Text & Image / Issue 2

Magnus MacTavish is a man on the run. He is a street artist in the purest sense.

His vast body of work decorates trains, buildings and bridges across the country and very little of it has ever seen the inside of a gallery.

He’s hounded by the cops and adored by the graff community yet what he truly fears is the approaching apocalypse. “Global thermal nuclear disaster, basically we scramble for the last few resources left,” Magnus said.

The visions manifest on the canvas as Magnus paints.

“There’s an actual plan behind every painting and that’s to create time. I’m a time traveller and I’m trying to create time. I make something in the infinite that will expand time and creation through my painting, it creates more out of it and through this I predict the future.”

He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and bi-polar a couple of years ago and is a regular patient at the Royal Brisbane Hospital’s psych ward were he is kept against his will as the quacks work to calm the demons in his mind.

“It’s pretty hectic, it’s worse than prison they say.”

But the time behind bars has given Magnus ample time to perfect his craft.

“I get a lot of painting done and even though I’m doing graffiti I’m probably getting into less trouble with the mental health department because I have a bit of a career with my art.”

Words/ Michael Nolan Pics/ ^ db