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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. 2006After 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)." 2007In 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 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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