FROM TAGGING TO THE TATE – GRAFFITI GROWS UP

Coming out of the burgeoning graffiti scene of the early 90s, Pinky is now a fully-fledged, gallery-represented psychedelic paint wizard.

Matt Barker: There’s a very street graffiti feel to your work.
Pinky: I came from an art, and also a graffiti art background. So yes, I started doing graffiti when I was really young.
MB: Tagging?
P: Anyone who says they’ve done graffiti has to have done some tagging, but it wasn’t a major part of it really, it was more just painting pieces. When I started doing it, even at the very beginning, it was a really experimental scene. It all stemmed from letters and words, but quite quickly we made it more abstract and experimental. The initial influences were the things that got everybody going in the first place – New York, hip hop and breakdancing. – but then also stuff that had nothing to do with any of that. Things like 60s influences, psychedelic, summer of love, all combined with that Madchester era, there were all these different influences feeding in. And then there was all this fine art stuff, and graphics and illustration – maybe slightly naïve, colourful, pop-related stuff. Even comics like the Beano and the Dandy. Geometric shapes, sharp lines, pattern, colour – even art deco, bits of Modernism or art nouveaux.
MB: So that early graffiti stuff just fell away? You don’t seem to do it anymore.
P: Yeah. I never thought, “I don’t want to do this anymore”, but I had a checklist of things in my mind, and I suppose I’ve just worked through them. I mean, I still paint with spray cans maybe once or twice a year, but I think it’s been a natural progression.
MB: You painted the set for our cover this month – more like painting walls all those years ago than a gallery piece like you do these days.
P: Well, there are no rules these days. I could easily have a gallery show, paint one whole wall, and then have a couple of small drawings on another wall. As soon as someone says, “There’s a rule…”, it’s the same as in any creative art form, there just shouldn’t be. The stuff for the cover is just another piece of art by me. I think all good artists are flexible, and what I’m constantly trying to achieve is my own recognisable style. I think that’s definitely
MB: …Without even being able to read the name necessarily…
P: Yeah! You can see his style. Or you can see someone’s influences in their work. Just like in music, you read reviews all the time like “Beach Boys-style melodies”. That’s what I’m about really – having a style that you can recognize as your own, your own icons and colours and shapes.
MB: In your last couple of gallery shows, you’ve had paper cuts. That seems like a massive step – from spray paints, to brushes (like you used for out set) and arrive at paper cuts.
P: Well, I really love flat colour and clean sharp lines, and I like working in a freestyle kind of way so I don’t draw those paper cuts out, I just take a blank piece of paper and cut into it. There’s still has a bit of that graffiti thing -“Yeah, look what I can do. You can’t do it, I can” there. I started using card because it’s big sheets of flat colour, rather than having to paint something. It just seems part of it to me, not really an unusual step to have taken. And I love that hand-done aesthetic, even if it’s wild and weird or scratchy. I appreciate people who can draw, even if they draw badly.

FYI
WEB: www.pinkyvision.co.uk
PINKY’S T-SHIRTS FOR LEVI’S: Available from Churchill Square store now
GALLERY: Ink_d