GraffitiLandscape
A project to turn art into graffiti, graffiti into art. Ongoing work.
Background information, thoughts.
I’m working with a project where I give away a painting in exchange for that I make some photo of the
person together with my painting. Those whom I ask can choose from a few paintings. The motif at the
painting is of Norrland or Scanian landscape. The photo of the person together with the painting do I
put in a beautiful folder, I use the folder and paintings when I apply for to make art exhibitions.
I call the project GraffitiLandscape. GraffitiLandscape is a result/product of almost nine years struggle
not to mix my background from more than thirteen years of graffiti painting and my studies of art that finally collapsed.
I got interested in graffiti at the end of the 1980’s, now afterwards I do understand
that it was the enormously large, colorful and detailed paintings and not the “criminal”
elements that attracted me. With my camera I have caught a small fragment of the Swedish graffiti
culture. I have always been attracted to the edges of the cities and to the centre of the countryside.
I made photos of the graffiti paintings out of sheer curiosity and wonder how the paintings were made
and to have the possibility to in peace and quiet study the paintings. At the same time I made
photos of the landscape (scenery), because when you are at the edge of town you are not far away
from the countryside. I made more and more photos as the years passed by. Now I have learned to do
graffiti painting and have more than 30 kg of graffiti photos, more than 10.000 photos sorted in alphabetic
order into folders, I have also a lot of photos in boxes and more than 1.000 photos in my computer.
The graffiti collection gets heavier and heavier for each year passing by. I have been thinking many
times about how I should be able to share those photos with others. During all those years I have been
to preparatory art schools to my last year at the University of Master of Fine Arts, I have distinguished
“art” from “graffiti painting”. During my last year at the University of Fine Arts I begun to see the graffiti
painting as a technique of painting and/or an –ism. I took out my photos of the landscapes, picked out 10 and started to paint.
GraffitiLandscape.
Is a combined way of painting, graffiti and the classical paintwork. The starting-point is to find the idea of graffiti in the traditional art without the sense of graffiti is lost. I paint the sense of the landscape in which I am. I’m not painting figurative but visualizing. I’m using many different materials, but I’m hooked on “frigolit” (Styrofoam) panel. Because “frigolit” has a structure/surface very much similar to concrete. The “frigolit” gives the landscape paintings the right feeling of GraffitiLandscape. When I have painted at least 10 GraffitiLandscapes, I have given away the paintings. A very interesting meeting. The person concerned, is very important and also a rendering (translation) of the graffiti. I have also given paintings to my friends and relations, it is similar to some places I have painted, they have also become “friends and relations”, you have been there so often that you get a feeling of being at your home. To translate the much coveted spots of painting e.g. in the subway of New York is to give away the paintings to officials or famous persons.
Art Black Book
The photos I make, I put into a folder that I call the Art Black Book, which is a straight translation from the Graffiti´s Black Book. It is a book/folder where the graffiti painters put their photos of paintings they have made, just for to remember and be able to show how many paintings and in how many places, towns, on how many things, on how many different trains they have made a painting.
Best regards
Roger Talik