"Street (art) is the word
It's got groove it's got meaning
Street (art) is the time, is the place, is the motion
Street (art) is the way we are feeling…"
Happy New Year Addictees!
We hope 2018 is off to a cracking start for you all. Addicted is all fired up to make you laugh, question, annoy, insult (unintentionally), gain followers, lose followers – much like street art. See where this is going?
Singapore isn't necessarily the first city that comes to mind when considering street art. The authorities have often clamped down hard on people deemed to have vandalised walls or other public property. Heavy fines, jail time and even cane strokes have unfortunately been suffered by some of Singapore's street artists over the years.
The great (and not so ouchy) news is, street art in a museum (or at Addicted Art Gallery – bahahahaha!) is absolutely fine (well, no fine just an entry fee – for the museum, not Addicted). Singapore’s Art Science Museum will be showcasing Art From The Streets (13 January - 3 June) and Addicted is beyond excited!
To celebrate, we thought we’d take this time to balls out, shamelessly showcase our street art. Like the art form, we figured there’s no point in being subtle about it so here goes:
'A' is for aerosol and...
Anthea Missy
“If you want to see my world, then I will show it to you.”
'B' is for bombing and...
Banksy
“We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.”
BÄST
Banksy has said BÄST represents Brooklyn "by speaking with a deep Williamsburg drawl that makes Al Pacino sound like a girl, but mainly he does it by making art that actually feels like Brooklyn."
Beejoir
"You may win the rat race but you're still a rat!"
Blek Le Rat
"I love to work in places I don't know because these locations allow me to get in touch with a new atmosphere, new lights and new people."
'C' is for (not getting) caught and…
Component
Component's work leaps from both his canvasses and the city's brick walls throughout his native home town of Auckland, New Zealand.
'D' is for daring and...
D*Face
“When I’m working illegally on the streets taking over a billboard, I’m using the exact methods and mediums which are used to sell products.”
Dan Witz
“It’s very illusionistic. You’d walk right by, maybe 50 times, until you happened to look up and notice. ‘Oh, there’s a dude. Oh, it’s a piece of art'.”
Dolk Lundgren
Voted most likely to succeed by his classmates at vandal school - POW
'F' is for full monty and…
Faile
"Getting out there and doing it is the ethos of street art. It seems like an amazing time to be making a statement."
'H' is for hoodie (to help hide your identity) and…
Hush
“The female form is art, and I always like to convey the power of the female form and how the presence of a woman can influence.”
'I' is for installation and…
Invader
"I define myself as a ULA, an unidentified living artist. I chose Invader as my pseudonym and I always appear behind a mask. As such, I can visit my own exhibitions without any visitors knowing who I really am even if I stand a few steps away from them."
'J' is for jail (sometimes) and...
Jeff Gillette
“I call my work of Landfills, ‘Slumscapes’ and Post-Apocalyptic scenes as ‘Too-Realism’, as in too real; stuff that people don't want to think about, although it is ever-present in one's psyche or in one's periphery while in a taxi from the airport to the hotel in a developing country.”
'K' is for king and...
K-Guy
"If there is a nice blank wall it is fair game."
'M' is for mural and…
Mr. Brainwash
"OBEY is about brainwashing. Banksy is about brainwashing. So I used M.B.W. - I am Mr. Brainwash."
'N' is for nozzle and…
Nick Walker
"Painting is a form of escapism for me and if my work allows the spectator to do the same thing, then I've achieved more than I set out to do."
'P' is for paste up and…
Pure Evil
“I’m not really interested in being subtle. I want to make people look; I welcome the conflict. The irony is, I have a can of Graffiti Buster to hand and if someone spray-paints over the windows of my street art gallery, then I’m the guy who has to clean it off.”
'R' is for roller and…
RSCLS
Make no mistake – trying to progress a street art scene on the Little Red Dot, with its rules and regulations, is not easy (just ask Sticker Lady or the artist who wrapped an HBD staircase in gold foil about their innocent attempts to amuse, connect and beautify). Despite all this, RSCLS (street art crew) has been able to forge a name for Singapore Street Art, even using restrictions to inform their work.
We don’t have any of their works on our site...yet, but we collaborated with these fabulous artists for the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation Street Art Workshop and Exhibition back in November. We’re also in the midst of producing a blog series about them. Here’s who we've interviewed so far…
Why Women Matter But It Shouldn't Matter If You're A Woman – ‘Spaz’ On What It’s Like To Be A Female Street Artist In Singapore
Monkey Magic – How the artist ANTZ is using Chinese mythology in street art with simultaneously subversive and conservative results
Starting From Zero Got Nothing to Lose – A Story About Climbing Obstacles and Becoming An Artist in Singapore, Not Tracy Chapman
Breakin‘ DEM rules!
Tracing the Origins of TR853-1 – From Pioneering Singapore Street Artist to Designer of a Cultural Community
Look out for our upcoming interviews with Kilas and Song.
'S' is for stencil and…
Shepard Fairey
"Question everything."
Speak Cryptic
(who will also be showcased at the “Art From The Streets” show – yay!)
"When I was in art school I got really interested in street art and wanted to do a whole street art campaign. Lamp posts, traffic lights and powerboxes had a Speak Cryptic sticker. If a sign said ‘One Way’, I would post a sticker saying ‘Choose Your Own Direction.’”
STATIC
"The greatest threat to the art world today is, mediocrity, virtual reality and the rapidly diminishing attention span of the human race."
'T' is for throw-up and…
THIRSTY BSTRD
"The main aim is to express my idea in the most intelligible way. I want people to be touched and entertained, I want my artwork to be fun with a touch of reflection on our society. I have no interest in art that is not clearly legible or without an underlying purpose. I like art when it’s relevant so that’s what I’m trying to do through my creations."
If you want a little bit of the streets in your home, give us a shout at:
blair@addictedgallery.com or elena@addictedgallery.com
Don’t forget, if you can’t picture street art on your walls, use our App to do it for you.
Keeping in the spirit of unsubtle, we ship internationally strait (geddit?) outta Singapore to our global Addictees.
Lastly,
“Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.” ~ Banksy
Until the next one…
Blair & Ele
Street Art Junkies