Dedicated. Stubborn. Certifiable. A sucker for punishment. All ways to describe the UK-based graffiti artist, INSA, who recently gained global recognition for his new-school approach to the old-school craft of graffiti, or as he calls it GIF-iti. His approach shows a mad dedication to the traditions of graffiti, where rather than take the shortcuts that Photoshop might allow, INSA chooses to travel the long road, sometimes taking many days to complete a single 600-pixel-wide animated GIF.
He
creates his labor-intensive GIF-iti by painting and re-painting the
walls of buildings – each time making slight changes – and then
photographing each change in order, later creating a looping sequence of
images, which make an animated GIF. The biggest challenge and the key
he says, is to ensure that the last image layer links smoothly back to
the first, which may have been painted a week earlier. His most recent
GIF-iti project was a collaboration with artist Stanley Donwood,
commissioned for the album release from new supergroup, Atoms for
Peace, featuring Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Flea from Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
INSA’s
résumé is as eclectic and interesting as his art – reflecting an equal
measure of outlaw and convention. He’s been commissioned by companies
like Nike, Sony, Kangol and Kid Robot. His work has taken him around the
globe where he’s left his unique mark on buildings in Tokyo, Los
Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Luxembourg, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Warsaw,
Berlin, Brussels and Montreal. And he has spent his fair share of time
in courtrooms and even prison, all for his art.
In part one of this two-part blog post, INSA gives us a peek into his process and the urban art culture:
What inspired you to create GIF-ITI?I
realized I was viewing more paintings online than in real life, the
majority of art I was accessing was on the internet. Whether that was
street art from around the world, or exhibition openings on blogs, and
it disheartened me a little, because although it was great to be able to
see so much work, I realized this was never the way the artist would
have intended for their work to be seen. So I thought an interesting way
to play with this idea was to create art specifically to be viewed
online: to the point that you could not actually see it in reality. So,
in fact, the internet becomes the best viewing platform for the work.
Describe your creative process and how you incorporate Photoshop into your workflow.Do you think in terms of what you’ll eventually do in the software (Photoshop), or does that come later?Photoshop
generally comes in at the end, when I’ve done all of the painting and
photographed all of the layers. I upload and overlay all of the images
and create a GIF. The process is more about the physical act of painting
numerous frames, and involves a lot of mental planning, every stage of
painting has to preempt the next step, and the final frame needs to lead
into the first in order to create a good looping GIF. The thing I enjoy
about this process of painting a GIF is that it begins where most
artwork ends.
What
other types of art do you create and what other mediums do you most
enjoy? What do you consider to be your primary/favorite medium?I
like to explore all different types of medium and try not limit myself
to any one thing. Spray paint is my natural medium, but recently I’ve
also been working with sculpture, and I’ve always considered photography
a major part of my output.
What unique challenges do you run into when painting on a building?It
varies from building to building; accessing the surface as a whole can
be problematic. Reaching different spots on a building requires balance.
Sometimes I’ll find myself with one foot on top of a ladder while
gripping onto a brick, to finish the top of a wall. It’s a much more
physical act, using the whole body – stretching, climbing, reaching –
compared to painting a canvas in the studio.
Has your graffiti ever gotten you in trouble with the law?Yes. It comes as part of the territory – graffiti
by definition is illegal and so most of my younger years were spent
breaking the law. This inevitably ended up with numerous court
appearances and a short time in prison. This was, of course, long before
graffiti was rebranded as ‘street art,’ and artists could make money
and travel the world as celebrities!
When
it comes to urban artists, street credibility and integrity often seem
to be top of mind. How do you reconcile the outlaw artist with the
businessman who needs to make a living? Do you ever struggle with
questions of selling out?Yes,
it is something I think about a lot before I take on any job. I
consider the morals and implications behind it. Generally, I try not to
let money be the dictating force in my work or life, but sometimes, I
prefer to think of it as ‘buying in’ rather than ‘selling out’. If
corporations want to pay me to do what I already do, I am not changing
what I would be putting out anyway, so I don’t have a problem with it.
Do
you consider yourself part of the graffiti art community? How do you
feel about the graffiti art movement shifting from a fringe, outlaw
movement into the commercial mainstream, with the massive attention that
artists like Banksy, C215, David Choe, Dan Witz and countless others
have garnered?I
do consider myself part of a generation of artists who started painting
pre ‘famous’ Banksy, where the notion of getting paid or being famous
outside of the subculture just didn’t exist. Any artist who is getting
paid to do what they love, more power to them. But I do think it’s a
shame that kids starting out today can’t approach graffiti/street art
with innocence, because the draw of fame and money attracts an influx of
people getting involved for the wrong reasons.
Big
thanks to INSA for taking the time to chat with me and give us all an
inside perspective on his work. Check out more of his GIF-iti below and
come back next week for Part 2 of my interview with INSA.
