Latest revision as of 06:09, 6 March 2015

About ABOVE

Above is an international street artist who has deliberately chosen to keep his identity concealed.[1] He was born in California in 1981 and has been creating public art since 1995.[2] Above is known for his multi-layer, full color social and political stencils, spinning wooden arrow-shaped kinetic art installations, and large text-based painted murals. Above's artworks regardless of medium usually have a strong message or awareness about social, political or international current events. Above began painting graffiti by tagging (writing his ABOVE graffiti signature) on freight trains in California in 1995.[3] At the age of 19, Above moved to Paris, France, where he started painting his trademark arrow icon pointing 'above'.[4] Since 2001, Above has self-financed annual tours around the world, with each tour exploring a new part of the world and often a new medium or style of artwork. During the past 16 years Above has painted artworks in the streets of 100+ cities in 60+ different countries around the world.

Early career

By his own account, Above was born and raised in California. He states that art and music were practiced and encouraged by both parents at an early age.[5] At age fifteen, Above started spray painting the letters A-B-O-V-E on freight trains in California. Three years later, Above changed from painting traditional letter graffiti to an arrow symbol that pointed 'above'. In an interview he stated that he thought it was useless to paint the side of a fast moving train with letters if nobody could read it. Above said he wanted something that could be seen and understood in a fraction of a second regardless of how fast it was moving.[6] In 2001, at the age of 19, Above moved from California to Paris, France. At that time Paris was home to street artists like Zevs, Invader, Stak, Honet and Andre.[7] Above and the other Parisian artists were part of a movement in street art that was heavily based on characters and logos rather than more traditional letter based graffiti. In 2003, Above returned to California where he started installing hanging wooden arrow mobiles.

2004

Following his arrow mobile project, the artist went on a self-titled "U.S.A. Tour" in 2004. He drove 5,000 miles (8,000 km) across the United States hanging 300 plus arrow mobiles in 14 major cities.[1] It was during Above's U.S.A. tour that he introduced elements of word play by writing a word on both sides of the spinning arrows to suggest a dialog.[8] He has declined to respond to questions about how he is able to hang his mobiles so high, saying, "I value and respect that we all have imaginations and for me to interfere with what your imagination is creating, or thinking, would be wrong."

2005

After finishing the U.S.A. Tour, Above returned to Europe in 2005. When asked in an interview why he did not hang his arrow mobiles in Europe after his U.S.A. tour, he responded, "In the United States there are an almost infinite amount of overhead telephone wires and street cables. However I was unsure of how the different European countries 'overhead' wires and supports were so I decided to evolve the wooden arrows I made in Paris in 2002 and focus on putting these on elevated walls around Europe while at the same time observing and researching more about the overhead wires in all the countries I visit."[9] Above visited 15 countries during his 4-month long European tour, installing around 500 of the larger wooden fabric arrows.

2006

After returning to California, Above began planning a new tour, which he called a 'Sign Language Tour'. By his own reports, Above counterfeited Eurail tickets for the tour, which spanned 6 months and 26 countries.[11][12] Above's sign language tour focused almost exclusively on his wordplay sign language arrow mobiles, which were made from fabric glued onto the wood with stenciled four letter words on each side. Above is quoted saying 'sign language is a form of communication using movements instead of sound. I found a lot of charm and power knowing that the arrow mobiles when hung are constantly moving around, most of all spinning around and around. It made logical sense to paint 1-word on each face of the arrow so conceptually speaking when the wind would spin the arrow mobile there would be a small word play dialog to anyone who looked at it."[12] Above customized arrows to certain countries language such as French (J'ai/faim, chez/vous), Spanish (Hace/sol, como/esta) German (uber/alle) and Italian (ciao/ciao)."

2007

In 2007, Above expanded from the word play of the previous year by painting much larger word play murals on the sides of buildings in South and Central America. He said in an interview that he wanted to return to painting letters, like the traditional graffiti he did when he was younger, but instead of painting his name, he wanted to paint word-based art that was site specific and which could easily be read and connect with.[13][14] Above funded his 'South Central Tour' by working as a waiter in a restaurant in Alaska for four months in spring 2007.[15] Above's south central tour lasted about five months, starting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, spanning 18 cities in 13 countries, and ending in Mexico City, Mexico

2008

After the completion of the south central tour in Mexico City in May 2008, Above was invited to go to Europe to participate in the first annual Fame Festival, a street art festival in southern Italy.[17] Later that summer, he traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, where he painted his "Giving to the poor" stencil commenting on social issues of homelessness. Above is quoted on his website: "Every day I walked by this bank ATM machine and this particular homeless woman was sitting in the same place every day begging for money. I found it sadly ironic that just six feet away from here there were people lining up to withdraw money. The obvious social and economic clash inspired me to make this piece."[18] In October 2008, Above returned to his home in California, when the New York Stock Exchange (NTSE) took a drastic crash, marking a worsening of the 2008 recession. Above stenciled on the exterior of a Washington Mutual building (one of several banks that collapsed during this period) an image of the NYSE bar graph with a downward sloping red line that went all the way down into the street gutter, mimicking the results that occurred just a few days before.

2009

In April, Above created a stenciled mural depicting four children searching for "Easter AIGs" in response to the breaking scandal surrounding American International Group and the degree to which it profited from the 2008 bailout.

In May 2009, Above started another tour of Europe lasting four-months. This tour did not seem to have a title as with most of Above's previous tours. In July, he painted a social and political stencil piece titled 'Bridging the divide' directly on the Berlin Wall where the artwork depicted a young girl jumping up trying to grab a bouquet of flowers from a person on the other side of the Berlin wall while a smiling guard looked on. This piece was painted on the 20th year anniversary of the Berlin wall being torn down.[19]

In August 2009, Above returned from Europe and moved to Portland, Oregon, where he started a charitable project involving the homeless population the city. He stated in an interview, "I wanted to address and draw more attention to the homeless crisis here in Portland. I wanted to learn more about this homeless epidemic by listening directly to the homeless community on an individual person to person level. During the month of November, 2009 I rode my bike around Portland wanting to listen to homeless individuals that wanted to share their story and suggestion on what shelters really help out with services as well as where I should donate the money fund raised from this 'Homeless not hopeless' print."

2010

In January 2010, Above went to La Havana, Cuba, to make a site specific stencil commenting on the recent earthquakes in the neighboring country of Haiti.[21]

Above and Blek le Rat did an indoor gallery show together at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco on 1 May 2010. This was the only time Above has worked inside a gallery space. White Walls gallery wrote, "It is only because of Blek le Rat’s strong desire to show alongside him that Above finally conceded to his premier indoor exhibition." The exhibition displayed themes and techniques Above had previously developed for his outdoor works.

2011

In January 2011, Above flew to Sydney, Australia, to prepare for his first solo show, titled Here today gone tomorrow. In the press release for the exhibition, Above said that his older brother had died in an accidental car crash just three months before and the solo show's themes were the fragility of life, death and how important it is to live each day to the fullest.[23]

Above said, "I’ve been consistently traveling the world and the theme “here today gone tomorrow” applies to how I have been living my lifestyle for the past 10 years. It's hard to say goodbye when traveling and even harder when you don't even get the chance. I was deeply moved by the loss of my brother to make the new body of artworks that dealt with the fragility of life, death and how important it is to live each day to the fullest."[23] Above translated this theme into his artworks via large wooden arrows with a collage element and screen printed image of a celebrity that had died at an early age.[23]

In October at the height of the global Occupy Wall Street protest, Above flew to Miami, U.S.A., and did a city block-long word play that read "Give a wall St. Banker enough rope and he will hang himself." In addition, he added a hanging effigy of a suited banker to the installation. While being interviewed by the Daily Mail, he said, "I tried to clothe him and dress him up as if he was what I imagined a Wall Street banker might wear, it was the cherry on the top of the word play installation." He continued to say, "It's extremely shocking which is part of the point as well. I think it is really gone too far, but then again I think it's my retaliation to how far Wall St, has gotten in general. It is shocking to me when I look at these numbers when I see that one per cent of the people have all of the money." Above explained that he was inspired by the proverb "If you give a fool enough rope, he will hang himself" and simply adapted it to fit the theme.[24] When NBC news did a news report on Above's Wall St. piece, he told them "You don't have to read it, you can just get it immediately when you see it. It's extremely aggressive and that's actually the point." Above's final reply was "Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, and some people will praise it, others will deny it and criticize it and shoot it down, but the point being is that it's getting people talking about the movement."[25]

2012

In January, Above was flown to South Africa where he was commissioned to paint a mural at the Fairhills Winery in Cape Town. The winery is one of the largest fairtrade projects in the world.[26]

In February, Above travelled to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he painted a mural commenting on the illegal blood diamond trade. Above painted the message ‘Diamonds are a woman’s best friend and a man’s worst enemy’ on the exterior wall of Jewel City, one of the world’s largest diamond exporters.[27] The site specific message was 3-metres tall and nearly 80-metres in length, spanning the entire city block.[28]

The story of how Above was able to trick the owner's of Jewel city and paint such a large message on the exterior of their building wall without any trouble was, in the artist’s words, a "jewel heist" of his own.[29] Above said, "I was able to get away with this diamond wall heist because I told the owners I would paint in big letters 'Diamonds are a woman's best friend' on the exterior of their building. The owners loved the idea and all quickly agreed."[30] According to Above, the owners did not bother to step outside and inspect his work until after it was done.[30]

In an interview with a reporter from ABC News, Above said, "I decided to take it upon myself to lie and twist the truth as I felt that making this massive painting seen, and topic of blood diamonds talked about more, would justify my actions. I have justified my lying as I feel it created an epic social and political piece."[29]

In July, Above had a solo exhibition at the Metro Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, titled 'Jet Set'.[31] The show centered on 10 cities from around the world that have significantly impacted or shaped Above during his travels.[31]

Amidst the Eurozone financial crisis, Above flew to Zaragoza, Spain, in September to paint a 120-foot long stencil mural of a queue of silhouettes accompanied by the statement '24% Desempleados' (24% unemployed in English) that were waiting in line for the unemployment office. This social, political and time sensitive mural addressed the hard financial times that Spain was facing with its highest unemployment rate in the world. At the time that Above painted this mural 24.6% of Spaniards were unemployed; for under-25 year olds, 53% were unemployed.[32]

In September, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Above created a 9,000 frame time-lapse film titled #Socialmedia. The film shows Above repeatedly repainting the same wall with different murals humorously criticizing cultural addiction to social media such as Facebook and Instagram.[33] Above stated that he does not use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which allowed him to act as an outsider looking in on how society uses such websites.[34]

2013

In August, in London, England, Above created a time relative stencil titled 'Timing Is Everything', a full color stencil painted on the side of a wall depicting a break dancer positioned upside down, with his arm extended down. At night, the context of the stencil is 'activated' by the street light and shadow of a street pole. The stenciled break dancer is now seen in a context of balancing himself on the shadow of the street sign's shadow. Above, quoted in an interview, said, "I’ve been wanting to paint this stencil for about 7-8 months. With all of my stencil works they exist in a site-specific context. I had been looking for this fixed shadow and high visibility location for the past 8 months during my global travels. I finally found the perfect shadow in Shoreditch area of London."[35]

According to Above, the main reason why "the perfect shadow" was so elusive was "Location, Location, Location".[35] A month earlier, in July, Above had found a shadow in Paris that was "good" but was "off the beaten path". Above writes, "Even though we live in a world where the vast majority of people receive information and images on their computer screen (like now) or in print, I still am old fashioned and want my art works to be in heavily trafficked areas."[35]

A reporter from the news blog The Huffington Post claimed, "If Banksy and James Turrell were ever to collaborate, we like to think Above would be their brainchild." [36]

The majority of Above's street works have topics of social or political issues suggested in the artworks. "The Timing Is Everything stencil here in London was void of any political or social message," Above said. "But what it did have was an interaction with the city, and how things change or alter from day to night. It shows how something invisible during the day, can be visible at night and be the platform for a piece of work, like the break dancer to incorporate into the artwork." [37] Above closes the interview with "My main intention and goal with this piece is to have people re-evaluate their surroundings and how literally, timing is everything." [37]

2014

In April, 2014, Above was commissioned by Redbull to paint the entire street course for their professional fixed gear BMX competition 'Ride + Style' in San Francisco, California.[38] Red Bull Ride + Style features fixed-gear riders facing off in both track and freestyle competitions, with the obstacles designed and decorated by an iconic street artist. In the past, this event has brought together more than 50 riders from both coasts, including riders from such fixed-gear meccas as San Francisco, Portland, New York and even Japan.[39] Professional fixed gear winner Josh Boothby said "Above's design brings the ramps to life, giving them a more of a three dimensional feel." [38]

In June, 2014 Above was one of twelve international artists invited to paint at Artscape,[40] mural event held in the city of Malmö, Sweden. Above painted a mural titled 'Metamorphosis' on an eight storey tall building in a style replicating the color printing process of CMYK. In an interview Above described his mural, "I've been interested for many years now in shapes and colors. The arrow is a shape itself and when overlapped using the CMYK color blend process it allows for new shapes and colors to metamorphosis into something new. It's about having fun and experimenting. As an artist it's important for me to experiment with my work, otherwise you become stagnant. Making this mural put the arrow into a new shape, context, and gave it new life. "[41]

Starting in September, Above had a three month long Artist-in-residence in Detroit, Michigan in preparation for his solo exhibition titled 'Remix'.[42] Due to Above's engagement with street work and busy travel schedule, Above had not made a solo exhibition since 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.[43] Above's Remix exhibition displayed a variety of different laser cut wood panels that were then re-arranged and exchanged into the final piece. Remix had an emphasis on curved cut patterns and the exchanging of identical wood cuts.

In an interview Above said "The intention for my most recent body of artwork is to explore new directions and re-invent the arrow icon I have been creating for over the past 15 years. The arrow icon is sharp and constructed of straight lines and angles, void of any curved elements. My intention is to contrast the existing sharp angles of the arrow, with the curved and circular cut lines, achieving a dynamic balance between the two with a new fresh look. Similar to that of a hair stylist making a Perm (hairstyle) on a head of hair that has always been straight."[44]

Above described his process and choice of using wood as his medium for Remix "My process was to take the straight structure of the arrow and remix it with curvaceous wood cuts, contrasting color combination, all whilst maintaining the uniformed integrity of a line. had an emphasis on inter changing similar pieces of cut wood in an organized, curved Composition (visual arts), I had pre-designed. I chose wood as my medium as it’s a tangible and perfect for this style I wanted to achieve.[45] During an interview Above was asked the question 'What strides do you think you have made with this work?' Above said "I feel doing this show It’s allowed me to break out into being more abstract, and colorful. I’ve been gravitated towards moving into dissecting the arrow icon. Breaking it into pieces, and then smaller pieces and becoming more abstract. This process has allowed me to experiment and learn from mistakes I’ve made with what works good, and what works even better."

Bibliography

Passport: 156 page book documenting the artworks and travels of Above in over 60 countries from 2004 to 2010

Artist Shepard Fairey wrote the introduction in Passport saying "I first encountered Above’s art on the streets of Paris in early 2003. His large scale trademark arrows were painted on roll down gates, trucks and storefronts with impressive coverage throughout the city. Above is extraordinarily driven. To paraphrase Radiohead, “ambition can make you look pretty ugly,” but in Above’s case, his ambition makes the streets look very engaging. I am very impressed by Above’s diligence, but after I got to know him and his artwork more, I began to realize that his output is not evidence of selfish ego, but of a lust for life, a utopian life, where his generosity, and curiosity, and his pursuit of creativity and social-consciousness have led him around the world making more friends than enemies.

Above made the time to act as tour guide for me and my wife and our two young daughters in a city he knows well and we didn’t. The gesture made me greatly value Above’s friendship and reinforced my belief that what you give is what you get. The Karma Police are not coming for Above even if the police vandal squad is."[46

References

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