urban art comes full circle and crosses seas.
i’m quite sure that had VanGogh been born in the 80’s, he would be the baddest graffiti writer to walk the streets of Paris. he would have hung with the illest crew of artists and misfits.
the ideologies of European street art, specifically that of Germany may not have stemmed of Hip Hop culture, but there’s still exists an element of rebellion and nonconformity, nonetheless. when i asked Aleks Van Sputto of the four member graffiti crew, The Pleasure Gang what fueled his childhood taste for graffiti, “as far as i can remember, it was just about doing rebellious stuff.”
graffiti means different things to different people. in Germany, graffiti isn’t even considered an urban thing. it has no connection to what Hip Hop culture. in fact, the young people putting the writing on the walls are simply trying to rebel. they’re busy banging their heads to grunge rock and skate boarding illegally down local alley ways, “we skateboarded heavily, looking ridiculous with long hair and so on. we listened to metal, punk rock stuff,headbangers ball.”
“we didn’t listen to rap when i first started tagging; referring to what people say often, calling graffiti a part of Hip Hop,” Aleks says. graffiti may have originated in America, but Aleks and his crew wanted to distance themselves from the US culture that was trending throughout Europe at that time, “at that time American culture didn’t influence us. i think you can still reflect your own culture through graffiti as well.”
2007 - Commercial Job
prior to 1996, Aleks was merely breaking grade school rules, “tagging with markers, tagging my school desk, school bathrooms, bus to school and so on.” but then Aleks eventually began putting spray paint to walls in late 1996 with close friend of his, using their fascination with subway graffiti art as the template for their art. he also adopted alternate pen names to fit each of his writing personalities; SPUTNIK and SPUTTO, “i was fascinated by spacecrafts and stuff and the Sputnik was the first satellite the russians fired up. SPUTTO was just a variation of that. when asked why he chose those names, “i liked them because it didn’t have this English or American feel to them.” the more Aleks and his crew tagged, the more people they met and the more they learned, “we learned where to get cans [spray paint] and how to properly prime a wall.” soon graduated to doing “legal” artwork art festivals such as
Open Source, “until then I perceived myself as a graffiti writer, which was something different to me,” Aleks says of transitioning his artistry into the professional realm, “i didnt realize that graffiti can be art as well. it was graffiti that brought me to paint on canvas and paper.”
2009 - Abandoned Factory in Germany
although Aleks is still called to do official work, such as tradeshows like “
Design Attack,” which recylces its theme every six months, Aleks is still compelled to tag, “what can i say? graffiti is in my head every day, so you have to open the valve sometimes.” he acknowldges that there must be a balance between “
official” and “unofficial” work, which seems to be an active theme amongst graffiti writers. but when Aleks is creating art just for himself, he feels most connected, “[graffiti] is a closed up communication cycle. it’s a very small group of people communicating with each other, secretly, but for everyone to see.” art can sometimes politics can get tangled up in the tire spokes, “graffiti can be more than what it is; it’s so limited. but that’s also the the beauty of it.”
the dialogue between graffiti writers is an ongoing and silent system of checks and balances among the ranks of artists, “i was here; i worked on my tag style and i am now painting with those guys. i managed to climb up here. i’m hard core. i’m taking it lightly, i am drunk, i want to be part of it, i don’t like you so i’ll paint over you, i’m visiting,” and the list goes on and on, so the graffiti is constantly reinventing itself.
2008 - Germany
also like the graffiti in America, Aleks finds that German graffiti bridges gaps between certain demographics, “even though graffiti is more in the cities, sometimes you see some good people coming from nowhere. it’s surprising, but it goes through the whole society; fuck ups, drug addicts, students, lawyers, travel agents, normals and political activists.” it’s an inescapable truth that a city’s canvas, even in those thousands of miles away, is where artists use their aerosol as loud speakers.
Tagged as:
Aleks Van Sputto,
Design Attack,
Germany,
Graffiti,
SPUTNIK,
SPUTTO,
The Pleasure Gang
