TRIPL REPAINTS THE WHOLE “SUBWAY ART”

The Dutch graffiti writer Tripl has just published the book Repainting Subway Art, published by Ruyzdael.
Ten years, many hours, many styles, many panels, many wholecars, married couples and, yes: a lot of paint. But above all a lot of passion and respect for the history of graffiti. That’s how we would summarize Tripl’s magnificent work in this book. A whopper of a tribute.

For those who don’t know of him, Tripl, a.k.a. Furious, is a Dutch writer who started his career in 2001. This writer could be associated with the tradition of big names in the game that project ideas and concepts and play with the viewer in their pieces.
The most ambitious of his ideas so far has been to recreate and repaint the photos of the panels from the book Subway Art. This titanic task has materialized in a book that has just been put on pre-sale by the publisher Ruyzdael and goes on sale exactly 40 years after the publication of Subway Art (Thames & Hudson).
We talked to Tripl and asked him to tell us a few things about the book, but before that, let’s provide you with some context. This book is 92 pages longer than the original, and in those additional pages we can find new photos and texts, plus an essay and interviews with Tripl and Martha Cooper.
The texts have been rewritten by Dr. Edward Birzin, a New York writer who, among other things, created The Subway Art History Project with some friends. If you want to know more about Dr. Birzin, you can do so here.

” I just love the combination of adrenaline and the creative part. You have to play tactful, try to remain the predator and not become the pray, and while doing so, try to get something nice on the train. See how far you can push the limits.”

Tell us about yourself…
I’m a writer from The Netherlands, mainly focusing on trains and subways. I started painting in 2001 and dipped my toes into the world of train graffiti a year later. It didn’t take long before I was hooked. I just love the combination of adrenaline and the creative part. You have to play tactful, try to remain the predator and not become the pray, and while doing so, try to get something nice on the train. See how far you can push the limits. Both action and creative-wise. It’s fun, it’s adventurous; it’s the shit!

How long did it take you to replicate the book?
In total it took 10 years. That’s counting from the first piece, which was a remake of Seen and Json’s Happy Holidays car for Christmas 2013. But I had no idea what I had started yet. I did a parody on the Hand of Doom a year later and another remake in 2015. The idea of doing the whole book was only born in the beginning of 2017. That’s when I started going for it, full power. So about 80% of the pieces were done in 3 to 4 years. The last two years were mostly recreating pictures with people in them, such as Martha’s picture with the two police officers in the subway, or the kid running on the subway roofs.

Did you find it hard to convince people to let the project come out?
Martha and Henry told me they struggled quite a bit back in the 80’s having Subway Art published at first and had to take ‘no’ for an answer from various publishers, until they finally came in contact with Thames & Hudson.
I think the advantage nowadays is that there are a lot of graffiti-orientated publishers, although often with a smaller reach. At a pretty early stage during my project, when people started realizing what I was doing, I was asked many times if I was going to release a book. I started receiving offers from several publishers within the graffiti community, so I was a bit spoiled for choice. But eventually Ruyzdael Publishing was the best fit for me, which turned out to be a great choice!

“…the biggest problem? I guess the answer is lack of time. It’s tough, going out at night, waking up a few hours later to get the picture, sometimes not sleeping at all.”

What is the biggest problem you had in painting the replicas?
There were a couple of pieces that truly were a challenge. Either because of their size, complexity or because they demanded a certain setting to get the right picture.
The photoshoot around the Dondi whole car for example, argh! Action pictures in daytime, nighttime, a traffic picture on a bridge. Or the Duster Lizzie married couple. It’s big, pretty complicated, and then to catch it the next day on a bridge in a curve. Quite a struggle to coordinate.
Some other problems I had to face while painting and capturing the replicas were of course encounters with police and security, drivers pulling out my train earlier than expected, the buff squad cleaning my piece before I could get a proper picture, passing trains blocking my piece exactly when I was supposed to get the right picture, that kind of stuff…
But the biggest problem? I guess the answer is lack of time. It’s tough, going out at night, waking up a few hours later to get the picture, sometimes not sleeping at all. Normal life goes on too, I have a job and friends and family. A day only has 24 hours.

Now that the book is out, what’s next?
Next? What do you mean?! I’m done! If you’re looking for me, I’ll be chilling on the couch!
Nahh, I still have an annoyingly long list with ideas. Most of them small, some bigger. But another 10 year project? Hmm, I don’t think so. Or well… Perhaps I should ‘remake’ the Style Wars documentary?

What has it been like working with Edward Birzin? Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, Terror 161, Skeme…
It was great having Edward Birzin on my side. He has a lot of knowledge and did a great job rewriting the original Subway Art texts. Also his honest feedback on the behind-the-scenes texts I wrote had me step up my game, improving the book overall.
Having Martha and Henry’s blessing is almost magical, you could say. They published their book back in the 80’s, which had a great influence on graffiti worldwide, which influenced me as a person as soon as I got in contact with graffiti. And now here I am, meeting those very people. This obviously counts for the couple of old school writers I briefly met along the way too. Without the New York old school writers and Subway Art, no Repainting Subway Art. My god, what would I’ve been doing all this time otherwise?

For some time now you can be associated with a strain of writers who add an extra concept to their pieces on trains.. Like Razor, Rage or Taps and Moses… Do you think that is accurate?
I feel honored when people tell me that, since I like their work a lot. They are taking train graffiti to a higher level by adding a new level of creativity, and that’s exactly what I like to do too.

“I realized the traffic photo of a panel on a train doesn’t necessarily need to be the end product. It can be part of something bigger”

What do you think about the controversy that Chintz is the inventor of all this?
I do see him as a pioneer, who was way ahead of his time in an early stage. I don’t know about the words ‘inventor of this all’, but he sure inspired a lot of writers and opened a bunch of eyes and minds.

As we see, your work is perfect to exhibit in a gallery and on Instagram. Is it premeditated?
When I first got on Instagram, I just wanted to try to stand out from the rest. There are so many writers posting so much stuff; it sure can be an overload at times. Soon I realized the traffic photo of a panel on a train doesn’t necessarily need to be the end product. It can be part of something bigger. And by unlocking that thought, a whole new world of possibilities opened up. It could become an animation for example, or something interactive. It’s fun thinking, ’what else can I do?’ So it basically just grew like that.

Soon you will find the book on the shelves of your favorite MTN stores or at the Sprayplanet online store.