Sean Irving at Acclaim Magazine cops a healthy history lesson from Kiwi stalwart ASKEW.
As much as us Australian’s consider ourselves hard done by in terms of international attention, we rarely give a thought to our cousins across the ditch. For the past few decades there’s been a steadily growing graffiti movement incubating in New Zealand but they’ve only recently begun to get recognition on the world stage. The scene’s vitality and energy is encapsulated perfectly by Askew One. From steel to walls to community murals, Askew is pushing boundaries both conceptually and stylistically. We caught some time with him to talk about the history of the Auckland scene and the challenge of putting New Zealand on the map.
When did you get a start in graffiti?
I got given my first tag by a guy that wrote Bonus KOA in 1991, and Iguess that was the initial seed planted. In 1993 during my first yearof high school I actually started going out at night with some close friendsand doing tags all around my area, but I was still really naive. I thinkaround ’94/’95 I settled on the name Askew and because there was a bit of a shift, like a few more people my age doing actual pieces all of a sudden I felt motivated to get into itproperly. This guy Ikon RTR who’s currently based in Melbourne
played a huge role in getting me started. He turned up at my house with a crazy amount of paint he’d racked and pretty much enabled me to do the first thing with more than a couple of cans. It was actually the worst graffiti ever painted!
What attracted you to graff in the first place?
I think as far as my city goes, I lived in precisely the right place at the right time. I come from an inner-city neighborhood and a lot of pioneers literally lived right on my street. Graffiti wasn’t something you could avoid seeing when I was growing up and you were pretty likely to get into it at some stage. As far as what resonated with me about it – I guess the attitude and the real bad-ass-ness of it all. Truthfully I was geeky and far from the toughest kid in my area. Graffiti enabled me to create an edge and mystique around myself, although all I was doing was drawing on things. It was perfect really.
Read the full interview here.
More info:
– AcclaimMag.com
– Askew1.com