would look and feel efficient and beautiful. I also liked the idea of marking buildings with a skull as if condemning them. The skull is a very powerful symbol. It represents human mortality. The skull is a logo. AR: Do you view graffiti as a social messaging platform?
K: Absolutely. Graffiti writers communicate in distinct coded ways with multiple social groups. We communicate with each other, expressing opinions, challenging each other, questioning each other’s decisions. We communicate with law enforcement, creating the atmosphere they are hired to clean up. We communicate with the general public, angering property owners, bewildering passers-by, letting the public know that there is an underbelly to their culture that transgresses security, fences and walls. AR: Your latest series of phone booth faux-ads features celebrities, well-known brand logos, and either your tag or your skull character. What message were you trying to convey by bringing these together? Why did you choose to pair those particular brands and celebrities?
K: There were different messages for different audiences. For graffiti writers, the message was “YUP, KATSU’S DOING SOMETHING WITH THE MOMA AND JAY-Z.” For the general population the message was, “KATSU IS IMPORTANT.” The pairings felt appropriate in communicating that KATSU was valuable as a commodity and as a creative entity. I used the celebrities as props to draw attention and give narrative to the ads. Whatever the general population wanted to say about the ads was all completely correct. If you thought they were dumb, you were right. If you thought they were brilliant, you were right. They represent the surrendering of opinion by us consumers in the face of celebrities and corporations. AR: You have an app for the iPhone. Why move tagging from walls to the web?
K: I was introduced to a programmer who was interested in designing digital tools for graffiti artists. I felt that an iPhone app would do me real well and double in promoting KATSU. For one, graffiti fanatics would really appreciate the app and associate KATSU with the progressive tool. Secondly, I now had a way to place my tag on people’s iPhones. The app icon is the KATSU skull. Thousands of people worldwide have my tag on their iPhones. AR: In this hyper-digital age, where do you think the next life for graffiti is?
K: Graffiti will be where the highest reward for risk is. Public and private property will always be the best arena for this. I think that how your marking and message arrives is going to involve new technologies. I think techniques are going to come straight out of sci-fi movies. I’m very excited when graffiti is considered a form of hacking. It is a way
“ The skull is a very powerful symbol. It represents human mortality. The skull is a logo.”
of finding loopholes and secret entrances into physical places and delivering messaging through unexpected ways. Hacker graffiti has a nice ring to it. AR: You have a few fake videos online—your White House tag and your Picasso at MoMA. How important is perception versus authenticity in your work?
K: Graffiti writers are very serious about what they do. You can definitely die, get beaten up, arrested and locked in a cell for doing graffiti. Graffiti artists risk being charged for every vandalism they have ever committed in a given jurisdiction, not just the one tag they might get caught doing. Graffiti has to be authentic. The videos ask the question “What is authentic and why does authenticity matter?” I was trying to get graffiti artists to rethink the method one could use in getting notoriety. The videos themselves were tags, just in the form of video and on the Internet. The fake videos were also a way for KATSU to show off his After Effects skills…which are much better now. AR: You need to remain anonymous to avoid jail time, but your craft requires that you be authentic. How do you balance that?
K: Being authentic comes through crime. Displaying my face does nothing to authenticate my graffiti. AR: A few weeks ago, MoCA in LA showed the first major graffiti exhibit, called “Art in the Streets,” and a certain point has been much debated: Is graffiti art? What’s your take?
K: Graffiti is the expression of a special population of humans that didn’t get enough breast milk when they were young. AR: Will you ever move tagging from walls to canvas?
K: I will never quit doing illegal graffiti. That will always be the true form of tagging. Creating graffiti work for galleries and exhibitions is always good promotion for your tag as long as you don’t quit real graffiti. Art movements have always taken place in a studio and within the arena of academics and law. Graffiti always involves the risk of arrest and that really changes the traditional artistic process. AR: Can you share with us a creative experience that changed your world?
K: During the installation of the MoCA graffiti show, the museum was outfitted with a team of security officers and surveillance cameras. Graffiti artist KATSU flew to LA and scoped out the MoCA. KATSU distracted the security officers with the help of fellow graffiti gang members, and in broad daylight, using an enamel-filled fire extinguisher, tagged the show with 30-foot-high letters. KATSU tagged the exhibition in an effort to test Jeffrey Deitch’s motives behind the show. Graffiti artists installing their work, including Shepard Fairey, Neck Face, and Barry McGee, were all amazed at what had happened and asked that the giant KATSU tag be left up as part of the exhibition. Jeffrey Deitch had the tag scrubbed and buffed that night. The stunt was filmed and photographed and leaked to the web. The grafiti-ing of the graffiti show went viral and people began talking: “Why would Jeffrey Deitch destroy graffiti if he felt it was a beautiful art form?”
Alan Roll is Creative Director, Interactive, Interbrand New York
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INTERBRAND IQ
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