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Revision as of 13:16, 25 November 2009ContentsAboutTemplate:Wikify Template:Infobox Artist File:ABOVE 2.jpg A very social and site specific stencil from ABOVE, seen in the streets of Lisbon, Portugal. 2008 ABOVE (born circa 1981) has been creating public art since 1995.<ref>SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE June 11, 2007</ref> Above is an international contemporary street artist who keeps his identity concealed<ref name="TORONTO NEWSPAPER">TORONTO NEWSPAPER</ref> and is widely known for his social and political stencils, wooden "arrow mobile" installations, and witty word play paintings. Above started traditional graffiti of tagging freight trains in California in 1995.<ref name="ReferenceC">*Vapors #15, Apr/May 2003. ISSN 74470-56677 (United States)</ref> ABOVE moved to Paris at the age of 19 where he started painting his trademark arrow (pointing above)all around the city.<ref>*Above Ekosystem interview, 2003</ref> Since then Above has been consistently traveling around the world doing many large self-financed "tours" with each tour exploring a new medium or style of artowrks. Above's tenacity to travel the world and push his artistic limits is what makes many people admire and respect this young artist. Above has been successful in putting his street artworks in over 50+ cities in 35+ different countries around the globe making Above one of the major players in the "street art" realm. Early careerAbove is quoted as saying "I started making art as soon as I could pick up a crayon."<ref>*Graphotism #29. Oct, 2002 ISSN 1363-0075 (London, England)</ref> Above grew up in California by both his "hippie" parents. He states that art, and music were practiced and encouraged by both parents at an early age.<ref>*Above interview</ref> Years later when Above was 15 he started skateboarding and hanging out with older skaters that were already into graffiti<ref name="Nov 2003">*Stylefile #13, Nov, 2003. (Berlin, Germany)</ref> At the age of 15 still living in California, Above started tagging the name "Above" on freight trains. It was only 3 years later that Above grew tired of painting his traditional letter graffiti "I got tired of not being able to read my graffiti when the train picked up speed and pulled out of the station. It was at this moment that I knew I needed to change my artwork to something that could be understood and seen in a fraction of a second.<ref>*Graphotism #29. Oct, 2002 ISSN 1363-0075 (London, England)</ref> When Above was 19 years old he decided to move from California to Paris, France and introduce his new "Arrow logo" concept to the streets.<ref>*Disrupt #3, April 2003. ISSN 1176-0389 (Auckland, New Zealand)</ref> 2002File:Above paris2002.jpg Above's wooden arrow attached to an elevated location on a wall in Paris, France. 2002 Above moved to Paris, France in late 2001 and was introducing his new form of "street-art" to the Parisians. "2-years earlier in California I realized I had to change my artwork to something unique and catchy. I transformed my written name of "A-B-O-V-E" to the upward pointing arrow that represent "Above" or the mentality "rise above" to me but is open to interpretation to others."<ref>*Graphotism #29. Oct, 2002 ISSN 1363-0075 (London, England)</ref> Europe and especially Paris,France at that time (2002) was going through a big shift with graffiti and the new largely popular "street-art" and Paris was home to Zevs (artist) ,Invader (artist), Stak, Honet, and Andre to name a few.<ref>*Backspin #46, July, 2003 ISSN 1948-2048 (Berlin, Germany)</ref> Above among the other "post-graffiti" artists were making new styles of artworks in the streets that were heavily based on a character or artist "logo" that they would paint illegally in the Parisian streets. Above not only painted his upward pointing arrow "logo" on store fronts and produce trucks but he also cut from wood and installed his arrow logo to elevated walls and areas around Paris."I have put up over 500+ wooden arrows in all of Paris' 20 arrondisements."<ref>*Graff It #03. July, 2002 (Paris, France)</ref> Above's unique arrow logo and wooden arrows in conjunction with his manic personality made his artworks very noticeable and respected in the graffiti and art community in Europe. "When I was focusing on the wooden arrows in Paris I would draw a map of 2 or 3 districts in Paris and stay within those boundaries. I knew I had a "problem" when I would find a great spot but it would be technically out of bounds in another district of Paris."<ref name="ReferenceC" /> 2003File:Above train2003.jpg A shadow stencil from Above on the side of a freight train in California, 2003 After spending almost 2 years living in Paris, Above returned to California in late 2002 to focus on his new idea of what are now known as his "arrow-mobiles."<ref>*Above interview via ekosystem, 2003</ref> 2003, would mark the beginning of his famous spinning arrow mobiles. "When I started to hang the first edition of arrow mobiles in San Francisco and Los Angeles the response was an immediate success. Every one has seen a pair of shoes hanging from a telephone wire but to see a spinning arrow cut from wood was something totally out of this world."<ref name="Nov 2003"/> 2003 also marked the beginning of a long series of "art-tours" for Above. "2003, was a year full of personal and artistic challenges. Designing the arrow mobiles and the technique to hang them took over 3-months to work out, that's not including cutting and painting the wooden arrows, or driving around the west-coast of the United States hanging them."<ref name="Oct 2004">*Alarm #17, Oct, 2004. (United States)</ref> Above hung his newly designed arrow mobiles in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Reno, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos.<ref name="Oct 2004" /> 2004File:Reno sf 04 005.jpg A site specific wooden arrow mobile that reads "shoe/tree" hung appropriately on highway 50's infamous "shoe tree." With the previous years success and innovation of Above's arrow mobile project, the artist went ever farther and more impressive with his works and self titled "U.S.A. Tour" in 2004. "I drove over 5,500 miles across the United states hanging over 300 plus arrow mobiles in 14 major cities (San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, and Detroit to name a few."<ref name="TORONTO NEWSPAPER" /> It was in during Above's "U.S.A. tour" that he introduced his word play of using a word on each side of the spinning arrows to make a dialog. ""The emotions a person could feel from seeing these words used together can range greatly,"<ref name="Pittsburgh Newspaper">Pittsburgh Newspaper</ref> Above generated many newspaper interviews from the cities he visited and hung his arrow mobiles. Maybe the most popular question was how Above was able to hang his arrow mobiles so high up, ""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," Above also added ""Each person has their own ideas, and each idea holds its validity. No answer is wrong or absurd. This mentality corresponds and relates directly with the arrows as a whole. The arrows' subtle presence high 'above' a city has much potential to evoke a curiosity as to What? Why? Who? And How?" 2005File:Vienna Paint.jpg A large "ABOVE" letter style piece done in Vienna, Austria during ABOVE's 2005 European tour. Having finished the very prolific "U.S.A. tour" Above now focused taking his artworks back to Europe for his self titled "European tour." Above was asked in an interview why he didn't hang his arrow mobiles in Europe in 2005 after the successful U.S.A. tour? his is quoted saying "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 arrow's 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." <ref>Pulp #46, Aug/Sep 2005 (Sydney, Australia)</ref> Above traveled to 15 countries during his 4-month long European tour and put his now larger wooden fabric arrows in the capital city streets. "I counted over 500+ wooden arrows I brought with me from California to London to start off the European tour. By the end, 4-months later in Reykjavik, Iceland I had only 20 or so wooden arrow left with me."<ref name="ReferenceA">Bant #31. Feb 2007 (Istanbul, Turkey)</ref> Above says in a later interview about his 2006 "Sign language tour" that "The 2005 European tour was very helpful for me to see first hand how many of the 15 countries I went to had overhead supports for the future "sign language tour."<ref>Clark #31. Summer 2008 (Paris, France)</ref> After the completion of Above's European tour he flew back to the United States to eagerly start working on his future tour, the "sign language tour." 2006File:Arrow Stack 5.JPG A large pile of wooden arrow mobiles before being shipped off for Above's 26-country "Sign language tour" around Europe. Above returned back home to California from Europe after his 4-month long European tour to start his future self titled and financed "Sign language tour." "At the end of the European tour I was naturally tired, but moreover I was very eager and excited to know that many of the countries I visited had an abundant amount of overhead supports for the visions and goals I had with bringing the arrow mobiles to the European streets."<ref>Lodown #58. Oct/Nov 2007 (Berlin, Germany)</ref> Above said in another magazine interview "As soon as I returned home to California I was already cutting wood and gathering supplies for the most challenging and enduring tour I visioned."<ref>Lodown #58. Oct/Nov 2007 (Berlin, Germany)</ref> Above indeed had his aim and expectations very high as he was planning his "sign language tour" a 6-month long tour around 26 countries in Europe! "I noticed the year before with the European tour when I bought my eurail train ticket that the conductors never payed much attention to it or the expiration date. I would show them my American passport and they would sometimes not ever bother with looking at my valid train pass." With fellow friend and traveler "RIPO", Above and Ripo designed a dozen counterfeit fake Eurail passes, each lasting 1 month long.<ref>Lodown #58. Oct/Nov 2007 (Berlin, Germany)</ref> On Above's website in the F.A.Q. section he talks about and shows you how to counterfeit the Eurail pass as he did for the sign language tour. Above and friend Ripo were travel partners while each was focused on their own respective artworks during the 6-months of travels. Above credits much of his success to his friends and "street art" community who took invited him to their country, and homes. Above is quoted at the end of his File:Cast Away HELSINKI.jpg 1 of the many "arrow mobiles" Above installed during his "sign language tour." This arrow mobile was hung in Helsinki, Finland and read "cast/away." Wooster collective travelogue with "I struggle to even begin to find the proper words that can do justice to how grateful I am for all the support during the enduring 7 months of travels and 26 countries visited during the Sign Language Tour. Trust and being able to link up with the global art community in foreign countries was not only necessary but critical for the progress of the Sign Language Tour. With the incredible support of artists, and fans alike sending numerous emails with invitations to come to their country to paint, as well as experience their city was what made this tour possible. I want to say THANK YOU to all of you that helped and supported this tour on many different levels."<ref>http://www.woostercollective.com/2007/11/aboves_sign_language_tour_thank_you.html</ref> Above's sign language tour's arrow mobiles were the most sophisticated and prolific to date. "The sign language tour's arrow mobiles were the most evolved and sophisticated I have ever made. Each arrow mobile took 15 plus stages from start to finish. I would cut the wood, glue specific hand picked fabrics and textiles to the wooden arrow. After that I would screen print and stencil the color for the arrow outline. Each arrow had a 4-letter word on each side so I would compose a stack of 4-letter words to be used in conjunction with each other and stencil 1 word to each side of the arrow mobile. Finally I would cut off the excess fabric from the arrow, and drill a hole for the hanging contraption to be inserted", "Not a single arrow mobile I made for the sign language tour had "Above" stenciled on it. I felt like the 4 years previous I had "branded" the upward pointing arrow with my street name "Above" so the sign language tour's goal was to dive deep into the word/play I was interested in."<ref name="ReferenceB">Omagiu #9. June 2007, ISSN 1841-4788 (Bucharest, Romania)</ref> It was fair to say that Above's interest was to communicate with the viewer below who saw his spinning arrows "talk" to them with the word play written on each side of the arrow mobile when it spun. "literally speaking, 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."<ref name="ReferenceB" /> Indeed Above captured a lot of attention around Europe with his flashy site specific arrow mobiles. "I first cut all of the wooden arrow mobiles in California in the early part of 2006. Once they were cut I boxed them up and sent them to my roommate in Barecelona to keep until I had arrived. Once I was in Barcelona I started to customize the arrows with the fabrics and more importantly the word/play. During the sign language tour I would be in any given city during the night and I would walk around trying to find the perfect site specific match for any given word play."<ref name="ReferenceA" /> "When I was stenciling the word/play on the arrow mobiles I would brainstorm to where I was going and try and think of words that would relate to each city, or country. I made some arrow mobiles in French (J'ai/faim, chez/vous), Spanish (Hace/sol, como/esta) German (uber/alle) and Italian (ciao/ciao) knowing that I was going to those countries where the viewer could relate even more to the arrow. To be even more specific I would think of word/plays that would relate to a certain environment or structure of a city. In Amsterdam I hung (sex/shop , red/lite , burn/weed) in any give city I would have word/plays like (honk/horn) for a busy intersection, or (nice/eyes) for the more intimate experience. working in the 4-letter word/play format was fun and very challenging."<ref name="ReferenceA" /> 2007File:Aboveguatemalawords.JPG "BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS I'LL ALREADY BY GONE." An example of one of Above's witty "word-play" paintings during his South-central tour. Guatemala City, Guatemala 2007 2007 marked an expansion and evolution to Above's smaller word play's he was using on his wooden arrow mobiles during his then sign language tour. During Above's sign language tour he was working specifically with smaller words (maximum of 4-letters each word) in conjunction with each other. "After the intense 26 country sign language tour and hanging so many wordplay arrow's I wanted to evolve and keep making wordplay statements but more elaborated with more words in a sentence form. In addition I wanted to return to painting large scale murals as the medium for these new evolved word plays so my aim was going to a new part of the world (South and Central America) to explore the opportunities of this vision."<ref>Soma #6 July 2008, (São Paulo, Brasil)</ref> Above, like many of his past self financed tours was preparing his tour and to travel a long distance for upwards of 5 months long. "I returned to California from Europe in November of 2006 from the sign language tour. I had already known at that point that I still was very interested in using witty and site specific word plays as the body of my work. I just wanted to make them longer with 4-9 words painted in somewhat of a punchline format."<ref>Serie B: second edition #18 July, 2008 (Madrid, Spain)</ref> Above prepared for his soon self titled "south central tour" in South and Central America's. "I was working as a waiter in a seasonal restaurant up in Alaska to be able to save money and finance the soon, south central tour." I worked and lived in Alaska for 5 months from April to August then went back to California to work on setting up the south central tour's route."<ref name="Sep 2008">Atypica #32, Sep, 2008. ISSN 1851-7188 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)</ref> Above invited Rodrigo Lopez and fellow artist "Ripo" to join his along the south central tour. While the 2 artists were making their own artworks along this tour Mr Lopez was to focus on the blog and documentation of the journey. Documenter and traveler Mr. Lopez says "The three of us will begin our travels in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and move our way all the way down to Argentina over to Chile and navigate our way up through South and Central America all the way to Mexico City. A total of 18 countries are planned for this trip. No one is quite sure what will happen but we will certainly be able to read it on the walls of the cities and the pages of this blog." SOUTHCENTRAL TOUR" Although Above didn't attain the original goal of 18 countries along his southcentral tour, he was able to travel and paint in 13 countries within a 5000+ mile distance from start to finish.<ref>DIF #62, Oct 2008. ISSN 1645-5444 (Lisbon, Portugal)</ref> 2008File:Above Trying2put2and22gether.JPG An example of Above's clever word/play paintings done in Costa Rica. This piece reads, "trying 2 put 2 and 2, 2gether" Above's "south central tour" started in late October, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and ended 6-months later (April, 2008) in Mexico city, Mexico.<ref name="Sep 2008" /> In early 2008 when Above was in Buenos Aires, Argentina he started to elaborate and extend his word play paintings to using more words with more of an impact "It's funny but true that all of my street works have consistently been a progression and evolution from the previous years works. I'm very happy with how my works continue to grow and evolve into larger painted wordplay with more meaning and site specific feeling behind them."<ref>DIF #62, Oct 2008. ISSN 1645-5444 (Lisbon, Portugal)</ref> The beginning to 2008 was not a pleasant start for Above. He was robbed at gunpoint with fellow traveling artist EL TONO while both were painting. Above talks about this life threatening experience, "Life is a learning experience and is filled with puzzling situations and outcomes. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, or just being at the right place, but at the wrong time? The “why” questions perhaps will never be answered but one thing is for sure Anger is a strong and nasty emotion to have. When Anger is held on to for long periods of time it can and will decay a person and their spirit.It’s been a week now since I was robbed at Gunpoint by 2 thieves and up until these past days the Anger was getting the best of me. Time heals as well as a better perspective on life and what is important in it. I have come to terms with this situation and I’m more optimistic about 2008 and all of the great experiences and art that will come out of it! 2008 Full Fucking Speed Ahead!<ref>http://southcentraltour.wordpress.com/category/buenos-aires-argentina/</ref> Above seemed to bounce back from this negative start to 2008 as he continued to travel and paint larger wordplays in Santiago (Chile), Lima (Peru), Bogota (Colombia), Panama City (Panama), San Jose (Costa Rica), Guatemala City (Guatemala, and eventually at the final destination of Mexico City (Mexico). After the completion of Above's south central tour he went home to California to prepare and turn around only to go Europe to participate in Italy in a group show. In May, Above composed a short 10 minute video called THE SOUTH CENTRAL TOUR showcasing many of the paintings and experiences he did along his tour. The New york based website WOOSTER COLLECTIVE who has always been very supportive of Above's artworks and enduring travels, granted Above to post his 4-part video along with short stories for the websites community.<ref>http://www.woostercollective.com/travelogues/</ref> Further reading
ReferencesTemplate:Street Artaf:above ca:above cy:above da:above de:above et:above el:above es:above fr:above hr:above it:above nl:above no:above pl:above pt:above simple:above sk:above sr:abovi fi:above sv:above tr:above ContactWWW.GOABOVE.COM (Above's website) GOABOVE@GMAIL.COM (Above's email)
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