Synopsis
As the end of the 20th century approaches and a solution to the Y2K conundrum remains elusive, a bunch a dissatisfied image-makers are busy defying the all-encompassing power of the computer. A new generation of artists has come up from the streets, chopped the computer down to size and reconfigured the hand-made. This work provides an international survey of this phenomenon. Inhabiting a genre grey-area somewhere between art, design and illegality, these image-makers and "writers" operate beyond the colleges and galleries of the art establishment. Able to tenaciously exploit the media, they've also gone beyond any previous expectations of anonymous street art. The tradition of graffiti writing, with its notions of youthful rebellion, outsider identity, urban tribalism and aesthetic and technical innovation, was their starting point. The street, the rejeuvenation of comic book artistry and the stylistics, cut-up vocals and rhythms of hip-hop and beat-based music are their inspiration. The music, fashion and marketing industries, along with community-based arts funding, enable these young and mobile individuals to lead double lives.
This is a process-led visual revolution, as aplicable to commercial projects on an international scale as it is to self-initiated personal work. One day may be spent painting a stage backdrop in Tokyo; the next, designing a record sleeve in London.
From the Author
hope everyone likes the book watch out for scrawl 2hey ric blackshaw here, i would have done this ages ago if i'd known about it. not surprising though i am one of the last luddites.
i hope everyone who has parted with their hard earned, has felt well rewarded for their purchase, the point is generally to inspire and show that anyone can do anything if they remain comitted to the original spark that sets them on their journey. the art in this book is not so much a big up for grafitti in itself but a vision of what it might and is becoming. i've only had positive vibes from people and i'm constantly blown away by the talent out there on the streets and in countless teenage bedrooms. the scenes stregnth comes from fact that for the most part it's a scene where the guys that make it don't pull the ladder up but offer support and advice to the ones just starting out. a very rare thing these days long may it continue.
look out for scrawl 2 this summer, this follow up will cover alot more of the globe than the first book including japan, usa, australia, a wider european vibe and up dates of a few artists from the first book. it will again be a healthy mix of the well established and the young pretenders.
till then all the george. ric
p.s apologies for typo's and the rambling nature of my note, it appears i'm completely cabbaged.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.