Curated by CONCRETE.projects in association with Bridge Art Space

 

ARTISTS
ASIN, (Thailand)
DIAMOND, (New Zealand)
DRUIDE, (France)
MATT ADAMS, (South Africa)
PHAI AMP, (Thailand)
TOSKA, (Belgium)
TRICK, (Thailand)
TRK, (Thailand)

​

Tchhh
Sssssssit
Dzzzzz
Tzisss

"The challenge of translating noise into language and back again. Onomatopoeia: noises transcending but not independent of language..

This exhibition is the first of a strand that investigate three distinct but connected fields of artistic practice.

Graffiti with its modern roots in Hip-Hop and urban culture.

Street art developing from graffiti, public art and fine art alike.

Tattoo art's ancient but ongoing spiritual/cultural significance filtering through surf via skate.

We aim to create a confrontation between these fields, an examination of the impact location and scene has on the artists, cultural vortices, absorbing everything around them only to transform it into unique visual languages, representative of the sum of their experiences.

We exhibit artists from Thailand, France, Belgium, South Africa and New Zealand here to generate a stylistic melange.

« PCHHHHHIT »
Graffiti artists are known as vandals. Cans in bags, in pockets, trigger fingers ready to activate sporadic white noise, colour vomit on concrete. Spontaneous street action on public transport or any surface in public space a way of marking territory. Vandals because they are unauthorised advertisers, don't pay their fees, and in public spaces they don't want any sign of possession or property. Taggers tag names, express ownership of space and let us know they are here, not invisible. A game played by cats and rats with their territorial notions gets pushed to extremes and the streets are a warzone in a war of words and solvent.

« FRUUUUFRUUUU »
In street art, there is no sense of marking territory. This is a practice focused on using public spaces and the streets to express higher level concepts and creativity, exploiting a rarified style through the realisation of projects, often on a grand scale. Painting, stencils, collage, stickers, sculpture can all play a part. The artists and their work are surrounded by noise, and they echo and mirror all components of the cityscape. We make the noise and we all contribute to an atmosphere where creativity is not just important, but a prerequisite for urban survival.

« DZZZZZZZZZZ »
Away from the noise and dirt of the street, tattoo artists build quieter, calmer places in which their art can blossom, only pierced by the dentist's-drill whine of the tattoo gun.. Painting or staining the skin as a rite of passage seems to go back as far as we are capable of looking, from ancient scarification (to remind others to be wary) to Orwell's miners and their unwanted skin echoes of coaldust in injured flesh. Before reaching the skin, the artist needs to observe, practice and listen. The noise of their work is electric stimulation, giving form to all the seen, known and heard in a pattern that resonates through history and culture."