SHUTTERS, THE GRAFF WRITERS EXHIBITION OF LONDON – PIC WRH & SAKER PFB/DDS
Shutters is telling the story of Graffiti from London old school bringing it all the way up to today writers. Finn Brewster alongside the boys at Camdemonium, writers PIC and SAKER talk to us about what it’s like creating the first Shutter gallery show.
KILLA KELA: When you look around the exhibition and see these legends and kings of now, it’s all done so well. Finn when you had this idea and not being from the graffiti scene, it really must have opened one hell of a pandora box for you?
FINN: Yeah, I didn’t have any idea about the ins and outs of the Graffiti scene but Pic and Saker really welcomed me in and helped me out. They educated me on all of it. I’ll be honest I’m still learning, there’s a lot of names, a lot of people but it really did open up a box about something that I really didn’t know anything about. What I’ve found though is that it’s a community and they’re all stand-up people, they look out for each other, and they welcome me in. That’s why it’s important to me to respect the culture because I’m not from it, so I’ve got to do right by them.
As I’m going through this whole process, getting prints made, getting frames done, getting artwork in, writing the bios, they helped out throughout the whole thing. I wouldn’t be able to pull it off without them.
KILLA KELA: What inspired this exhibition?
SAKER: It was during lockdown, so all the shutters were down, and I had just wanted to liven it up a bit and make it more vibrant. The open-air gallery really wanted local artists to do the first exhibition. It’s like the stars all aligned.
KILLA KELA: And this is a first of its kind, no one has done a full shutters exhibition before?
FINN: I know there’s been some shutters here and there and some graffiti shows in places, but not an actual pure shutters show cut to size. I don’t think that’s been done before, I believe is the first London shutters show and maybe in the world.
KILLA KELA: The landscape of graff is is constantly changing and evolving, what do you see as in like the future of things?
FINN: I think graff is the most misconceived thing in the world, people just put it down as tagging and it’s not. It’s an interesting art form and people are risking life and limb and their freedom to write their name essentially for little to no reward. I think this show has a lot of good educational value to it like there’s lots of people coming in from the street who literally know nothing and then say oh that’s quite cool. Hopefully it’s the first of many.
I hope where we’re at now inspires people to actually see this as a good thing and that this is a movement and we’ve got some really good people within this movement, and it helps the public will respect it and understand it more.
KILLA KELA: Talk to me about Candemounim. I know there is a lot of people involved and you guys are representing but what your vision?
PIC: We really want to bring everyone up with us, pay homage to those who put their life and liberty on the line. Some people have been in the in the game for 30-40 years possibly so it’s like why can’t the real people get somewhere with this, so we can hopefully help facilitate that.
KILLA KELA: The calibre of writers is insane, you have Grand, Diet, 10 Foot, Mear, Can1, Chane, Jet97, Excel, Teach, Zomby, Akt One, Este, Doze, Akit, Zonk, Pixie to name a small few..Its really is amazing.
SAKER: It’s like a modern day take on a hall of fame, graffiti jam, in a gallery space.
PIC: It’s amazing just to see all of these different artists together. Some of them haven’t like you know put picked up a spray can for 25 years maybe even longer so to have all of these different eras of graffiti artists in the same room it’s unprecedented as far as I’m aware. There are some serious legends in this room.
FIND OUT MORE:
Today we are going on location into deepest Camden London, to meet 2 of London’s most dynamic Graffiti writers on the eve of their latest exhibition SHUTTERS by Camdemonium: Legends PIC of WRH and SAKER of DDS & PFB, as well as Finn Brewster – the man making moves across the Camden landscape with his new exhibition space The Camden Open Air Gallery. We’re talking graffiti with an art exhibition that boasts art from Grand, Diet, 10 Foot, Mear, Can1, Chane, Jet97, Excel, Teach, Zomby, Akt One, Este, Doze, Akit, Zonk Pixie to name a small few. Today we’re unearthing the misconceptions of the Graffiti scene in London and the legends that paved the way; the concept behind the show, the people behind the Camdemonum project, the stories, the history and way more.. all from the Camden Open Air Gallery itself! enjoy guys.