“The canvas we did is truly just a freestyle session of lettering and elements, which was almost a meditation and a fun collab.”
PHIBS and PORNO join forces to create a collaborative canvas at their studio in Melbourne. Working over a few late arvo sessions, the approach was to have a mish-mash jam with no real plan, to keep things very spontaneous, which is how they like to work, layering up different elements, using spray paint, stencils, paintbrush, and Ironlak Pump Action Paint Markers.
“It’s more about being free and being able to use as many different mediums as possible.” –PHIBS
“Using some cut masks for base fills of the pieces, we were then able to keep layering and layering with markers and paint. I guess the final point was looking for balance, so it wasn’t too cooked by the time we finished! I can get a bit obsessed with symmetry, and when I paint with PHIBS he always makes me step outside that zone. Which I like as sometimes I get too comfortable using symmetry and subsequently it loses funk.” –PORNO
PHIBS got his start as a graffiti writer in the late 80s / early 90s, starting out originally photographing the bombing around his area, and later running around being a larrikin. He says he was a later bloomer until he met DMOTE and PRINS.
Originally from the far south coast, PHIBS moved to inner-city Sydney around 83/84, it was this move that allowed the world of graffiti to open up and become his main focus. He could look straight at the tracks from his house in Lavender Bay, watching panels run by, and spending his school holidays walking around the tracks and getting into mischief. “Where I grew up as a kid, there was graff everywhere.”
It was the move to Melbourne in the 2000s that opened PHIBS’ mind to the possibilities of his art and gave him the freedom to be who, and do what, he wanted to. In Melbs he was seeing more stencil-based work, and paste-ups, and saw it as a technique to use, and an easy way to put things up in the street. The mixture of cutting his chops as a graffiti writer, mixed with new techniques and influence in Melbourne allowed PHIBS to craft his own unique illustrative style, bold and crisp – featuring signature characters inspired by nature, or funky letters – or both mixed together.
“I’m not your average writer, the more individual and outrageous you can be, in my eyes, is better.”
PORNO became immersed in graffiti and Hip Hop culture at the young age of 14. Growing up in Melbourne, he was mesmerized by the graffiti on the train lines, starting to paint regularly around 94.
“I entwined myself with a taboo nom de plume that aimed to provoke attention from the pubic, and other graffiti artists.”
About five years into his graff journey, PORNO started his trade as a signwriter and has since fused the skills learned in this field with large-scale graffiti murals, studio work, and some interesting sculptural work with materials such as wood, metal, and glass. His business ‘It Stands Out’ allows him to focus on this type of work outside of his personal graffiti practice. His work today is a mixture of classical graffiti lettering and signage fabrication.
“I’m obsessed with varied processes of painting and pushing to do creative things outside of my comfort zone, so it really varies what medium I am doing artwork in (paint, sculpture, etc), as much as the content of the artwork.”
Follow @phibs_has_instagram, and @itstandsout on Instagram. Visit: phibs.com, and itstandsout.com for more information about the artists.
Roll the credits:
Shot: Carl Steffan
Cut: OBLVS
Artists: PHIBS & PORNO
Music: Chelsea McGough – ‘Carousel Lights’
Intro text: Luke Shirlaw (Artillery Projects)
