Giftin' #3: New and Improved graffiti - "Children of the Can 2.0"

This past weekend, Bristol's Tangent Books turned up the heat on Bristol graffiti with the second edition of Felix "FLX" Braun's 2008 book, "Children of the Can: Bristol Graffiti and Street Art." This is officially Stevio's Christmas gift list item #3!

The original book Braun laid out Bristol's rich graffiti history and gave props to the old skool heroes, the celebrities (3D, Banksy) and the various hangouts. Click here to read my 2011 interview with Felix about the book project and how it came about.

There's not much information on Amazon.com, but Alibris (pronounced “uh-LEE-briss”), the leading independent bookselling website, even has first edition copies - which are no longer in print and have sold out - available for a reasonable price!

"Author Felix Braun has completed a monumental research project to unravel the thread that leads to the beginnings of Bristol's world renowned street art scene. Only somebody on the inside would be able to track down the leading figures from the early 80s and Felix was at the very heart of the movement which revolved around youth worker John Nation at the Barton Hill youth project. This book contains more than 40 interviews and traces the Bristol street art story from early protagonists such as 3D from Massive Attack to the new crop of young artists operating in the city." Alibris

The second edition of "Children of the Can..." adds an extra 70 pages, 30 new artists and 100s of new pictures as Bristol has become a destination for artists from around the country and even from abroad. Banksy's notoriety has put the city on the map, but also community efforts like the People's Republic of Stokes Croft, or PRSC for short, has become a safe haven for artists. Even, Bristol's municipal authorities have embraced the energy of the graffiti and street art movement by supporting several ground breaking events, including Banksy's takeover of the Bristol Museum and the recent multi-day "See No Evil" graffiti festival organized by Felix "FLX" Braun's long-time friend, Inkie.


The launch event on Saturday December 1st  featured some of Bristol’s finest graffiti and street artists painting in near freezing weather conditions in the ‘Children of the JAM’ in the People's Republic of Stokes Croft area which has become a hub for legal graffiti and street art.

Children of the Can: Bristol Graffiti and Street Art 352-page hard back book that "traces the roots of the city's graffiti and street art culture back to the 80s when 3D and the Z-Boys were the first to bring the street style of New York to Bristol. Felix profiles writers such as Cheo, Jody and Inkie from the early days at John Nation's Barton Hill Youth Club through to Banksy, Lokey and the Bad Appelz Crew and the current crop of Bristol wriiters."

Tangent Books Read more about the publisher of "Children of the Can" and the other graffiti books, including a great one on Banksy's work, on its blog.

#EXCLUSIVE interview with #FLX, author of "Children of the Can" #graffiti book

"Children of the Can" is an ambitious project by veteran Bristol graffiti artist and an old friend of mine, Felix "FLX" Braun. The book documents 25 years' of Bristol graffiti history...That's from the 1980s until, well...you can count. It serves as a study of Bristol street art, its key players and its influences. It's like a masters degree in Bristol street art!

The world's most famous Bristol (and possibly the world!) street artist is undoubtably Banksy. He needs no introduction, after all he's had a solo show in the Bristol Museum! But ask him who his influences were back in the day and he may well mention some of the artists in this book. Get yourself a copy here on Amazon.

I managed to chat with FLX about the Bristol street art scene and how it has changed in recent times. Here's the interview...

Stevio: This past Christmas I saw the Lakota Club mural on Moon St. in Stokes Croft. Can you tell me how that huge wall painting came about?

Lakota Club mural, Moon St., Bristol, U.K.

FLX: "The club had been needing a repaint for some time, having previously been painted by Paris and Eko of TCF Crew, some ten years plus earlier. It was looking pretty tatty and the new proprietors jumped at the chance to have it redone. Well, in actual fact, the new proprietors approached Cheo, and independently the building's owners approached me. I've known them for many years. I basically made Cheo an offer he couldn't refuse. He's not really into the organisational side of painting, which I thrive on; so i said 'look, i'll round the boys up, you do your bit, and everyone's a winner.' And it came off really well, it still looks fresh a year and a half later."

Lakota Club artists

Stevio: Many artists contributed to wall. What can you share about them and how do they fit into the history of 25 years' of Bristol graffiti?

FLX: "Well Cheo, Jody and me all come from the first wave of writers in Bristol, and we all originally met at Barton Hill youth centre in the late 80s. It was the first proper, legal hall of fame in the city and was also the focus for a lot of large-scale bombin missions at the time. Mecca! Soker's from the second wave, but only just, he's also a grumpy old fucker like Cheo, Jody and me, and he just so happens to be one of the UK's best style writers, so he had to be down. And then 3Dom, Epok and Sepr are basically the best of the young bloods.



All really excellent in their own right, but more importantly they're team players, not afraid to muck in and also able to leave their egos at home for the benefit of creating a great wall. Because I have no crew affiliations as such it's easy for me to cherry pick a team that are suited to a particular job. Honourable mentions must go to Lokey, Haka and Cheba, who all painted round the far side of the building as well."

Lokey, Haka, Cheba, Lakota Club side wall (credit: Bristol Graffiti)

Stevio: Are there any artists from the first wave of writers who are still doing illegal pieces?

FLX: "A couple, but 'honour amongst thieves' and all that!"

Stevio: How did the "Children of the Can" project come about and how long did it take from conception to finding an interested publisher?

FLX: "It started as a dare, some friends and me were looking at a really rather poor attempt to document Bristol's contemporary graffiti and street art scene, and being the opinionated old sod that I am, I blurted old "this is shit, I could do much better than this!" To which came the collective reply "go on, then, we dare you!

"So i started talking to a few people about it, including a couple of local publishers, and literally the second one i spoke to was sold on the idea right away. Well, the first one was as well, but i didn't think they were quite right, really, for one reason or another. It took very little time from the initial idea to getting a publisher onboard, i just wrote a sample chapter, an introduction and a skeleton idea for the structure of the whole project, and that was it. I presented a slide show of a few photos and talked about it, and the next thing it was on.

Sepr, Soker, 3Dom, Epok and FLX, St.Werburgh's 2010

"Richard Jones, at Tangent, was really easy to work with, and totally open to my ideas; including my insistence that we don't have a big, gold sticker on the front saying "FEATURING BANKSY!!!" which would have ruined it. But, Banksy wrote his own little, low-key chapter and we got some exclusive, unseen material of his in there, so it was all good."

Stevio: What influence do you think Banksy has had for the street art scene and Bristol? Do you think he still regards himself as a Bristolian, even though he spends more time out of the city than living there?

FLX: "I'm sure he still thinks of himself as Bristolian, although to my knowledge he hasn't lived here for a very long time (allegedly!). But I know he has a lot of love for the place, I think the Bristol Museum show demonstrated that.

Credit: Thou Shall Not Covet

I'd say some of his influence has actually been quite negative. Through no fault of his own, there are far too many people that think stenciling is an aesthetic, rather than a medium. And that's a global thing, too. We don't need a thousand Banksy clones with less wit and none of his originality, thank you very much! But, that said, I'm sure in general he has had a very positive impact on people's attitudes towards the art form in the city. There are now a number of galleries, decriminalised zones for painting, graffiti supply stores, and so on. The scene's pretty rich here, and he's definitely played a part in that."

Stevio: Did you discover any surprising realizations or angles as you put the book together? What did you leave out and why?

FLX: "Not really. I made a lot of friend s and a few enemies, but that's inevitable; after all it's only my take on what happened. Most people were really cooperative, including the big names, and had a lot of help and support from the graffiti community. A few people were upset when it came out, especially those who were left out, obviously, but you can't include everyone and everything.

"I would have liked to have included a whole section on tagging and hand styles, since they're the skeleton of all style-writing, as every graffiti writer knows. Also a lot of the active illegal writers weren't exactly forthcoming with information and photos, for obvious reasons, and there were some things that i was told and shown that people got cold feet about. That was a real shame. Some of the best quotes about the contemporary bombing scene never made the final edit."

Sepr, Soker and FLX, University West of England 2009

Stevio: What ideas and images were some artists nervous about sharing? And why?

FLX: "Well, if I told you that I'd be breeching their trust, now, wouldn't I? In very general terms anything overtly incriminating, and individuals being unwilling to be quoted specifically on things. Pictures of people in train yards are always tricky, obviously."

Stevio: What do you think the next 25 years of Bristol graffiti will entail? And what do you think Bristol needs to do to nuture or control it?

FLX: "You can't control graffiti, that's the whole point! And i'd hate to see it happen. Heaven forbid! I think in the next 25 years people will be hitting the outside of 30-storey buildings whilst flying using jet packs, and using portable teleportation devices to hit the inside of 10 Downing Street and New Scotland Yard. Which will probably be called Old Scotland Yard, by then.

"Bristol Council are trying to get their heads around it, but in truth it's duality (legal vs illegal) is very troublesome for them. How do you sanction and promote what is obviously a huge part of the city's cultural heritage and appeal (especially to students) when you have whole departments solely dedicated to its eradication and continued criminalisation. It's tricky, right?"

3Dom, Epok, Soker, Sepr and FLX, 2010

Stevio: "Paris has always been a destination for old skool writers. Where do you think Bristol ranks in the graffiti cities of the UK and Europe? Do you ever think they'll be a day when New York old skool writers Seen or Sharp move to Bristol?

FLX: "Ha. Well, it wouldn't surprise me if they visited. That's one thing the future may well hold, more international links, a big annual jam would be nice, with some big names flying in to paint.

UK-wise it's right up there, a lot of people move here specifically to paint. Europe-wide it's not that bombed-out at all, not compared to, say, Berlin, or Lisbon. I was in Lisbon last year and it's incredible. The council are embracing there, too. Good on them."

Stevio: Thanks for the time FLX!

"Bouncing Cats" at Urbanworld, NYC today!

This weekend the BET Urbanworld Film Festival is showing Nabil Elderkin's "Bouncing Cats," a film that captures how powerful hip hop can be. And how global it is.

The film about the Breakdance Project Uganda (B.P.U.) founded by Abraham “Abramz” Tekya is narrated by rap heavyweight, Common, and also features K'naan, Mos Def and Will.i.am. One of the most uplifting quotes from Tekya is: "I think music and dance can help us find peace."


BOUNCING CATS  film trailer from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

"Uganda has been called one of the worst places on earth to be a child. In the South, children face the threat of poverty and disease. In the North, these threats are enflamed by a brutal, mindless war inflicted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (L.R.A.) that has divided families, displaced millions, and led to the abduction and mutilation of tens of thousands of children resulting in the deterioration of identity and culture.

Bouncing Cats is the inspiring story of one man’s attempt to create a better life for the children of
Uganda using the unlikely tool of hip-hop with a focus on b-boy culture and breakdance. In 2006, Abraham “Abramz” Tekya, a Ugandan b-boy and A.I.D.S. orphan created Breakdance Project Uganda (B.P.U.). The dream was to establish a free workshop that would empower, rehabilitate and heal the community by teaching youth about b-boy culture. Based in Kampala, Uganda, B.P.U. has recently expanded to include permanent classes in Gulu, Northern Uganda. Abramz teaches classes three times a week to more than 300 kids from all parts of the country. Many of the children are homeless, victims of war and poverty, and few can afford proper schooling yet they walk from miles away to attend the B.P.U. classes. As Abramz says, “This is where many people’s pride is. It’s a skill that no one can take away from us.”

Crazy Legs, one of the founding members of the seminal Rock Steady Crew visited Uganda after receiving an invitation from Abramz to teach b-boy classes. What he discovered upon his arrival was both heartbreaking and inspiring. Traveling throughout Uganda, from the southern slums to the war-torn North, Crazy Legs encountered a passion for hip-hop and desire to learn amongst the most squalid conditions.

Bouncing Cats follows Abramz, Crazy Legs, and Breakdance Project Uganda on a journey to use hip-hop culture for positive social change." Nabil Elderkin

The trailer features Crazy Legs holding workshops for the kids. To hear him in interview you can find a (poor quality) audio interview here at Boston's "The Phoenix" blog.

Down under Elderkin is an Australian who lives in the U.S. now. He's one of the respected film makers who is a judge for the "Vimeo Festival + Awards." You can see his work for Kanye West, K'naan, Common, Black Eyed Peas, Seal, Nas and Damian Marley and others at his page.

Jeremy Scott adidas experimental video


And a word from the sponsor The film is supported by Red Bull Media House who has been promoting hip hop events around the world for years and has built a platform that has enabled hip hop to be experienced farther and wider than before.

#UNleashed Magazine: "The Past According to Futura" #ArtInTheStreets #Futura

This is the last of four articles I wrote for UNLeashed Magazine in 2011 to celebrate the "Art in the Streets" exhibition at LA's Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art.) Reviewing my interview with Futura over two years later I am still in awe of insights he shared with me and the context he gave to the fragments of hip hop history I have experienced since I fell in love with the culture in 1982-83.

My other three UNLeashed Magazine articles can be found here: the beginnings of street art (Patti Astor and Fab 5 Freddy;) the appearance of branded street art (Tats Cru and Scion;) and the business aspect within street art (Nick Walker and Lainya Magana.) 

Photo credit: courtesy of Futura

A 30-year career for a graffiti artist is rare. It takes a special breed of talent and the confidence to take your art beyond the train yard, basketball court and gallery to new platforms and levels of creativity to reach broader audiences. Futura [2000] is one of the few artists who has constantly reinvented himself, always looking forward and rarely looking back. UNleashed Magazine spent an evening talking with Leonard McGurr, aka Futura, at his home in Brooklyn, ahead of his participation in the Art in the Streets show opening at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Los Angeles.

MOCA exhibition entrance (photo credit: Stevio)

Futura’s graffiti career started in 1970 when McGurr invented his tag (a graffiti writer’s nom de plume), to represent himself in the graffiti underworld and disguise himself from the authorities. “Coming up with the name ‘Futura 2000’ – there were a lot of things that I stole that from…The ‘2000’ was my inspiration and the name became something I live by…and I [have] actually survived 30 years…”

In the 70s, what made Futura 2000 stand out wasn’t his catchy sci-fi tag - after all he was preceded by Paul Renner’s 1920s typeface and Lincoln’s concept car of 1955. He stood out because he painted ‘whole cars’ – trains painted from top to bottom – in what became his signature; abstract and emotional blaze of color. His 1980 painted train raised the bar and created a new aesthetic in graffiti art. Futura lays out the milestones in his long career, “1980 I decide to break with tradition and discover the unknown. The abstract wholecar painted over a three-hour period on a cold night in March would ultimately become iconic. Whoa. who knew?”

Futura 2000 whole car 1980 (photo credit: Henry Chalfont and Martha Cooper)

He made the transition to canvas in the 80s and shared a Lower East Side studio with Fab 5 Freddy. This is the period that will be the essence of Futura’s installation at MOCA. “I have a fantastic painting from 1984, [a] kinda large important painting - seven by nine feet. It was a large painting for its time. This particular painting I gave to my wife when she was pregnant…in the summer of ‘84…that’s 26-27 years ago and it’s a great painting to have as a retrospective [of my work]. And I’m gonna match it with another piece that I haven’t even made yet. I’m gonna make it out there [Los Angeles]. It’s not the ‘yin and the yang,’ but the ‘then and the now’.”

Futura paintings 1984 and 2011, Art in the Streets (photo credit: Stevio)

On the importance of the MOCA show, Futura is very clear. “It is great that Jeffrey [Deitch] has done this, because...people [will] want to talk about the history of the movement…[And] being selected as one of the artists [at MOCA] is awesome…this is probably the first real recognition by an American institution…of the entire movement.[Not just] individuals like Basquiat and Haring who had already been recognized.” As an elder in the graffiti world, Futura is philosophical about what the exhibition will do for the street art genre as well as artists’ careers. “I’m not looking at the show [to say] ‘hey I’m in MOCA!’ It’s one aspect of me as a person. It’s not that important! I’m sure to some of these kids this is it! This is like ‘oh, God dude I’m in! I’m gonna cash in on this,’ or whatever the motivation will be. I’m grateful and I will represent myself very well.”

“I think this show will inflate some peoples’ prices and that should be good for them. I’m grateful for MOCA and I’m excited, but I don’t see it as the defining moment in my career. I think it’s a great moment for the movement…but how many people are in the space, literally inside the show? How many kids who didn’t make it in the show are part of the exterior events? [Ask yourself] not who’s in, [but] who’s out!” 

Art in the Streets artist group photo (credit: Stevio)

Futura Past  You have to understand Futura’s past to truly understand his point of view. He got recognition during the first gallery love affair with graffiti art in the 80s. He exhibited in the Tony Shafrazi gallery in 1982 alongside Kenny Scharf, then again in 1984 with a solo show. But he was given the cold shoulder after galleries and collectors turned their backs on graffiti art and moved on to more traditional, highbrow art. In response to that boom and bust era, he looked for other avenues to channel his creativity. He reflected, “I didn’t want to be part of the movement 24/7…I diversified my creativity is how I see it. I did a lot of things with my talent and I wasn’t a one-dimensional player. [Now, with MOCA] the art world has come to me. I’ve tried to avoid it…but here it is.”

Earlier this year, fine art auctioneer house, Bonhams, sold one of Futura’s installation pieces painted live in 1983 while he was on tour with the UK punk rock band, The Clash. The four by eight foot painting sold for just under $60,000. “It’s an awesome price and it’s great for the person who profited from that,” said Futura, “I’m not bitter [or asking] ’where’s my percent[age]?’ I don’t worry about those things or play the numbers game.”

credit: Bonhams

“I’m not a collector of my own work, or for that matter of fact, anyone’s work…there’s only one painting in my apartment [and it’s] of my kids. It’s not like I need to be around my work…if there is some potential business [from MOCA I will look at it], but I will [continue to] be as stingy and cheap with my own work as I’ve ever been. Hey, I don’t even have [any of] it! So it’s hard to come by. Just because there’s going to be a rush on it doesn’t mean I’m going to fill it either…I’m never drawn by that [money], that’s not my motivation.”

Outernational  As with many things, foreign collectors seem to appreciate the graffiti aesthetic more than at home. Collectors of Futura’s work outside of America have been consistently supportive over the years, so why not move abroad like some of his contemporaries? Futura explained how it was in the early 80s, “People like Jon One, Toxic, Quik, didn’t really expatriate until ‘83/’84…First of all, I’m from New York so I’m not going anywhere, although I have been to 70 countries…and I loved it. All the subsequent exhibitions were based on European interest in our work. [It came from] the people in France who bought; the Dutch who bought a lot, as well as the Germans and the Italians. They all supported our art, whereas no one in New York was supporting it, except for the high-end guys – Basquiat, Haring, Scharf. I sold some paintings; no doubt, I had a moment, but no one was buying graffiti art with any consistency. I was never going to leave [New York]; but people left because that’s where the money was.”

Bonjour hip hop  In 1982, Futura visited France for the first time as part of the New York City Rap Tour. This was masterminded by journalist Bernard Zekri who befriended Afrika Bambaataa (founder of Hip Hop’s influential Universal Zulu Nation) and Jean Georgakarako (better known as Jean Karakos) the man behind French new wave record label, Celluloid Records. This period is one of folklore, but it is clear that commercial interests had already infiltrated hip hop. Futura recalls that time, “Prior to the tour, there was a French rush on our movement [hip hop] and it occurred with a few articles that were done with [Fab 5] Freddy, myself and Bambaataa about this new phenomenon…it wasn’t called hip hop yet. The creation of the records [I painted the sleeves] was all part of Jean Karakos’s marketing strategy.”

Talking about his work for Celluloid and the 1982 Celluloid release of his record Escapades of Futura 2000, “I did those covers [for Celluloid] but those records were an exploitation event and I never got a dime, but I know that they cut a deal with The Clash to get their music. That record was meant to happen as a cassette tape and it predates the [New York City] Rap Tour by seven months. So, when I came back to New York I said to Fred [Fab 5 Freddy] ‘Yo, you gotta listen to this little rap record I did…’ It was my homage to graffiti, but I never wanted that to be a fucking record…and Celluloid cut other records (Fab 5 Freddy’s Change the Beat, DST’s Megamix II and Phase II’s The Roxy). All this record shit gets done prior to this tour. Why? Because they have to sell something on the tour. At the time, I was totally manipulated, but I didn’t mind because ‘we were all going to Paris!’”



Fast Forward to the 90s  “1985 the Eighties peak; mid decade... those with skills and talent find new opportunities. those without; are trapped in history. Bummer!” Futura moved on to the next phase in his career. By the 90s, the fate that Futura firmly believes in continued to push his brand of art internationally into other avenues. “…I met James Lavelle from Mo’Wax in Berlin. As a result of meeting James, I met Hardy [Blechman of Maharishi for whom Futura designed a range of clothing]. A few years later, I hooked up with the Tokyo ‘Harajuku’, über-cool set. Things were happening without any plan or forecast. The gates opened up in Japan. Japan wound up being this place that supported me…and gave me opportunities that I’d never seen before in America…I love Japan. And James was my key…as he was always in with those guys.”

Cultural Overload   By 2005, Futura saw the urban culture swelling in popularity. “2005 the MOVEMENT is not just GLOBAL it’s GARGANTUAN.” When asked to elaborate, he added, ”I don’t just mean the art world. It’s the lifestyle and culture…street art, social networking and blogs, in addition to all the consumer culture like Hypebeast and Freshness. No longer do we live in niches; all the circles cross over each other. There’s the community of artists and designers and the ‘cool boy’ stuff. In ’05 it hit a curve, [and became] another movement that was bound to explode – it was too much – and now we’re in this recovery period. I think the movement glutted on itself, it got too high on itself, fed off of itself and it got sick. I’m weary of all that. I can be in it, but when I’m in it, I am never really believing it.”

In April, Futura travels to Los Angeles in preparation for the Art in the Streets show. “I’m looking forward to going to LA just to check out the work on the street, ‘cause I’m sure there’s a ton. I think I’ve seen all there is to see in New York, which is almost depressing.” As the MOCA show shines the spotlight on him once more, like many forefathers of a movement, he’s protective of what he’s pioneered and outspoken about those who follow in his footsteps. Referring to the new wave of street artists, Futura opines, “I take a lot of photos, so I’m aware of the new kids on the block. I don’t mean the bigtimers like Twist, Swoon, Barry McGee or Shepard Fairey. I’m talking more about the people who haven’t made it yet.”

Futura, Art in the Streets 2011 (photo credit: Stevio)

“It kinda makes me angry that artists who are out there today don’t get the historical perspective; they simply jumped on a bandwagon that had gained momentum…happy to jump aboard and reap the benefits; and they don’t care about, or respect the forefathers or pioneers. I claim some stake in the way it has all panned out 30 years later.”

Talking about street art, Futura says, “I like some of it, but I don’t get anything [emotional from it]. It’s very strange.I get that in galleries also.” He continues, “It’s not just technical ability; it’s energy and emotion which I think certain artists [need to] deliver which is beyond even the work. You [need to] get more of a feel for the person, and that’s hard to translate with a lot of street art. It’s very cold, I don’t get a lot of warmth from it…”

Futura, the artist, is multi-faceted and his work has seeped into every aspect of urban culture, but Futura the man is very much centered around his family whom he considers to be his greatest achievement. “I’m proud of my kids –they’re children of the globe, but Brooklyn is at the heart. My wife laid out the plan...If I need technical advice I call my son, if I need the truth I call my daughter…”

So, what’s next for Futura? “I’d still like to make a movie…I’m still young enough to do a lot more interesting things…that’s why I don’t like to reminisce, although this [MOCA] show makes us look back. It’s not what I do…I’m Futura, I’m the guy who’s looking ahead. It’s no disrespect…I’ve always been that guy.”

Art Of Facts (Feat. FUTURA) from 13thWitness™ on Vimeo.

by Stephen Pang (re-published with permission from UNleashed Magazine)

Copyright 2011 by Stephen Pang/UNleashed Magazine.

  Unleashed Mag April 2011 - Street Art edition by Stephen Pang