walls of every street of every area. From the thoughtless tag of the wannabee ‘vandal’ to the painted pub wall done by the ‘artist’, everyone has their own unique style, of which they scatter around the city. The ‘scene’, as the local artists call it, is still very underground and acts as a sense of community and string of networks between all the cities writers.

It’s almost easy to see why this urban city attracts so much expression because it is famous for its quirky, eccentric-ness. However, it takes years to build up a reputation, which separates an individual’s artwork from everybody else’s. Asking permission from wall owners keeps the police away and enhances the art, but sneaking around at the dead of night and staining the streets before scattering like mice, is still very much part of this emerging culture.

The subculture. The style. The slang. An overall suitability for Brighton, with its cliques and diverse fashions brings this underground subculture into the mainstream. The ‘writers’ as they call themselves, stroll about, dressed almost as skaters; stylish, yet grungy, fitting in perfectly with the tone of the city. Except with them, they carry around a secret; one which many would see as any art and others would see as vandalism. Their secret being kept from the police and anyone who will give away their identity, going by secret names which they mark their work with. ‘Bark’, ‘pesk’; tags which randomly mark lamp posts and street signs are the work of ‘vandals’ and only each other may know who they belong to.

A local graffiti artist discusses how this underground subculture works, how to not get caught and how getting work noticed is an incredible feeling.

So, what made you get into graffiti-ing in the first place?

“I think its a sort of identity thing. I don’t really do that much other stuff that’s considered illegal or rebellious so graffiti is an outlet for that. Doing something a bit different and it sets you apart from the crowd a little bit i think, doing something that isn’t so easy to pick up. its quite an underground sub culture. It’s quite an exciting thing to do.”

An underground subculture?

“It changed so much over the period of doing it, like the original excitement of it just becomes really different as you get more involved and you find out that a lot of people involved are dick’eads and then there are a lot of good people as well.”

So how often do you do graffiti?

“It really varies at what point of my life I’m at actually, I mean I’ve been ‘writing’ for maybe 7 years or something like that. I used to think that it was at harder periods of my life when I started to get more involved again because I wanted that boost of identity and I wanted a feeling of security within the sort of subculture of it and feeling part of the community and stuff like that. Recently I haven’t really thought that because I’m not in a bad place but I’ll do something at least once a week I think.”

So is it like an outlet?

“It’s a habit, it’s an outlet and there’s a lot ego-boosting involved in it. We do that in a day-to-day life massively anyway, but graffiti is just one of those things that is really good for that because you’re getting this alter-ego and putting work in and then you’re seeing people complimenting and admiring you work or hating your work- either way you’re getting attention or something out of it. It’s quite satisfying you know.”

How do you know where you can paint and how you won’t get caught?

“Right now in Brighton there’s one properly legal wall (legal in the sense that anyone can go and paint on it) and that’s down at the marina. I dont really like painting that wall because the turn overs so fast. So then there’s other walls within Brighton which are permission walls so you ask certain people in Brighton and you can get involved in doing that. That’s not something that’s available to people who are younger that are doing it because you have to spend a few years getting half decent before you’d ever be able to paint a spot like that.”

I was gonna say, is there a sense of community amongst the scene?

“There is a definite community within Brighton, I wouldn’t say its particularly tense or uneasy but occasionally things will happen and everyone will know about it. A lot of bitching.”

Have you ever been caught?

“Hahaha. The closest I’ve been to getting caught was me and a friend had been out painting and it was about 4.30 in the morning and we had been out painting all day, doing a few different spots, rooftops etc. and we get stopped in the laines by 2 undercover police. They just pull up their car and my bag was actually open on the floor nearby with spray paint in it and I’ve got a can of spray paint in my back pocket as I was literally painting like right where we were. They come out and they’re like “oh you’re looking quite suspicious near these bikes”- (they think were trying to steal the bikes basically) and were like “oh no no no we’d never do that”- polite, just decisive and open is the answer to a situation like that. So were kind of shitting ourselves basically because anyone in their right mind would see that there’s something going on if I have paint on me. So they make a few calls to check our record’s are clean which they were and then they’re like “alright, well get in the car” and we’re thinking “fuck this is it, it’s over”. We get in the car and they drive us back to my house and then drop us off and leave.”

How have you avoided prison for so long?

“It just takes experience and trying and testing because you pick up a bit of technique with that. Being sober is one of them. Having a story as to why you’ve got paint on you is another one. Because if you’re stopped at 3 in the morning with spray paint it’s gonna look a bit conspicuous. If you’re with someone it’s good to sort out a story as to why you’ve got the paint on you because you will be separated usually and questioned if they’re suspicious of what you’re doing. So 2 police officers might separate you, because if you’re story doesn’t match then clearly you’re both bullshitting.”

Brighton is full of some amazing graffiti. Why do you think this is the case, more than other UK cities?

“There are certain individuals who have tried really hard to expand the visibility and legality of graffiti in Brighton. Most of the stuff that people have been appreciating, people have been given permission for. They’re not going to the same routine spots and painting them over and over. They’re trying to get new opportunities and open up new things in Brighton. That’s why there’s a massive increase in spots that are being taken in Brighton because people are really pushing hard for that and getting a lot of respect for it because its a big job.”

“Brighton’s a good place for graffiti writers because it’s a well-known city in the UK but it’s very small and it has a small graffiti scene- it is quite tight knit. So to get your name up- which is the main thing about graffiti, is quite easy in such a small place and since Brighton is such a prominent city, you can become quite well known.”

So from finding a ‘spot’ to paint on, how does the process work, from hatching an idea, to putting it into practice?

“Anytime that you’re given an opportunity to do something by the owners [of the wall], then suddenly you are dealing with a permission wall, a legal spot. If you’ve been given the time to do that you can do it in the day, so you may be considering what you’re doing a lot more, whereas the illegal side of things is a whole different scene. If you’re doing illegal graffiti you’ve got a time constraint and your dealing with a certain spot. Maybe its more high risk, maybe its more visible and you’re gonna be using 2/3 colours as opposed to a legal wall where you might be using a lot of different things or you might be spending a good few hours doing something. It depends how high risk the spot is. If you’re doing the centre of town or a rooftop, you’re kind of talking about 10/20 minutes.”

Do the police know what your tag is?

“Luckily I haven’t been close enough to ask that. It’s kind of cool to describe yourself as a vandal within the scene but I dont really like that because I’m not really interested in pissing people off. You know I’ve never been in the paper, I’ve never done anything people have been really insulted by and has brought me unwanted attention. I’ll be known by the graffiti writers in the scene which is all I really care about, but people wouldn’t recognise who I was that dont do graffiti and i kind of wanna keep it that way. I do tag, but it’s just like you pick your spot. Just be considerate you know.”

Giving out their identity is a risky business that many artists tend to shy away from. However, there is such a massive diversity of art across our city- stretching from Banksy to the anonymous,its easy just to sit back and enjoy what you’re looking at. To appreciate the hard work that goes into every picture and the risks they take, is enough, especially as the end result can look so effortless.

by Ellen Harper
@ellenharper95