BOMBING SCIENCE
the value in what we do. BSCI: You have an e-zine coming out. What are your goals with the platform? What can people expect from the publication? Opek: Canned Goods! Yes! I’m so stoked on this project! It’s an online magazine that I’ve been putting together. I’m chopping up ideas in Photoshop and I mean, it’s all new to me but I’m trying to make it cohesive, to deliver an end-product of great quality - something to be proud of, something that people will really enjoy. It’s a free, digital, magazine. The goal is to uncover artists, new styles, inspire other people and really just to give back to the graffiti community. There are pictures of nice looking women, lots of aerosol art, other art that I find inspiring and just great photos in general. I’m asking for donations on the project, and that’s the only form of funding for now. Beyond that, my goal is to make great graffiti and street art accessible to everyone without feeling obligated to pay a cent. BSCI: In some ways, Canada is on the cutting edge of graffiti culture; the Under Pressure events, a strong band of graffiti-related sites,
and a lot of talented writer. Despite all these pluses, Canada seems to be an afterthought when people think of «graffiti countries». Why do you feel people sleep on Canada? Is the US shadow too big (does its presence overshadow Canada)? Are Canadian writers too complacent? What do you feel is the issue here?? Opek: Beyond the North American borders you can really see the drop-off in knowledge of Canadian culture; most definitely in part because Canada takes a pretty humble stance in the World overall. We don’t have the burning nationalism that exists in the US so in a lot of ways we take a back seat, and the graffiti scene is one place that I see that happening. The issues are numerous and it’d be hard to pin down any one specifically, but we have less people, less media, less money, less concrete to work with, and other things. A bunch of Canadian writers have raised eyebrows on an international level and while I’m not going to try to name everybody: Virus & Tars, the Stompdown Killaz YouTube project, Bacon, and Sueme stand out off the top of my head. I have the utmost respect for all those
BOMBING SCIENCE