Jonathan Cooper spent ten minutes face-to-face with London based artist Pure Evil…
The Pure Evil gallery has been around for two years now. Situated on Leonard Street in Shoreditch the space is just a short walk away from Pejhy favourites Concrete Hermit and Black Rat Press galleries.
This month saw the opening of Pure Evils solo show which has had an honourable mention from graffiti store giants Pictures On Walls so I decided to pop down and have a chat with the man behind the art about what he’s been up to, where he thinks the scene is going and what his plans are for the future.
Q) So what have you been up to recently?
A) Last night I did this piece down the road; people were stopping me and asking “are you Banksy?”
Q) I can’t believe that kind of thing still happens. Does it piss you off?
A) I didn’t mind – mothers were taking pictures of me with their kids which was funny. People can be a little dumb. They see somebody doing graffiti round here and they automatically assume its Banksy.
Q) Do you think Banksy will be remembered in 50 years time?
A) Definitely.
Q) What about the street art scene? Do you think it’s dying off?
A) No Way. This scene has probably risen as quickly as the pop-art scene movement did and it’s only going to get bigger.
Q) Do you think prices are getting stupid?
A) I think they are fair for the most part. There are two really interesting films about this subject that I’d recommend “The Mona Lisa Curse” and “The Art Bubble”. I try to price the prints in a way that I think is fair.
Q) How has the scene changed over the years? What’s different now compared to lets say 2001?
A) Well back then you could put stuff up wherever you liked. In 2001 there was so much stuff on the street and it was better because pieces weren’t cleaned off as frequently. Recently there’s been a huge clean up in London due to the 2012 Olympics.
Q) Have you ever been in trouble with the law?
A) At my first show I though the police were gonna turn up and nick me. When I’m doing stuff on the street I’ll just act ignorant so I’ve never properly been ‘caught’. The police wouldn’t think I was a serious graffiti artist if they saw me in the street, they’d just think: “what is that middle aged, middle class white guy doing?”
Q) What really pisses you off?
A) People who break the rules of politeness.
Q) How do you mean?
A) I used to go to exhibitions with my dad and it would feel like we were being looked down at. I hate it when you go to a galley nowadays and the staff just look down at you from their laptops.
Q) What have you got planned for the near future?
A) Well I’ve got a show that’s coming up in Tokyo. I can’t wait; I just love how alien Japan is.
Q) And what’s next for the gallery?
A) With a bit of help from the arts council I’m flying over a load of artists from South America. They’re currently living in a squat so we’ll sort them out with a place to stay while they’re over here. The show is gonna be called “Shoque Culture”. We’re turning the downstairs space into a workshop, hopefully we’ll get a few school parties in so kids can do their own printing and sticker designs.
Around the gallery each piece of work is small and intricate, and demands a bit of intimacy from the viewer. The longer you spend with each piece the more you notice, particularly picking out Dan’s use of layering from other elements in the show. You’ll notice familiar shapes emerging from drawings and cut out from packaging, colours swatches which aren’t always where expected and patches of collage on the sides of canvases. Dan leaves no detail untouched, everything he does is done with a certain amount of deliberateness, no pencil mark or ‘left over’ piece of masking tape is there by accident. Dan’s meticulous nature continues throughout all the elements within his show, all his canvases and frames (which are all made by the artist) are finished to such a high standard that they become beautiful objects in their own right.