The Hub's Newspaper issue N°3 -March 2013

The HUB Paper A journal about creation initiated by DC Shoes

Issue 3 - Spring 2013

Bristol LE Shoe By

Visionary st Arti ww w.chlo etrujill o.com

ChloĂŠ Trujillo Artist Project available April 2013

More information on dcshoes.com/life

The HUB Paper Issue 3 - Spring 2013 - A journal about creation initiated by DC Shoes

Previously at The HUB p.4 & 5 The Hit Ups p.6

Duplex p.8

Rebekah p.10

Kenneth Ploquin - DROP IN p.11 Jason Jägel p.12 Jeff Decker p.16

Kevin Lyons p.14 Mr and Mrs Sabotage p.18

Marke Newton p.22

Flava Floors p.26

European Snapshots : Cork p.28 Tchane Okuyan p.34 European Snapshots : Istanbul p.36 W1910 p.42 A concept by Emmanuel Labadie Art direction and design by Christophe Victoor Editing by Sofia Nebiolo Many thanks to Niall Hasset (Prime Time), Hakan Berberler (Pozitif Sport), Scott A Sant’Angelo (Arkitip), Mark Owens, Adam Dupuis and Benoit Copin (soixanteseize/soixantedixsept), Marcin Lewandowski (cover)

DC Shoes Europe, 162 rue Belharra, 64500 St Jean de Luz, France The HUB by DC Shoes, 15 rue Montorgueil, 75001 Paris, France dcshoes.com - facebook.com/dceurope thehub@dceurope.com

Previously at The HUB NEUE at The HUB We presented the contemporary artistic duo Neue’s exhibition back in October 2012. Nicolas Choyé and Esteban Gonzalez met 9 years ago and ever since have been developing ways to express their art through unexpected mediums. For their exhibition at The HUB, Neue exhibited photographs, drawings and paintings through the eyes of found objects.

“We never use frames to show our work. For us, the raw feeling of photographs directly nailed on a wall is much more organic” explains Esteban Gonzalez. “We want visitors to feel close the art, not intimidated by it.” Exclusive to The HUB, Neue produced unique skateboard decks using an argentic photography development process, as well as series of postcards.

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MMav at The HUB Parisian duo MMav (“Mon Moulin A Vent” / “My Windmill”) presented their exhibition at The HUB in January 2013. Rey and Mutt, the two masterminds behind MMav, created a new body of work defined by their signature aesthetic especially for The HUB. The two worked together on a series of three kakemonos applying their intricate technique to the

illustrations highlighted by a symmetrical pattern; two dyptics on skateboard decks and a 1m by 1m hand drawn transparent plexiglas piece. The exhibition also presented a series of original artworks by each artist, including three pieces that will be used by DC Shoes for a Curated by The HUB capsule collection in Spring 2014.

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The Hit Ups The Hit Ups is a Bristol (UK) based 5-piece band with a stage craft that is meticulous in its chaos! We have been following their music for a while, and we will soon have the chance to welcome them at the DROP IN studio.

many iterations and developments of who we are, individually and as Team THU, it is too personal to announce so easily. If people work it out, they’ll work us out. We’re going to have to think of some kind of initiation for those that get it...

How did you all meet ?

What was the first track you recorded as The Hit Ups?

The Hit Ups is made up of Lewis on thunder drums, Nick on synth wail machines, Charlie on guitar and distortion duties, Josh on vocals and head whipping and Samuel on bass rumble! Our connections together stretch way back into the depths of history but we were brought together by ill omens, inspired friendships, teen angst, and the best of enemies...

The First track we ever recorded was a track called K.I.D.S. and fittingly we were all really young at the time! Back then we were way more ska/punk influenced as we all grew up on that musical diet! All we really wanted to do was play house parties and be old enough to buy beer (the first part hasn’t really changed much). It was a really important time for us all as it made us want to really play live music, and that desire really fused us together and eventually pushed us in the direction we’re heading today.

Where does the name ‘The Hit Ups’ come from?

When we were born as a band the meaning didn’t seem so intimate. But, now the acronym has been held through so

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What is your best gig memory?

It’s a really difficult question to answer! Different gigs stand out for different reasons. We’ve had amazing festival slots where you’re playing to huge crowds and the festival atmosphere is totally electric… But some of our favorite shows have been in sweaty basements with no stage where people can just totally lose their shit and get wild with us!

Some shows are great because you connect with people, others are amazing because you convert people to your music…

Any funny stories about your recent tour?

The photos and videos tell it better than words for sure! You can check them out on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (just search @thehitups on all of them to find us!). But apart from that we’ve met some totally insane people, slept on bus station floors, drank too much, eaten too little, chipped teeth, torn muscles and had WAY too much fun. For our first proper tour it’s been absolutely amazing. It’s great to be getting out there and bringing our music to totally new crowds.

What can we expect in the future from the band?

We’re currently working on a heap of new things but we’re keeping our lips quite sealed about them. We’ll be back in the studio soon and we’ll begin plotting our next tour in the next month or so. We’ll also be traveling further afield and attempting to recruit as many people to The Hit Ups army as possible. But people can expect big things, sweat, un-deniabledance-punk, more chipped teeth, more parties! We’ll see you in your town soon! www.thehitups.com

Duplex The Parisian based artists from Duplex recently came to the studio DROP IN to record a few exclusive tracks with us. We speak with Gaspard Murphy about the development of this very promising band. Photos by David Manaud

We are both attracted by big american production, massive sounds, that “plus-vrai-que-nature” feeling of listening to a song on your iPod and imagining big things. But we wanted it to be in French. Tom came up with the name Duplex and it had so much meaning: we write in a two story apartment, it’s two of us, we always feel like the music has two levels to it.

Also when I was in New York we were working “en duplex”...

We find new meanings everyday. Plus, we think it sounds really good! The style of music you make is never obvious to the one who’s making it. But I’d say that the energy of our music is completely rock oriented. The songs are always driven by drums, guitars and vocals. We are also always trying to keep it pop, and have big choruses and create as many musical orgasms as we can! Which isn’t always easy.

We listen to so much music that we always try and incorporate elements of things that we find exciting. There’s definitely an electro influence; it’s hard to escape in France with bands like Daft Punk, Justice or Phoenix! But we are also fans of more traditional modern rock bands like The Strokes, Kings Of Leon or Arcade Fire. I’m also a fan of some older French acts like Alain Bashung, Noir Désir, Télephone and Serge Gainsbourg of course! There is no music that we don’t listen to, and we try to learn and incorporate new things all the time.

Live, it’s going to be all about the show and delivering something great, delivering heat. We wanted to make it a four-piece band because it’s such an emblematic way to play rock music. In order to achieve many of the electro and synthesized sounds, we use a couple of keyboards on stage and some sequencing, but we try to keep it very energetic and hot. Nine Inch Nails is a big influence as far as the live technique and esthetic goes.

What’s your background?

Duplex is Gaspard Murphy (guitar and vocals) and Tom Daveau (drums). The two of us being multi-instrumentalists, we play all of the instruments in the studio. I play bass, keyboards and do all the programming, while Tom plays keyboards and performs any percussive element.

Live, Duplex adds Amaury Belair (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Florance David (bass, vocals) to the line-up. They are both incredibly talented and really help us in re-creating the arrangements.

Tom and I are both from Paris, we met when we were 16 and quickly became best friends. Hanging out all the time and listening to 80’s rock and french electro. We played in some bands together at the time and we would also rehearse our instruments together, but I don’t think we ever thought of making music together as seriously as we do now with Duplex.

I think by the time we were 18 we knew that we wanted to dedicate our life to music. Nothing else made us happier.

To this day we are always getting excited by music, whether it’s a new song we are writing, a new song by an artist we like, a new piece of gear, a new artist we disocver...

After high-school, Tom stayed in Paris, playing with many bands, several gigs a week and I went away to New York City for 4 years to study music production and composition at Purchase College. It’s like we knew we were both getting ready for something big in the future.

In 2010, I was in Paris for the holidays, and I went to see Tom play. I remember being amazed by how great of a drummer he had become and something ticked in my mind - we had to start making music together again.

So far, what have been your best memories with the band?

Well, because I was out of the country we haven’t played many shows yet, and in the last two months we have been mainly focusing on recording the album therefore I think our best memories so far are ones spent in the studio. We spent a month in Brussels at Rec and Roll studios with our producer Charles de Schutter, bringing 2 years of demos to life. Having Tom play real drums and expanding on our ideas was an amazing experience.

What is Duplex?

Duplex is about us two really willing to try and make something new as far as francophone music goes. Something that would excite us.

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Rebekah Rebekah is a London based DJ and a part of the Women’s DJ Collective campaign. Through her genuine british influences, Rebekah explores the present and the future of club music.

During my sets I try and capture a certain energy to share with the clubbers, and the technological advancements of DJing has definitely helped with this process. I tend to play 4 decks on Traktor and can loop sounds and use FX to create a unique experience.

Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi! I’m Rebekah and I’m from Birmingham. Growing up I was into everything from Michael Jackson, Madonna to Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Pink Floyd. Then at the age of 16 I discovered house and techno music. I lived in a very musical environment, my parents were original punks so we always had music on at home, from Sex Pistols, Patti Smith to Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk… I left school and went straight in to work training as a chef, which is pretty funny as you will find a lot of DJ’s worked in this industry. I started DJing out in clubs back in 1997. My dream job was to DJ and travel the world doing so.

How is a typical day in the life of Rebekah?

How would you describe your musical style?

London has always been and will always be one of the most creative cities in the world, musically and beyond. I am only really familiar with the dance scene but you can find what you are looking for there, and with so many pockets of scenes and different areas with their different tribes, it makes the London club scene one of the most exciting in the world.

It’s a real melting pot of people and it is always cutting edge in regards to up to date music.

I have two typical days! Weekdays you will find me at home working from my studio, looking for music, making music or doing other DJ related tasks. I also will incorporate exercise into the day and eating out with great company. Got to stay healthy! Weekends are usually traveling across Europe which incorporates gigs, hotels, late check outs and rushing to the airport, sleep, dinner, sleep, gigs!

What would you say is so special about the London scene?

I play and produce predominantly techno music. This is really inspired from the good old days of Birmingham in the 90’s, listening to legendary DJ’s such as Dave Clarke and Billy Nasty.

My style is music reminiscent of that period of techno mixed with newer modern techno. The BPM has slowed down a lot in recent years and is more steady, making it more accessible for the dance floor, leaving its rave roots behind. The other aspect I try and bring in is a punk feeling and this really is a UK sound, slightly industrial. Producers like Blawan and Surgeon are really doing the business in regards to this.

Rebekah has a mix compilation out now on CLR, Reconnected 03 is available now from www.beatport.com www.djrebekah.co.uk

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Kenneth Ploquin - DROP IN Kenneth Ploquin is the producer taking care of DROP IN, Quiksilver Group’s (Quiksilver, DC Shoes and Roxy) very own music studio. He speaks to us about his past in the music industry. Photos by David Manaud

What is your first memory about music?

My very first memory about music was when I was 4 years old, listening to the Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. Another important memory for me was at 9, listening to the Who’s wonderful LP Who’s Next.

What’s your background?

I grew up in Paris and went to a french musical school where I learnt cello. I started to play guitar at the age of 10 and then at the age of 14, I got in a band as guitar player and we did 5 records for CBS. This is how I discovered the process of studio sessions. I loved it so much that I decided during the recording of our first LP that I was going to spend my life in a studio. At the age of 18, right after high-school, I started to work as an assistant in one of the biggest recording studio in Paris.

What is DROP IN? DROP IN is Nicolas Foulet’s idea. The studio was built two years ago for artists close to the brands to come and record with us. Artists can use our studio and equipment and in exchange, the brands can use some of the music produced for their videos. www.dropinmusic.com 11

Jason Jägel Jason Jägel is an American contemporary artist. His paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations have been exhibited all around the world in places like San Francisco, New York City, Milan and Copenhagen. Through the long lasting relationship with Arkitip, DC Shoes will present a capsule collection based on Jason Jägel’s artworks, Curated by Arkitip, this collection will be available in Fall 2013.

There was a kind of school-within-the-school of folks who stayed late most nights, self-directed and hard working. We fed off each other and contributed different things to the “scene” there. It was a raw and innocent time.

What were your influences growing up?

I get a lot of my inspiration from music. Today, I was listening to one of my favorite songs, a deep, rasta interpretation of the 23rd Psalm. Writing and music have the capacity to crystallize emotional expression. Jazz, I’m thinking late 50’s to early 70’s for example, can have these moments that are a complex intellectual statement about music and also pure, gut-bucket emotive power, simultaneously! I think that shows how important, how cerebral, our emotional states are - from them we manifest new cognitive territory, otherwise unreachable. That’s a powerful tool for art. There’s always more to know about music. Much of my favorite music is that which was made outside the center of what was popular. The margins. Raised with visual art as a constant I’ve been pretty lazy about knowing deeply about art history and staying up on contemporary art. Generally, I’d rather look for inspiration from elsewhere than visual art and enact an imperfect translation to incorporate that source into my work. In many ways it’s what you look to as an artist that defines you.

What’s your background?

Born in Boston in 1971, I was a latch-key kid - like most other kids I knew - roaming the city & living betwixt divorced parents houses on opposite sides of the Charles River. I was and am a consumer and observer. With a modern media formed, fragmented attention-span, I was raised by never-ending movie shards on cable-TV, video games, sci-fi books, comics and music. Rap first broke the mainstream when I was a kid and its early forms in the 80’s seemed to have no precedent. Connected, the subcultures of Grateful Dead/Stoner/Hippy/Rasta, Hip Hop, and Punk/Hardcore/Straight Edge were significant experiences.

They were knowledge you had to work for to acquire and along with my dad’s jazz records they cultivated my interest in studying liner notes. As a kid, I had this daydream of living in an apartment above a store or Laundromat, a child’s vision of his own personal home. Some kind of fully enclosed and self-supporting space. When I was older, after seeing the movie Drugstore Cowboy, the apartment in that film seemed to embody my childhood mental creation. It continues to stick in my mind as an archetype.

Having exhibited your work all around the world, what are your favorite places creatively?

Traveling is inspirational, hearing new languages, meeting people and seeing foreign places. I’ve been to a few places but would love to go to Japan, Brazil or most anywhere I’ve not been. Spending time in Berlin this year was great.

When did you first get introduced to art?

My dad was a great drawer and painter, he received little recognition, though was supremely dedicated up until he died.

He was born in 1929 and studied with Josef Albers at Yale in the 50’s - truly from a different era. His studio, a dirty beautiful brick factory building in Somerville, Massachusetts was a place my brother and I spent a lot of time in. His work spanned many types - often figurative - but included abstract expressionism, Hard Edge, photography and cartoons. He also created some significant record covers designs in the early 60’s on the Atlantic label for John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and others. When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990, I was 19 and started school at the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland.

How did you get introduced to Arkitip?

I became aware of Arkitip somewhere around the time they started, 2000 or so, and appreciated what I heard of their goal to make an art object experience that straddled mass production and one-of-a-kind-ness. It seems like they were doing that before the more recent art/consumer obsession with “limited edition” goods. www.jasonjagel.com 12

Kevin Lyons Kevin Lyons is an American artist based in New York City. He is collaborating with DC Shoes on a capsule collection for Holiday 2013 and will be painting live a series of snowboards and a cable car in Meribel, France, where DC Shoes has its snowpark Area 43.

You work is very noticeable through the characters that you draw.

How did you come up with the visual idea of these characters?

What do they symbolize?

The Monsters really reflect a lifetime of doodling characters.

They yell and are silly and obnoxious and dirty. They swear and are aggressive and funny and love to go nuts. They represent all of the things I often can not say or do.

Characters were always a specialty of mine, but they were often done for other people. When I became a father and had my two daughters, True and Lulu, the Monsters started to become more personal and helped me communicate with these two little creatures. Colette in Paris was really the first to pick up on the Monsters outside of my kids. Sarah from Colette actually started to request them over my design work. I then started using them in shows and for more and more projects... It is funny how you can go twenty years doodling something and never recognize that all along they were the answer...

What is your background ?

My name is Kevin Lyons and I was born in Connecticut and grew up on the East Coast. As a kid all I did was draw, mainly logos and characters. I just loved to draw. Additionally, I was into sports and music. I played just about every sport and was really into music. I was an eighties teenager living in the East so I was really drawn into the New York School of EVERYTHING: CBGB’S, NYU Film school, the Mudd Club, ABC NO-RIO, Punk and early Hip-Hop, Blondie, the Talking Heads, Dondi, Basquiat and Haring, Pop Art, The Velvet Underground‌ Anyone and anything that was both extremely creative and extremely against the status quo - those who were raging beautifully against the machine... That all lead me to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where I majored in Film, and I met some of the coolest, most interesting people on the planet. And that eventually lead me to New York City itself.

When I first arrived here, I had already been doing music flyers and silkscreen graphics for a bunch of independent companies in NYC from RISD. I kind of just picked that up full-time when I started. I began doing graphics for Giant Step, Triple 5 Soul, a company called KingPin, and eventually SSUR. From there I have gone on to work with some of the best streetwear brands and footwear companies in the world. Still drawing logos and characters like when I was eleven years old.

How did your work with DC Shoes start?

My collaboration with DC began through Colette and the ramp I painted at Carnaval last summer in Paris. DC had asked Sarah from Colette for me to paint the ramp and I came in the night before the Carnaval and just bombed it with bright colorful shouting Monsters. After the great response to this, Brett Chittenden from DC asked me to participate with the brand in a more meaningful way. While my collection with DC is not technically Monsters, it is extremely bright and colorful and in the very same spirit of the Monsters.

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I have worked within and on the outskirts of the skate industry for years. I was an Art Director at Girl Skateboards in the late nineties when we started Fourstar Clothing, and it was one of the best places on earth to work. I then did a bunch of skate stuff for Nike and also worked freelance for many smaller brands. Michael Leon’s Stacks and Keith Hufnagel’s HUF are longtime collaborators.

Having exhibited your work in a lot of countries, what is the most creatively stimulating place for you?

Well New York is New York and it informs everything I do, but I have really fallen in love with Paris and France as a whole. It is an amazing city with a core group of really special artists and musicians and designers and all around creative people. Plus the setting and the food and the shops and galleries... It is truly a magical city.

What would be your dream collaborative projects?

I think dream collaborative projects are the ones I haven’t even thought of yet. I have often been so surprised by each and everything that I have been asked to do. A couple years ago I was able to work with Colette and Karl Lagerfeld himself to do a Chanel Pop-Up shop for Paris Fashion week and last month I made a piece of art that was given to Michael Jordan for his 50th Birthday!... The world is a crazy, wonderful place and I have been lucky enough to see it and enjoy it. www.naturalborn.com

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Jeff Decker Jeff Decker is legendary American artist, sculptor and historian. He is now the official sculptor for Harley Davidson and is very famous for a bronze piece exhibited at the entrance of the Harley Davidson museum. Jeff Decker is collaborating with DC Shoes on a series of tee-shirts for the Summer 2014.

What have you been your goals since you were child?

Cali in the 1970’s was magical! I remember riding in the car with my dad each weekend, on the dirty freeways of LA, heading to the Drag Races. I was standing to be able to see out the windshield (no seatbelt law then). My dad would scream at the other idiots on the road to make way, we had places to be, right now, and it could not wait. In those days many of the races had swap meets and I think he cared more about finding the next treasure than winning the race. I wanted to be just like him, my dad, my hero. As it dawned on me I had not mechanical or athletic ability, I compensated with art. My art pays homage to the speed & mechanical beauty of things I lusted after as a boy.

How did you first get introduced to art?

Thousand Oaks is a twenty minute drive to Santa Paula, this is the place where James Brucker Sr. ruled his world. The owner of “CARS OF THE STARS” with over 900 vehicles.

He had a cheesy museum, but the main gig was studio rental.

Not only did he rent cars to the Movie industry, but they had to run. This is where my pops came into the picture. He was always fixing their junk. There Steve McQueen had some 300 motorcycles and lived right at the airplane hanger. I remember Von Dutch, mean & drunk on many occasions, Ed Roth showing off and Rob’t Williams telling stories that although outlandish & sordid, were amazingly articulated. He was my biggest hero. In the late 1980’s I met Stanley Wanlass and through his mentoring & working at a foundry, I found my place in life. It never was Low Brow, or Pop Surrealism, (both stupid terms), it was about the mechanics. The race car, the custom, the motorcycle. The sad, big eyed Christina Ricci fetish thing came later. To me you needed to be able to wrench or at least bench race to be a proper artist. Then of course those deposable heroes, the skaters, came along.

Once their five years of fame and cash had faded, they found motorcycling & art, and that seems to be where we are today.

What kind of music and movements were you into growing up?

The 60’s hippie monotony was on every AM station, but T-Rex, MC5, the Dolls, Bowie & other saved us. I loved the Sweet, so when KROQ started letting Rodney Bingenheimer play silly stuff at midnight, I would go to bed, like a good boy, but set the alarm for Rodney. It them dawned on me just 20 miles away I could ask an older kid for a ride to go see the Germs, or actually see the Go Gos play right in Thousand Oaks were I grew up. They were the hot older chicks from the neighboring high school. The Runaways played to 50 people and it seemed later, the Dickies, Cramps & X played all the time! I would sneak out of the house, do stupid stuff to my hair & put on a shirt & pair of pants of which my mom would never approve. I was pretty innocent, & the punk world kind of fascinated me, but I never conformed fully to the punk ideal.

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You have provided 4 artworks for the DLF collection DC Shoes is putting together.What is your perception of the ‘Dirty Left Foot’ concept, and what links do you draw between skateboard and motorbike cultures?

Jason Jessee explained it best. If you are a great skater, you are given too much too young. Even worst, it is taken away before you’ve acquired skill sets that you can use the rest of your life.

These boys are over coordinated, fearless and the motorcycle becomes part of their natural progression. They can reinvent themselves & hold on to some of that limelight and keep on selling tee-shirts & shoes. Decks, wheels, trucks and stickers, turn into foot pegs, carb covers, handle-bars and more stickers. It makes sense. www.jeffdeckerstudio.com Photos by Mark Owens

Mark Ong & Sue-Ann Lim - Mr and Mrs Sabotage Mark Ong, also known as Mr Sabotage, is a long time friend and collaborator of DC Shoes. He was the first artist to inaugurate our studio The HUB back in June 2011. Him and his wife, Mr and Mrs Sabotage, will be back at The HUB to introduce their Acoustic Anarchy exhibition this May.

What were your influences growing up?

It feels like I have been skateboarding all my life. I think I started when I was 8 years old and I still do now! When I was growing up, I listened to metal. It was the age of Metallica and Slayer, and I was always in all black. I only wish I could grow my hair but I was still in school. During that time I was the school captain of the basketball team. After high school, I started listening to a lot of punk bands like Lagwagon, NOFX and Rancid. That’s what was in my walkman and discman all the time. I looked up to Michael Jordan for basketball and Tom Penny for skateboarding .

Who is Mark Ong? Hi there, my name is Mr Sabotage and I was born and raised in SIngapore. I grew up in the early 80s with a passion for drawing as a kid. I remember racing home to catch the He-man cartoons at 6.30pm after school. I would sit in front of the TV drawing what was on screen. I had to draw from memory as the screen was moving fast so I developed a skill of being observant. I spent the whole of the 90s exposed to skateboarding, punk music and eventually I went to design school and graduated with a diploma in interactive media design. It was the birth of the dot com era and we learnt to build websites. Unlike graphic design, we learnt that web design has many restrictions. And somehow I took it as a challenge to create within boundaries. I went to the army after that for 2.5 years and when that was done, I worked in a sneaker store called Leftfoot selling sneakers and eventually doing design work for them. A while after, I started to customize sneakers. I ended up having a 10 year career doing that full time.

Can you tell us more about the work you did as a sneakers customizer?

Well I adopted the DIY spirit as early as when I was in Primary school. My dad once helped me build a rocket ship out of a tooth paste box. That opened my eyes on how I could evolve beyond my surroundings. I soon started painting blood on my He-man toys to mimic battle scenes. When I was skating I would cut up weird patterns on my grip tape and mix colors and shit. In school, my bags were all decked with safety pins and my shoes had neon laces. So looking back, it was more like a way of life for me already. I started to get known for customizing sneakers in the early 2000s.

Mostly in a tight community, on the online forum called Nike Talk. There was a sneaker custom competition and I won.

That did it for me really. I got an order from Atmos, Chapter and Ambush to produce 72 pairs right after. When I was presented with an opportunity to customize sneakers as a business, I already had the skills and instincts. To customize a sneaker, my approach was to take a pair of sneakers and to customize it to look as if it was factory made. It had many restrictions, but it came naturally as I was trained in web design. So 10 years of that, I felt that my mission was sort of complete in that field and I felt the natural urge to start painting on other mediums. The philosophy and approach did not change from sneakers to other mediums like wood and canvases, the message is still all punk and skate driven.

Looking back I realize that everything I did had lead up to something bigger later. It’s so exciting.

When were you first introduced to art?

I was never really into art; like being in the scene or anything like that. The punk rocker in me found it to be too corny.

There was never an artist that I resonated with till I found out about Futura 2000. He stood out from the sea of aerosol artists. I was very intrigued by the way he manipulated the spray can. I became obsessed by his craft and I began to experiment and focused on defining my own style. Then I came to know about Michael Lau and his 12” figure customization. That was the trigger for me to start customizing and showcasing my stuff to people and stores. Some years later, I met Futura and I kind of took him around Singapore when he visited. I also went to his studio in Brooklyn and it made me decide that this would be my career for life.

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What is the meaning of Acoustic Anarchy?

Acoustic Anarchy is the name that we used for our exhibition which is mostly punk music and skate driven. I used that name as I felt that painting and creating art is a very peaceful thing which relates to the Acoustic version of all that rebellious spirit. We want to create an experience based on the two opposite spectrums. We did a big show in Singapore back in 2012 where we presented a big body of work featuring prints of our illustrations, painted skateboards, painted flags and a display of punk rock horror light boxes. It was so much fun! We are excited to travel this show to Paris. What are your future projects?

There are many things in the pipeline aside from our daily studio excitement and commission art.

We have plans to travel AA back to SIngapore to do another show, and we are forecasting it to travel to Manila and Taiwan. We have an on going project with DC shoes where we release some tees every season. We will also do a second project with Thrasher to release a shoe. www.mr-sabotage.com

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Marke Newton Marke Newton is a brisith contemporary artist from Burnley in the north of England, now living and working in Paris. His work has been shown in France, Spain, Holland, Japan, China and the U.S.A. He will be working on a special project with us that will be exhibited at The HUB in July 2013.

Where do your influences come from?

War tales of my grandfathers and uncles convinced me to mobilize. Skateboarding was the perfect ‘vehicle’. To keep my wheels rolling I listen to a wide variety of music. I listen to EVERYTHING. Living abroad keeps your batteries charged to the full. In Tokyo I was on fire! In Paris I can chill.

I also work on Metropolitan (Skateboards), which is all about having no style, no gimmick, just creativity. We insist upon manufacturing our boards in the USA so we don’t ‘rip the kids off’ with inferior quality. We are proud of our shit!

When were you first exposed to art?

In my early childhood whilst studying the bible I was first exposed to art. The first artwork I made was of a Golden Eagle displaying its wings. Two ‘Northerners’, David Hockney and Morrissey were the first artists to influence me. My childhood friend Mark (FOS) Foster taught me how to be a kid again and my big brother John (ONE) Perello taught me about perseverance.

How do you prepare a show?

A single artwork can define the direction of an exhibition. I listen to myself, my collectors, take good advice when available and go with the flow. I’m in this for the long run, I’m not here to burn myself out, I wanna’ be making art when I’m 121 years old. My work is open to interpretation, each viewer is gonna’ see the same painting through their own emotions.

That’s cool! I’m stoked when people visit my show… The rest is BULLSHIT!

How would you describe your artistic style?

I do not have a set style as such, more a general tendency towards experimenting and trying other things. Faces inspire me. I only paint people I fall in love with. Portraits are usually kept within families or private collections for longer periods than more decorative pieces. I use gold and silver to create ‘durable’ art.

www.markenewton.org

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Portrait drawing of Kavinsky

Blue Monday, 2012, Sculpture, laser engraved acrylic, 50cm high

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Untitled ‘O’, 2013, Acrylic paint, gold and aluminium leaf on canvas, 81cm x 100cm

Flava Floors - Claire & Dusto For our Spring 2013 european snapshots, we went to Cork (Ireland) to meet up with the people behind Flava Floors, a local institution for street cultures. Flava Floors is a dance studio where b-boying is taught, with an art space where Dusto teaches younger generation the genuine values behind graffiti.

classes and passing on bad habits to the students and when I meet those dancers its not nice to have to point out that they are doing moves wrong. So its majorly important to teach the foundation of bboying, its what helps you get on to the harder moves with less injuries and more success. Bboying progresses so fast these days that if you want to compete you need the best fighting chance you can get. As for graffiti the focus was to have a place that writers could chill and draw up concepts for walls and build good friendships as this can be a great way to push each other to the top, “the more people shouting the loader the noise”. I have done a lot of things in my life because of my passions and want to pass on what I can to anyone who is interested in them. I have not forgotten what its like to be a kid looking up to someone and how great it is when they treat you with respect and give you some of their time. One of the main goals for us is to get more people in Cork expressing themselves thought hip hop. My own goal is to take bboys from Flava Floors to the highest level they can achieve and to get our town known for having one of the strongest graffiti communities with writers aspiring to big things. A boss at one of my old jobs once said “you can’t make a living out of graffiti and dancing”, well so far so good !

What is Flava Floors?

Claire: Flava Floors is the home of hip hop in Cork. I teach hip hop and breaking and I do the day to day running of the studio. It was very much needed in Cork as there are alot of dance schools teaching hip hop but what the students are getting most of the time is a teacher that has no experience or training in it and they are just teaching it because it has now become popular and they just want to make money out of it but there is no passion in their souls for it.

We try to keep it as real as we can. We provide great training for kids and adults and alot of the time the studio is a second home for our students. We find that alot of people come to classes by themselves as they are the only person from their group of friends that is into hip hop. They come down to the studio and meet people that have the same love for hip hop and therefore make a whole new group of friends with the same passions, sometimes that can be a lifeline especially for young kids and teens that may feel a bit isolated or different because they are not into the same things as their friends.

I want to inspire my students to reach their goals in life, to become more confident and to believe in themselves. I now have a role where people look up to me just like when I had idols that I would have looked up to when I was younger so I make it a priority that I always have one on one time for my students whether its providing a listening ear or a chat of encouragement because its important to give them the support they need to pursue their ambitions. Its vital for me to pass on my passion and knowledge to others so that the hip hop community can grow in Cork and that it will always be alive and kicking for the next generations.

What aspects of Cork make the city so special for you?

Claire: I love living in big cities but over the years being able to come home to Cork has always been important to me, it’s been my sanctuary. Now that I’m back here full time, I’m really enjoying being part of the hip hop community. As it’s a small community everyone supports each other from the dancers to the graffiti artists, DJ’s and rappers. We are one big family in Cork and I don’t think you get that in major cities. And of course you cant beat the rain!

Dusto: I’m proud of where I am from and the path I took to get to where I’m at now and all the families I represent, Rhythm Rebels, TDA, RTM, TNB. I’m not some patriotic flag waver, I’m just a people person and a believer in people power and Cork City has lots of that! FLAVA FLOORS, RECOGNISE THE REAL!

Dusto: I teach breaking, graffiti, and I also run the graff shop.

The reason I put the studio together was because there are so many half assed studios teaching “urban street dance”

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Cork, Ireland Featuring

Dusto & Claire from Flava Floors Shot by

Marcin Lewandowski

Istanbul through the eyes of Tchane Okuyan For our Spring 2013 european snapshots, we also went to Istanbul (Turkey) to discover a little more about the city which will be hosting the next edition of Burning Ink.

I was always interested by capturing the life on streets.

Street art and party people are what drive my job mostly, especially in night time.

What’s your background?

What are your influences creatively?

My name is Tchane Okuyan, I was born in Istanbul and grew up in Paris. I studied graphic and multimedia design. I worked for many different graphic studios and in a web agencies in Paris, then decided to go back home to Istanbul to begin new projects. I’m currently working for Fox International channels as a photographer and graphic designer. I’m also working as a freelance photographer for thefuckisback.com.

I was really inspired by the nightlife culture when I was in Paris. When I started hanging out in clubs and bars, I saw all these young people having fun, enjoying their time, doing crazy things. At first I was mainly going out with my close group of friends and shoot them at parties we were going to. Then I opened my view a little more. My parents were both involved in the fashion industry, my father being a hair-dresser and my mother a make-up artist. I was hanging out with them at photo-shoots, and I guess a lot came from there.

I feel more French than Turkish actually, since I spent many years in Paris and I grew up in that very particular french culture. However, there are also a big part of the Turkish culture that I connect with and am inspired by.

There are a lot of photographers that I follow regularly. The world is changing really fast, and we have to keep up with it. I respect a lot of people covering street art through documentaries, photojournalism and blogs all around the world. Parties where people feel more free and comfortable feed me and my blog. I don’t want people to pose or to act. I want to capture them in their natural moods. They have to be comfortable with me. Eye contact rocks all the time.

I am not always influenced by objectively pure beauty, people in my photographs should have their own style.

If you want to capture a person at a specific moment, you should let the person live it. Otherwise, it seems fake, which is something I really hate. Explore, enjoy, inspire and be inspired... That’s how I do. Mornings are spent in a sleepy daze from last night’sphotography mission. Afternoons are spent getting supplies (vodka, people, party place) for the evening.

And we live at night!

What would you say is the most special about Istanbul?

I would say our nightlife. I believe that a city is reflected by its people and how they live in it. Istanbul is incredible in the fact that is connects Europe and Asia. It is the shelter of so many different people from so many different cultures, with different lifestyles. It make the city very appealing for photography.

When did you start photography?

I started taking photos in college.You definitely don’t want to see my first photos, they were much more trashy than what I do now! I now have a certain line that I follow with my photographs.

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Istanbul, Turkey Featuring

Rof Rose & Baris Civaner Shot by

Tchane Okuyan

Mélanie Clémençon - W1910 For Summer 2013, DC Shoes collaborated with french label W1910 to design a capsule collection titled Ride Collaboration, combining the skateboard and motorbike values.

Can you describe the collection?

We like clothing with souls, things like old flight jackets. We design good quality and strong pieces using premium materials such as nice leather, nice furs, heavy wools. We want to be able to live with our clothing, and trust it enough so we are not scared of altering it. We believe in pieces that last. We are not changing the textile industry, we just want to have the right clothing that fit our lifestyle.

When was the brand created?

The brand W1910 was created back in 2010, the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the very first ‘biker’ leather jacket. The first motorcycle was commercialized in 1903, and in 1910 a designer called Walter introduced a leather jacket especially made for the use on motorbikes. Before then, people used to wear hunting or fishing jackets, as well as military outfits, to ride the very first motorbikes.

How did the collaboration with DC Shoes happen?

It was very interesting for us to work with DC Shoes because we noticed that we are working within the same values, values of movement, values of technics. Both of our brands believe in going further than what we are expected to do, without any limits. We decided to work on the concept of the “ride”. DC Shoes and W1910 are pretty tight in that aspect, this is why we called this project “Ride Collaboration”.

What is the story behind W1910?

The purpose of our brand is to pay tribute to the beginning of the motorbike culture, its history, its heritage and all the people that built this movement. Our story is based on friendship. We like the idea of getting together with beautiful bikes, organizing road trips, traveling together, seeking for adventure, building relationships with like-minded people.

www.w1910.com Photos by Benoit Copin

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DC Shoes & W1910 - Ride Collaboration Photos by David Manaud