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Now in his fifth season with S***R, self-taught graffiti artist Best One launches his new collaboration with a window installation at the Number boutique in London’s Carnaby Street – a fittingly creative location for the street artist. Here he talks about his introduction into the world of graffiti and the inspiration behind his colourful new creations.
How did you first become involved in the graffiti scene?
I started when I was 17 when I first got a book called Subway Art, which was probably the first graffiti book published in England and that got me hooked on it. I never went to art school, I’m totally self-taught. When I was at school, the only things I really liked were art and woodwork and when I left I trained as a bricklayer. It really took off about six years ago, when I did my first show in Oxford. It was in a trainer shop called Ryöüki. Straight after that I did a show for Pizza Express. They have a whole art side. They saw the work in the trainer shop and took it straight into Pizza Express. Then I made a set of soft toys, they were called ‘Ska Cats and The Furs’, they were sort of abstract cats and Creative Review did a big piece on it. Then Play Lounge happened. They sell weird little toys and I was asked to paint model trains. A whole host of graffiti artists did it - we painted four model trains each. About two years ago I did my first solo show in Broadwick Street and that got loads of press. It was when graffiti became acceptable to show in public – when Banksy was really kicking off. After Broadwick Street, I did a show at Beyond the Valley, it was all about customised furniture, paintings and photograpy – the area was quite small so I did about four pieces of furniture and eight paintings.
S***R is just one of the many collaborative projects you have worked on, who else have you worked with?
I recently worked on a show for Paul Smith, called 10 years of Westbourne House. I did the show with Manolo Blahnik and other artists and built some bird houses for the garden, they were really abstract. I’ve also worked on a collaboration with Nike, which was me, Daisy De Villeneuve – about 20 artists in total took part, customising Tyvek® jackets. Casio was another one of my collaborations, doing colour ways for its Baby G-Shock watches.
This is your sixth season collaborating with S***R, how did you get involved with the label?
Well I painted the doorway to the showroom and Jorge [Jorge Sampaio, Brand Manager - S***R] suggested that I do some trainers with them. It was going to be a one-off, but here we are, now in our fifth season.
The window installation you’re working on to coincide with the new collection has lots of colour and energy going on. What was your inspiration behind the latest collaboration?
We’ve done three high top sneakers and three low tops and I was inspired a lot by Keith Haring so there’s lots of big block colours.
Graffiti is often quite large-scale, how easy is it to recreate your ideas on footwear?
It’s quite hard to transfer it onto a pair of shoes, I end up using just a small section of a design, but I also use other parts of the shoe, like the laces and the sole too.
You’ve worked with many labels on collaborative projects, which indicate that graffiti has come along way from its street-art roots. How do you think graffiti has changed over the years?
I think graffiti has moved slightly more into the art world and now artists are using lots of different techniques, the whole paste up thing has become quite big, it’s good for speed. The whole CCTV thing has affected it – London is so cleaned up now. New York is the same - you can’t get your name up on the streets. It’s moving away from the streets and more about online galleries, you can just send your artwork by email. It’s mad! You can’t do much about it - it’s the way it’s naturally going.
To find out more about graffiti artist Best One, log onto www.myblackheart.com/.
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