- 4 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following program may contain images and voices of deceased persons.
00:12I am Tony Albert, and as a practising contemporary artist, I have collaborated, exhibited and sold my works around the
00:20globe.
00:21In recent years, I have also witnessed graffiti become the biggest and fastest art movement in the world.
00:30Captivated by this popular arts practice, I'm stepping out of my studio and hitting the streets to meet four graffiti
00:37artists and explore their work.
01:00All my brothers now, all my sisters, all my uncles now, all my mothers now.
01:34My real name is Kingsley Hampton, but everybody knows me as Butter.
01:38I'm just a local boy from Adelaide, here to represent.
01:43I'm 24 years old, I work hard and this is what I love to do.
01:47I love colour. Colour is life, and our culture understands that.
01:54And when I finally do get up to that level that I want to be when I'm painting on the
01:59sides of buildings, you know, like 10, 15 stories up, you know, and I'm looking down.
02:05And I can do my big portraits and work Dot Dot into it as well.
02:09And hopefully you can see it from a few blocks away, and that's what my main goal is in life
02:12right now.
02:19Butter. Hey, it's looking great.
02:22Cheers, Butter. How are you, bro?
02:23I'm good, eh?
02:24I was coming up to the end of it.
02:27Yeah, wow, a lot of work.
02:29It's getting there.
02:30So what's it spell out?
02:33Spells out my little brother's name, J-Y-E.
02:38Yeah, I kind of went like something like an old school 70s style, you know, because, you know, he really
02:46likes that type of thing.
02:47Yeah, so it's a bit of a dedication piece.
02:49Yeah, a little bit of a dedication piece to him, you know, because, you know, he's always kind of there
02:54when I need to talk.
02:56Yeah, yeah.
02:57This is just a way for me to say, you know, I love you, man.
02:59Yeah.
03:01And tell me about this character here.
03:03Kind of like a little self-cartoony portrait of me.
03:06That's you?
03:07Yeah.
03:07And why did you decide to paint yourself green?
03:10It's just like, um, reflecting myself, you know, from a couple of the bad things that I've done in my
03:16past as a kid,
03:17taking that bad negative thing and putting it into a positive spin on it for myself.
03:22Has graffiti helped you through that process?
03:25Oh, absolutely.
03:26Yeah, yeah, but it's helped me overcome just a lot of things in my life so far.
03:31Um, you know, just a lot of really bad kind of things you do when you're a little bit younger.
03:36You know, my friends also have, like, helped, uh, have, like, given me spray paint, you know, to like, you
03:43know, here, man, here, man, look, this, at least you'll keep busy with this.
03:46Yeah.
03:52So, Butter, tell me about this great location.
03:55Hey, uh, it's at the Stanford Hotel.
03:57It's at the top on the pool deck area.
03:59Started me off on the part that I am now.
04:00Uh, this piece, um, is basically a regular day at the beach, you know, summertime, out fishing, driving boats, a
04:07couple people sunburnt.
04:09Because how hard is it to find space in Adelaide?
04:11A little hard, you know, sometimes the council and businesses can be picky.
04:16Because I am a, uh, a younger artist as well, you know, my crew is very young at the moment,
04:22you know, not that well established.
04:23Ah.
04:31This is, uh, where I come a lot to paint with a lot of my friends as well, to practise
04:36and everything, and it's really got some really nice detailed stuff on it.
04:40So, anyone can come here and paint legally?
04:44Yep, and without being, without being hassled as, you know, as long as it's within limits.
04:49And how many legal walls are there in Adelaide?
04:52Uh, mainly just this one.
04:53Oh, one for the whole of Adelaide?
04:55Yep, as you can see, this is where we have a lot of fun.
04:58Yeah, like, before this, it was all illegal.
05:06When you do it illegally, it's more of, like, a rush to do it.
05:10Because, you know, you're kind of doing something bad, you know, and you're getting away with it.
05:14But, you know, at least here, you can come here, you can paint, you know, no hassles.
05:18So you might do a few little bits and pieces before we head off?
05:20Uh, yep, no worries.
05:22That's why we've got the opportunity at a legal wall.
05:24Yep, definitely, yep. Hopefully it stays around for a long time.
05:28Yeah.
05:29Don't die, that I must be. Drop a cup of bungee.
05:31Drop she, catch her, she, write those quotes where your tongue be.
05:34She been in my purse, so damn what's her.
05:37Three shakawick, four blow a kiss.
05:40All as I meet, two, couple of minutes.
05:42Three shakawick, four blow a kiss.
05:44I can't feel that.
05:46Pretty confusing.
05:47This is the only legal bit here.
05:49Yeah, uh, Kingsley Hepton?
05:51Obviously.
05:53Yeah.
05:54Yeah.
05:58Yeah, I didn't really understand.
06:00Yeah.
06:02Okay.
06:03All right, see ya.
06:04Let's take it.
06:06All right, thank you.
06:07See ya.
06:14Yeah, I think when you do say, you know, the word graffiti, you know, everybody does kind of take a
06:19step back.
06:20You know, they think of this really bad thing, you know, this really rebellious thing, which, you know, it is.
06:26But, you know, I think there are people, young people like me as well, that are trying to take it
06:31in a more positive direction.
06:33We're just going to come up here and I'm going to take you to my nana's house.
06:35Okay.
06:36And introduce you there, everyone, all my family.
06:38Yeah, they'll all be there.
06:39Yep, they'll all be there.
06:45Hi, how are you?
06:46Hey, how are you?
06:46Yeah, that's my mum.
06:47That's my nana.
06:48You're welcome.
06:49Thank you so much.
06:49That's my little brother, Jojo.
06:50Hey, wife.
06:52So tell me where the family's from.
06:54Well, originally we're from Central Australia, Alice Springs.
06:57Mum's an Eastern Aranda lady and my father's from Roepo River in East Arnhem Land.
07:07Tell me about his childhood and how art was involved in that.
07:11It was a big part of our life, especially when the boys, Butter and Jojo were younger.
07:18I was doing my art degree and always been interested in art and doing dot-dot paintings.
07:25Every Saturday afternoon we'd have our art sessions at home.
07:30So the boys would all get there and they'd be drawing and colouring and just doing all that sort of
07:36stuff.
07:37What makes me really, really proud, he did everything to himself.
07:43Meeting people, you know, and going out and doing it, you know, that sort of thing.
07:50That makes me really proud, too.
07:54Thanks, Mum.
07:55Well, it wasn't easy, but like, you know.
07:57It's just well known in the community now and, yeah.
08:01Among, like, his peers, the other artists.
08:04It's just, uh, yeah, it makes me feel proud.
08:09Everything, I just thought he was doing this silly graffiti to, um, you know, how you get the people going.
08:16Kids going around damaging and I used to growl, didn't I?
08:20Yes.
08:21I used to go mad.
08:22But that wasn't fun.
08:23Well, still, even in this, eh, there's a lot of stigma attached to graffiti and what it is,
08:29which isn't necessarily true, but there is that perception that it is something bad or that it's vandalism.
08:35Yes.
08:36Yeah.
08:36A lot of kids nowadays don't follow those rules that were laid out, you know, by the original people, you
08:43know, in New York City.
08:44When it comes to, you know, like, um, historical monuments and, you know, especially war monuments,
08:51it's absolutely disrespectful and it's just not on, you know.
08:54It's the same thing for, like, funeral homes and retirement homes,
08:58you know, like, primary schools and, you know, kindergartens,
09:02because, like, there are, like, um, there are the old school set of rules.
09:07And I was taught by some of the old school writers as well as on the street, being self-taught,
09:11as well as hooking up with existing crews.
09:14They really helped me out on techniques and, you know, certain styles and, you know,
09:19if I was, you know, kind of lacking in a certain area, just to help build me up from there.
09:25Graffiti artists that inspire me today is a guy called Jean Basquet,
09:30just the way how he came from doing graffiti art and then came into the art world as a fine
09:35artist.
09:36You know, sometimes he could go from something that's really bright, colourful and the line work that he uses,
09:42but also he uses a lot of dark, which is really, you know, a reflection of how he's feeling,
09:48which I think, you know, is a bit hard to do, especially when you're vulnerable at a point like that
09:52and just showing people, you know, this is how I'm really feeling.
09:56Another person is Adnet. Yeah, he does a lot of Aboriginal faces and stuff like that.
10:03Because when I first saw that, you know, and I saw that black face on a wall, you know,
10:08and I thought, wow, that's beautiful.
10:10And just the way how he captured us as a people and as a culture
10:13is something that we can project on a large scale.
10:17Just show everyone, you know, this is what us mob are about.
10:20Bring some positivity to us as well.
10:30Graffiti has really has kind of saved my life in a lot of situations, you know,
10:37you know, just, you know, really bad and, you know, worried thoughts, you know,
10:42and, you know, I've always kind of, I've always kind of, you know, just shut the world out and everything.
10:56When you're depressed or, you know, just get, you need to get through something,
11:02just to kind of pick you up off of that and bring you back into like an art,
11:07like the art scene and just really focus you again.
11:26Graffiti is my way of expressing myself
11:28and it just really helps me get through some of the really hard times in my life.
11:49With your interest in portraiture, we could take a look at South Australia's most famous portrait artist.
11:55Yeah, absolutely.
12:03So, Butter, I was really excited to bring you here to The Robert Henniford Show.
12:06Yep.
12:08He's another South Australian artist, but recognised nationally and internationally
12:14and a prolific artist in his own right.
12:16The way in which he studied the human form, the body, portraiture,
12:20I thought would be quite inspiring.
12:22He really captured each individual person.
12:25It's really quite amazing.
12:26We can see the lengths that Robert Henniford went to within his studies.
12:31You can see, I love that this picture here is just of four arms.
12:36The extent in which the artist has looked at the human anatomy,
12:40the muscles, how they all work.
12:42A lot of time and study and care went into everything that he did.
12:45You could definitely just see it.
12:47It's just amazing.
12:51One of my favourite things in the show was also these cabinets.
12:55I mean, again, I think they give you this great understanding of him always having a pen and paper on
13:01hand
13:01and just some of the situations he was in, where he's able to capture a bit of movement.
13:06Looks like people sitting on a bus.
13:09They might be at the pub on a chair.
13:13Kind of really captures some emotion with it, you know, as well.
13:16There's other examples, like the picture down here,
13:20which was actually done live on stage during the play production of Namajira.
13:28So you can see the much broader brush strokes, kind of whilst everything's in there, it's a little less resolved.
13:36And he did this on stage?
13:38Yeah, it was actually part of the performance was this portrait taking place.
13:42Oh, well, that's just, wow, that just blows my mind.
13:45You just see that it's very loose and relaxed, but there's still a lot of technique in it.
13:51Really, really beautiful.
13:52Cool.
13:53Yeah.
14:12Well, I feel that's covered kind of the fine art, but I really want to find out more about graffiti.
14:17Yep. All right.
14:18So I was thinking the heart and soul of graffiti is really Melbourne.
14:22Yes, yes, we get that a lot.
14:25Have you ever been before?
14:27No, I've never been to Melbourne before.
14:29Well, we're going to Melbourne.
14:31You're taking me to Melbourne?
14:33Yeah.
14:33Oh, fire out, that's deadly.
14:34You know the quickest way to the airport?
14:36There you are, we go straight through that way.
14:46There you go.
14:51Oh.
14:52Fire out.
14:53Fire out.
14:55Fire out.
14:58Fire out.
15:02Hey yo, I'm going to bed up to the bed though. Might as well cut the break.
15:07Stential work is just really different.
15:11Hey yo, I'm going to bed up to the bed though.
15:14Really, really a big step up from Adelaide.
15:19Welcome to the chase, that's life, man. What you can hold up in your left...
15:22It's really creative out here. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. Oh, nice.
15:27Oh, wow. Do you know whose work that is? Yeah, um, Adnate.
15:29I'm a big fan of his. It's amazing the skin tonality
15:34and stuff you can get from spray cans.
15:37I've only seen a picture of this. I didn't realise how big it is.
15:42Wow, that's beautiful. That's something
15:45that, you know, I'd definitely like to inspire to get up to one day
15:50on that type of level and scale. I think there's a lot of infrastructure involved
15:54in doing something called that scale. Oh, yeah, definitely. You put
15:57a lot of time and effort into something, you know. That's, you know, hopefully
16:01what you want to achieve one day, you know?
16:04Yeah. Yeah, but that's...
16:06I mean, just the amount of detail
16:07in there as well.
16:09Dude, it's just beautiful, really.
16:14And I've never seen anything
16:16that big on the side of a building.
16:26So, but as you know, Melbourne is home to some nationally recognised,
16:30the best graffiti artist.
16:32So I thought I'd bring you to meet someone.
16:34Oh, deadly. Let's go have a look.
16:37I think he's down here.
16:39Yep.
16:45Hello. How are you?
16:46Good, how are you? Tony.
16:48Yes, how are you? I'm Barad, how are you?
16:50How are you going, mate? Nice to meet you.
16:51I'm Matt Adnate.
16:55Nice to meet you, man.
16:56Nice to meet you too.
16:57Good twist, Barad.
16:58Nice to meet you.
16:59I am Matt Adnate.
17:01I am from Melbourne, Australia.
17:03I grew up painting here
17:05as a graffiti artist as a teenager
17:07and spent about ten years painting letters
17:09and then in my recent years
17:11I started painting portraits.
17:14Every corner of the globe
17:16people are painting graffiti,
17:17so it's a very important and massive
17:20art movement.
17:23You've never had this many people involved
17:25in any art movement in any one time.
17:28The first image that I saw
17:30was the one where
17:31it was just kind of like the eyes and the nose.
17:34I thought, this is a black fella face.
17:36And I'm like, I've never seen that before
17:38but never in the graffiti art form.
17:41That's what got me interested.
17:43Originally I thought you were a black fella.
17:44Yeah, a lot of people think that.
17:46Yeah, definitely.
17:47That don't matter to me
17:49because you're so used to seeing
17:51I don't want to sound bad or anything like that.
17:54You've got usually white faces
17:57in society
17:59and billboards
18:00and everything like that.
18:02But seeing this huge portrait
18:05like today
18:06of just a young Aboriginal girl
18:08and it's in your face.
18:10It's just such a beautiful piece.
18:13It's just really inspiring
18:14and just really opens up my eyes
18:19to something that maybe
18:20I could do in the future.
18:22I mean, that's the thing.
18:23For me with my work
18:24I think its biggest strength
18:26is awareness.
18:27Yeah, absolutely.
18:28And putting that idea back into people
18:31and reminding people, hold on
18:32don't forget about these people
18:34because that's what often the government
18:35tries to make the society do.
18:38Yeah, absolutely.
18:38And imagine if everyone was going around
18:40putting up these massive portraits
18:41it would be like, no one's
18:43everyone's going to be reminded
18:44every left, right and centre for it.
18:47Australia's always been famous
18:48for having its own graffiti art form
18:51even since it's the early 90s
18:53and late 80s
18:53before the internet was around
18:55it was particularly Melbourne
18:56we had our own sort of
18:58famous wild style
19:00and then in the 2000s
19:02street art started
19:03and it boomed in Melbourne as well
19:05and there was a huge movement here
19:06with stencils and all that too.
19:07So yeah, there's certainly been
19:09a spotlight on Melbourne
19:10and Australia for a while
19:11but, you know, we're in the
19:12you know, the bottom end of the world
19:14so it's hard for it to be
19:15you know, to get too much notice.
19:21We'll just do a quick realistic eye.
19:23Yeah.
19:24As quick as possible.
19:25Yeah.
19:28Do you want to feel that in that colour?
19:30And that in that colour?
19:31Yeah, nice.
19:35Technically you should always start
19:37from
19:38from
19:40darkest colour
19:41to lightest colour.
19:41Yeah.
19:42Yeah.
19:42That's what I've been told.
19:43Yeah, that's what I try and do
19:44but, you know
19:46some rules
19:47we're not traditional artists
19:48so
19:49Some rules are about to be broken.
19:51Yeah, that's right.
19:52So we can do
19:52we can paint however we want
19:54you know.
19:54Yeah, always look at the picture.
19:56Yeah.
19:57Yeah, that tends to be
19:58a little bit of a
19:58like, like my problem
20:00you know.
20:00Yeah.
20:01Sometimes you know
20:01I just think I got it
20:02in my head.
20:03Yeah, yeah.
20:04Well you can do that.
20:05That's the thing I had to learn
20:06when I was talking about the life drawing
20:08I used to be like
20:09oh yeah, I could just paint a face
20:10oh yeah, two eyes go here
20:11you know, I've looked at faces all my life.
20:13Yeah.
20:13But then when I
20:14when I
20:15started doing portraiture
20:16I realised that
20:17hold on, you've got to sort of
20:18forget all those assumptions.
20:19Yeah.
20:20You've got to get rid of them
20:21you've got to get them out of your head.
20:22Yeah, absolutely.
20:22Green blue.
20:25So see how there's a little bit of
20:27I don't know if you can see it
20:29but like
20:29it's blue.
20:30Yeah.
20:31And that's what makes things realistic
20:33if you can spot that kind of colour in it.
20:36Yeah.
20:37And you can fairly see it in here
20:39like I'll make these marks here
20:41Yeah.
20:44and then I'll go
20:45like this
20:47Oh yeah.
20:47Just to make it kind of look a bit more
20:49because this is like that iris
20:51the iris of the eye
20:52Yeah.
20:53It's all kind of a bit rough anyway
20:54and just to give it that texture
20:56Yeah.
20:56Oh yeah.
20:56It looks a lot more natural as well.
20:58Yes.
20:58A lot more natural exactly.
21:00Yeah.
21:00Cool.
21:01Well I hope you got a little bit out of that.
21:03Hope you got something out of that.
21:05Nah.
21:06Man.
21:07I'm just blown away at the moment.
21:09Cool.
21:10Good.
21:10I mean
21:12Yeah.
21:13So tomorrow we're going to go
21:14pretty much do a collab.
21:16Oh shit.
21:17Alright.
21:18So we're going to go
21:19do a collaboration
21:20they've already got a wall lined up for us.
21:22Yeah.
21:23Okay.
21:23Yeah.
21:24And we're going to go do something together.
21:27Oh.
21:28What?
21:29Nah.
21:30Nah.
21:30Cheers man.
21:31Nah.
21:31You're more than welcome man.
21:32So we've got to sit down and plan it out a little bit.
21:34Just a tiny bit.
21:35Nothing too serious.
21:36I've certainly stalked Butter's Instagram
21:38and on his Instagram there's lots of cool images
21:41of all the characters that he's painted
21:42and other sneaky other types of you know
21:44things that he's painted too.
21:45Yes.
21:46So if you do something like that
21:47and I paint a portrait of you
21:48Yeah.
21:49I think that'd be an awesome combo
21:51especially because he's green.
21:52Yeah definitely.
21:53So it's like this kind of like
21:54you know scary version of you.
21:56Yeah.
21:56Mr Jericho, Mr Hyde type of thing.
21:58Yeah.
21:59Alright.
22:00Awesome.
22:00Lovely to meet you dude.
22:02I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.
22:03Yeah definitely man.
22:04It's going to be out of control.
22:05Yeah oh.
22:05Yeah stuck to meet you dude.
22:06It's going to be fun.
22:08I'm going to sleep tonight.
22:08Nah.
22:09Sorry.
22:12what Parlament is looking forward to 1h
22:14because all those teams have one
22:15You can never hold me into pay
22:18Lookin' the top
22:20and I ain't never losin'
22:21Hell
22:21Looki am a warrior and that's for sure
22:23I'm standing on my own
22:25so nothing going to move me
22:26Na na na na na na na.
22:30I ain't never losing, na na na na na na na na.
22:35Nobody got to move it.
22:36You can never hold me down from my position, I'm ready to go.
22:40Music is my ignition, you know how it goes.
22:42Haters in every direction.
22:44But now I'm on the road to success, I can't see the reflection.
22:47It's everything pop, now I'm on the grind,
22:49it's smart turnin', shine, pivot shining like some dollars.
22:52Take my brother , whatever.
22:53Man, I'm paying homage cuz we're going to success,
22:55I can't see the reflection, it's it's you that we're doing it
22:58You know what the movement is, so much competition, damn
23:01I don't have to do with things
23:02Oh, and oh, I just keep going
23:05Oh, and oh, all I have to do is bring a pen in the pen
23:08From the beginning to the end, the warrior on the edge of time
23:12Making amends, and I don't have to pretend
23:14To all them haters, I got a song for you
23:16You can never hold me down, oh no
23:19I'm headed for the top, and I ain't ever losing
23:22On me, I'm a warrior, and that's for sure
23:24Like maybe if you're going to do chuck-ups, do them in like a red or
23:31Not in the brightest colour, which is the white
23:37To incorporate that desert pattern into the piece and into his graffiti
23:43Yeah, it's very groundbreaking
23:54I'm a warrior, and that's for sure
23:56I'm standing on my own, too, nobody gonna move, man
23:59Na, na, na, na, na, na, na
24:02I ain't ever losing
24:04Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
24:08Nobody gonna move, man
24:09And it's finished
24:35I think Butter's got a huge future in street art and graffiti and fine art, you know
24:40I mean, that's the thing
24:41When I started off doing lettering and, you know
24:44I was only a few years older than Butter now
24:46When I started doing portraits
24:47And then, you know, completely changed my life
24:49And what I was, and my game of what I was trying to do
24:52And, yeah, he's certainly got a future for it
24:59Oh, it's been amazing
25:02It's just, you know, taught me a lot as well
25:04Just seeing different styles
25:05Opening my eyes up
25:07What's around
25:07What's rounding out my world, you know
25:11So, hopefully in the next five years
25:12I'll be painting
25:14Painting, you know, just as good as him
25:17I'm Ong Zwana, and I'll be coming to a neighbourhood near you
25:20But
25:21That's it
25:50But
25:52I'll teach you how
25:53about reality
25:54And dreams coincide
25:55Like black and white
25:56And
25:57To
25:57To
25:57To
25:58To
25:58To
25:58To
25:59To
25:59To
26:01To
Comments