In his new exhibition,Industrials Scribers, the Barcelona artist Sawe surprises us once again. The exhibition can be visited until September 14 at the B-Murals exhibition venue in Barcelona. Discover how graffiti could have been if it had only had industrial influences.
This Barcelona artist has been on our radar for many years. Obviously, not since he began painting graffiti in 2001, but since he began to demonstrate the talent he possesses. Since he dedicated himself to breaking the limits that the culture had imposed on him. We have placed our bets on him and on his approach and we will continue to do so, because somehow we have seen him grow. Now he surprises us again with an atypical and invigorating solo exhibition. We couldn’t have missed the opportunity to talk to him.
“I thought of creating a whole fictional graffiti scene with an influence limited only to the industrial field. How would you choose the names? How would the letters deform? How would the lyrics go if they didn’t read comics? How would they dress?”
Can you give us some context? What is the origin of this exhibition?
In 2004/2005 I found an abandoned factory next to a Renfe station on the outskirts of Barcelona. I had already visited abandoned places before, but this time it was different. They were giant buildings, almost immaculate. I went in alone, nervous, in search of clean walls. Soon I found a lot of old material that awakened the most intenseDiogenes I had ever felt. There were worker files, x-rays, maps, inks, photographs, magazines… The machinery catalogs from American companies were incredible. I spent hours looking at them, separating the material that was in good condition from that that was wet. I felt my hands impregnated with the past, like in second-hand stores, where dust and mites are mixed with other people’s stories from the past. I didn’t even paint that day, and on every trip I made to that factory I came back loaded, like an ant on a picnic.
Many years have passed. What has led you to do it now?
During these 20 years I have been cutting up these catalogs for illustration projects, animation, collages. Always reserving the logos of the companies that captivated me. In 2022, I started a pieces and tags fanzine based on those American companies. Each company became a graffiti writer, who played only with those logos and illustrations from the catalogs. New ideas emerged, but immediately my hand went towards stylized forms of more recent graffiti. It’s hard to get rid of something so internalized.
Although painting names on public surfaces has existed longer and in different places on the planet, the graffiti to which I belong was born in America in the late 60s and early 70s, inspired by a whole mixture of influences from that context: comics, record covers, cartoons, television, Blaxploitation… Everything that surrounded those young people fueled their creativity and what emerged (with unparalleled flow).
But what if there hadn’t beenZap Comix, Vaughn Bodé, Curtis Mayfield,Soul Train (I love them with all my heart, don’t get me wrong)? I thought of creating a whole fictional graffiti scene with an influence limited only to the industrial field. How would you choose the names? How would the letters deform? How would the lyrics go if they didn’t read comics? How would they dress? The results of this game are quite primitive (except for a style that I have developed more and I have already applied on some real graffiti on the street) but with new ideas that I would never have thought of with theSubway ArtorStyle Wars bibles under my arm. That’s fine with me.
“Industrial areas are part of every good graffiti writer who looks for abandoned factories, entrances to highways, tracks, train garages, freight containers… This exhibition will have more to do with all those people who live out this practice but I hope to transmit these same adventures to all visitors and that they understand that painting graffiti goes beyond letters.”
What was the connection with B-Murals like?
B-Murals offered me to do an individual show within its WCU3 installation exhibition project. Its objective is to invite artists from the most contemporary urban art scene in Barcelona to develop ephemeral installations and amplify their more experimental side that would normally not take place in a conventional gallery. B-Murals is inside Nau Bostik -an old adhesive materials company in Sagrera- that was converted into a cultural center. To occupy the space I thought of cheap materials that took up a lot of space. Metal and canvases inside an industrial warehouse -Click- immediately that fanzine that had started for a long time came to mind. My studio work is indirectly related to graffiti through tools and style, but I had never presented an artistic proposal so conceptually related to letters. Something prompted me to do it. I don’t know, maybe the opportunity to finish this fanzine whose process I have enjoyed so much.
Industrial areas are part of every good graffiti writer who looks for abandoned factories, entrances to highways, tracks, train garages, freight containers… This exhibition will have more to do with all those people who live out this practice but I hope to transmit these same adventures to all visitors and that they understand that painting graffiti goes beyond letters. Although the natural habitat of graffiti is the street, graffiti writers can have creative processes, documentation, exploration of materials, tools, and proactive or obsessive attitudes, which are very valid in the artistic field.
I didn’t have it in mind. Within the brainstorming, the first thing I designed was a giant sculpture of sheet metal that is much more chaotic. Plates placed diagonally, sweeping, twisted… Apart from being unfeasible with the budget I had, I didn’t want something that dynamic. I also designed a labyrinth option, installing the plates in a more conventional way, horizontally, creating a corridor circuit, but it lost a lot of the impact of a large diaphanous space. When installed vertically, the feeling is more spacious, like a mega-structure; walking next to giants like when you walk under bridges, abandoned factories…
The first vertical that emerged was the sheet metal structure. Then came the letters of HAVEG, which come from one of the collages. The logo was vertical and I thought it would be fun to make it notoriously vertical. Then I created two more verticals, canvases, and collages that go up the wall, to establish a rhythm in the composition.
More than fabric per se, what I was looking for was tarp. It reminds me of freight trains. I thought of cheap materials with which to take up a lot of space. I wanted to show a little graphic design from the industrial sphere that helped inspire me to create this exhibition. So I painted it and stapled them in a giant “patchwork” mode. The patchwork of large tarps in the back of the room helped me to create a small tunnel. That space makes the viewer doubt whether to enter or not, creating a certain restlessness of entering an area that should not be trespassed. On one side of the tunnel there is a composition of photos and materials used in some actions on the street.
“…the puzzle created by the workers when they dismember the metal sheets in the street always bothers/fascinates us graffiti writers. Almost overnight they create an abstract work with co-authorship that personally, I love.”
Can you briefly explain the performance of the series of photos on the goods, the installation, and the pieces on sheet metal?
Within the idea of creating a whole fictional graffiti scene, I saw that painting all the names on the street, documenting the actions, creating magazines or videos, was a lot of energy and money that I don’t have. So I chose a single name, CLEE, and developed it a little more than the others. I made that jacket as a nod toThe Warriors and the tejanas that we have all seen from the Old School, but with more industrial garments. The cap/mask is a garment that is made DIY by torch workers to protect their faces. The lyrics Chroome Marauders, “CM,” would be the CLEE crew.
Do collage aesthetics have to do with the repositioning of the plates by the workers and the eventual deconstruction of the pieces?
Yes, the puzzle created by the workers when they dismember the metal sheets in the street always bothers/fascinates us graffiti writers. Almost overnight they create an abstract work with co-authorship that personally, I love. On the way to Nau Bostik every day I pass through Les Glories, where workers have erased one of my graffitis with silver, in that carefree way. I wanted to get to an abstract zone by mixing that buff with my paint and the paint that the plate already had when we bought it on Wallapop. I have left the plates that are part of the installation as is to focus attention on those that are painted.
A thousand thanks to B-Murals for the opportunity, to MTN for the interest, and to all the friends and family who came to the opening!
You can visit “Industrials Scribers” until September 7 at B-Murals.
Pics: José Gallardo & Sawe
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