MANI
FES
TO
When thinking of my manifesto, I wanted to look at artists who tackled their subject matter in much the same way I do. I could make references to artists such as Banksy, Fiery, Doze Green, but I feel every graf artist dealing with controversial subject matter references these guys over and over.
I felt it was important, to have my manifesto stand as a chance to amalgamate some different aspects of my art practice. Particularly a merging of film, street art and written word.
I looked to artists that inspired me to push these boundaries while also challenging me to look at things in a different way. I find myself heavily influenced by screen, written word and music because of this, I conceptualise things as grand orchestrations. Film and spoke word allow me to build upon creating that theatrical emotional attachment to the paint through a more immersive experience with the viewer. Creating connection through story telling.
MARINA ABRAMOVIC
AN ARTIST'S MANIFESTO
Marina Abramović - An Artist's Life MANIFESTO. (2014). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTH4wYhWH54&t=48s
Marina Abramovic does everything with confronting passion. A stoic figure driving forwards with complete defiance of her sex or rather the perceptions around that notion, social expectations, and political powers. She is obsessed with using her practice to understand herself more. She uses it to unpick and unravel her understanding of existence, purpose, spirituality and inter human relationships. Her use of humour through the piece and deeply personal understanding of her own manifesto showing a far more approachable side of Abramovic that we are use to.
ORLANDO
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY SALLY POTTER
Orlando Theatrical Trailer. (2009). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MorOaD61KUI
Loosely based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando. It is a divine modern tribute to the great poets. With ripplings of sharp wit and the depths of Wolf's socially probing voice echoing throughout. It transverses through time, following Swinton's many reincarnations. The beauty of language saturating your ear with complete overwhelming grandeur.
MANIFESTO
WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JULIAN ROSEFELDT
Shot over 12 days in Berlin, the film integrates artist manifestos from different time periods synthesised with contemporary scenarios. The cinematography eloquently wraps around each characters (13 in total all played by Cate Blanchette), whom recites parts of manifestos of various political or artistic movements. Karl Marx, Tristan Tzara - Dada Manifesto 1918, Gino Severini - Manifesto of the Futurist Painters (1910), Vicente Huidobro - We Must Create (1922), André Breton - Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) and many many more. It is a celebration of the mind, word, art, music and movement.
JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Basquiat burst onto the graffiti scene as part of the duo SAMO. Writing enigmatic epigrams in Manhattan during the late 1970 before dying at the age of 27. He breached new ground between the street scene and world of galleries.
His art centered around "suggestive dichotomies", such as wealth, integration versus segregation of the black community, as well as his own inner and outer experience. He engaged in direct conversations with other artists work, pushing to elevate Graffiti in a way that no one had before.
He merged text and image, creating abstraction alliterations of both poetry and form.
A GRAFITTI MANIFESTO
Building towards my own manifesto I feel the need to create something that represents both myself and my work in a raw confronting sense. Holding true to my ethos as a creative and as a reflection / homage to the artists I feel continuously inspired by.
Art is breath, she is never ending obsession.
She beats upon the whitened walls of my cerebral cortex and demands I scream.
She is never ending urgency
She is the moral compass upon my stoke
She is scorching flames of victims rage
She is obligation
Art requires every fragment of self deprecation
Art requires bloodied paws and vulture eye,
Art does not accept excuses
ART
REQUIRES TRUTH,
NOT
SINCERITY...