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ContentsAbout ABOVEAbove 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 careerBy 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. 2004Following 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." 2005After 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. 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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