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Wall Work
I often use the streets as a form of sketch book to work out and generate ideas. Its a very special kind of working space for me. I love the live and objective nature of it. Uso | Usterno (1995-97) was the first time I used this method. It marked the begining of a new phase in my practice and a new mode of working with the concepts of 'Extension' and 'Oneness'.
It was the first year since I could remember that I hadn't had to get a summer job to survive. I was a year out of artschool, and had just quit Deejaying and putting on events. A whole first summer with no plans, nowhere I had to be. Just to be and to intuit.
I was living with friends in what's know as the Golden Triangle in the Headingly area of Leeds. We resided in a decimated semi-detached 4 bedroomed house with half a kitchen and the decomposing embers of the former resident etched into the plastic bath.
Armed with a Mac, Scanner, Laser Printer, Photoshop, Quark, 2x 1210's and a record collection plotting a path from Jazz-Funk thru to Drum & Bass. I just wanted to make and share.
During the day I would create mixtapes and print stickers. In the warmth of darkness I would paint my soundrack on a 2 mile stretch of road into the City center. I thought of them as notes, within a large Visual rythimic composition, which slowly got louder and louder.
One saturday morning it all clicked. After a night spent placing hunderds of these notes in the City, I watched shoppers ambling through the same streets, and noticed an increasing number of them turning there heads from note to note on there way through. It was like they were dancing, like I was still Deejaying, but with a different form of music.
This one moment has led to such a rich and fruitful journey, both in my making and thinking.
Later on that year I was asked to do the Graphic Design for The Univeristy Radio Station LSR FM, I developed a Font and graphics based on the wall work, and within a few weeks A1 posters were appearing on billboards all over Leeds, and large Bus side advertising which travelled down the same the route i had marked up.
It was the first year since I could remember that I hadn't had to get a summer job to survive. I was a year out of artschool, and had just quit Deejaying and putting on events. A whole first summer with no plans, nowhere I had to be. Just to be and to intuit.
I was living with friends in what's know as the Golden Triangle in the Headingly area of Leeds. We resided in a decimated semi-detached 4 bedroomed house with half a kitchen and the decomposing embers of the former resident etched into the plastic bath.
Armed with a Mac, Scanner, Laser Printer, Photoshop, Quark, 2x 1210's and a record collection plotting a path from Jazz-Funk thru to Drum & Bass. I just wanted to make and share.
During the day I would create mixtapes and print stickers. In the warmth of darkness I would paint my soundrack on a 2 mile stretch of road into the City center. I thought of them as notes, within a large Visual rythimic composition, which slowly got louder and louder.
One saturday morning it all clicked. After a night spent placing hunderds of these notes in the City, I watched shoppers ambling through the same streets, and noticed an increasing number of them turning there heads from note to note on there way through. It was like they were dancing, like I was still Deejaying, but with a different form of music.
This one moment has led to such a rich and fruitful journey, both in my making and thinking.
Later on that year I was asked to do the Graphic Design for The Univeristy Radio Station LSR FM, I developed a Font and graphics based on the wall work, and within a few weeks A1 posters were appearing on billboards all over Leeds, and large Bus side advertising which travelled down the same the route i had marked up.
