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Colour Theory Underground S04E02 AEROHOLiCS
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00:08I am Tony Albert, and as a practising contemporary artist, I have collaborated, exhibited, and
00:15sold my works around the globe.
00:17In recent years, I have also witnessed graffiti become the biggest and fastest art movement
00:23in the world.
00:26Captivated by this popular art practice, I am stepping out of my studio and hitting the
00:31streets to meet four graffiti artists and explore their work.
00:55All my brothers now, all my sisters, all my uncles now, all my mothers now.
01:31My name is Nish Kash, and I am descended from the
01:35Jingli and Madra mob from Northern Territory.
01:37I have been living in Adelaide all my life.
01:41So when I started out doing graffiti, there wasn't a whole heap of females out there, and
01:49I never thought I would make a living out of it.
01:53Awesome.
01:54Glad of being given the opportunity to do what I am doing.
02:02Miss Kash.
02:04Hey, Tony Albert.
02:05I knew I'd track you down.
02:06Hey, my brother.
02:07How are you?
02:07Good.
02:08Good to see you.
02:09This is looking great.
02:10Hey, thank you.
02:11So tell me about your work.
02:12So I love doing the lettering side of things.
02:16That to me is the basis of graffiti.
02:19But, you know, I also do a lot of stuff like characters and, you know, commission jobs, workshops
02:25as well, teaching young people, seeing what young people can achieve.
02:29You've got pieces scattered all around Adelaide.
02:32I do.
02:33Yeah.
02:33Yep.
02:34Some hidden.
02:35Yeah, some hidden.
02:36I'm really keen for you to show me around.
02:38I'd love to show you around, Tony.
02:40Okay.
02:40Thanks so much.
02:41I'll leave you with this piece, and then we'll go for a bit of a tour.
02:44Definitely.
02:45No worries.
02:45See you, Tony.
03:03This is Burnett Street, a.k.a. Art Alley.
03:07This particular piece here was a bit of a collab.
03:11My girl Ivy came down from Sydney.
03:13We like to paint.
03:14And, you know, this is a good spot for it.
03:21Council actually decided to name it Art Alley due to what we did with this whole area,
03:25basically, this particular alleyway.
03:28And there has been a slight bit of intervention into the wall?
03:31Yeah.
03:31They've taken a whole chunk out of the work.
03:33Nothing lasts forever.
03:34Oh, sorry.
03:34Let's go check out a few more before they're gone as well.
03:37Let's check it.
03:38Pop, pop, go and bring the band out.
03:40Hit the mosh pit, go stupid.
03:42Meet the Grey Goose, just get loose, kid.
03:44Go all out, ain't no rush.
03:46Okay, well, this is a little bit of an oldie.
03:49Yeah.
03:49How old are we talking?
03:51It's probably about 15 years old.
03:53Wow.
03:54It's definitely had its day, but it stayed up all right.
03:56Yeah.
03:57This one here.
03:58So we've got I, S, H, K.
04:03It's hung up pretty well.
04:04It has.
04:05For 15 years.
04:06It has.
04:09Another Ishq?
04:11Yeah.
04:19So, Tony, we're down at Port Adelaide and, um...
04:21I already noticed something with the colours and the area.
04:24Yes.
04:25So, significant to Port Adelaide, um...
04:28Football.
04:29Football.
04:29You'll notice teal, black and white.
04:31Big part of the culture.
04:32Very big, very big, yes.
04:34But even more significant to that is the Japuki Ibis.
04:38The fact that I'm not Kaurna, um, I feel it's really important to pay homage to the fact
04:44that, um, we are on Kaurna land and this is...
04:46And how does the Ibis fit into that?
04:48Um, so it is part of, um, a dreaming story for the Kaurna people.
04:52Um, it's quite a, quite a large story that travels over a lot of South Australia.
04:58Okay.
05:00What about the text itself?
05:02Yes.
05:03So, Ishq, or my, um, alias.
05:07It's an easy one, you know, four letters.
05:09But also, the sound of a spray can is like Ishq.
05:13So, there's that factor as well.
05:16Um, but yeah, I just like the way I dropped the N and played around with I.S.
05:22H and then kicked a K in there because a K is actually kind of when you have your I
05:26going
05:27like this and then your K kind of kicks off like that.
05:30So, I like to make things sort of flow.
05:33And then I looked it up and Googled Ishq and it came up with the Institute for the Study of
05:38Human Knowledge.
05:38And I think we're always on that quest for knowledge, um, through whatever it is we do.
05:44So, yeah, I think that sums it up.
05:56So, welcome to my house.
05:59Do you do a lot of initial prep work in, at home?
06:03Um, yeah, a lot of my stuff I have to put out in storage out here.
06:09Just regarding space.
06:11Oh, wow.
06:12Look at this.
06:16Um, this is my old photo album actually.
06:21Well, that's how I started, um, using my name.
06:24And then it kind of develops later, I guess.
06:27I try to experimenting and trying to push it a little bit further with sort of wild style.
06:31Oh, so what's wild style?
06:33Wild style?
06:34So, you've got public, which is, um, you know, quite legible and very much the public can read it.
06:40And then you've got wild style, which is sort of illegible and that the public can't read it.
06:45So, it kind of, the tags are sort of hidden.
06:54So, I can see some early sketches in here as well.
06:57I haven't pulled out any of this for ages.
07:00Wow.
07:00Oh, yeah.
07:02I mean, these are very strong female imagery too.
07:05They're holding guns.
07:06They look very confident, very powerful.
07:09I do want them to have, like, sometimes there's that play on that softness of the hair.
07:15But then I want them to have an element of strength and that tough quality.
07:19The bandana across the outlaws.
07:28What appeals to me about the female form, it's like Mother Nature.
07:32It is the most powerful.
07:34You know, it is the epitome of beauty.
07:44Yeah.
07:46Better tomorrow.
07:48This one.
07:49Having birth.
07:50Having a baby.
07:52I will say that this, actually, this sketchbook was during a time where my mental health wasn't very well.
08:02And I was actually in hospital for a little while.
08:06Yeah, dealing with some mental health issues.
08:08So, a dear friend of mine gave me this to sketch with.
08:13And this is kind of some of the stuff that came out of it.
08:18So, as you'll see, there's some quotes in there too.
08:22But some of my best sketches came out of this too.
08:26Put yourself in my shoes when the fears were falling.
08:32Can you feel my pain?
08:35Can you feel my pain?
08:36It's not always accessible to go and paint a wall and grab a spray can,
08:40so sketching is, for me, that healing tool too.
08:43Gives that outlet.
08:44Yeah.
08:47Well, this looks like quite a big folder.
08:50Um, keep that up.
08:51Oof.
08:52It's heavy.
08:54Oh, okay.
08:54So, here, actually, is some of the stuff that really, really, really influenced me in my early days.
09:02So, before the internet, we relied on magazines.
09:08I've been painting since I was about 15 properly.
09:12I do admit that, um, for me, doing graffiti, particularly tagging, was about rebelling.
09:18You could only spend one day in my shoes.
09:22Maybe that we could talk.
09:25Maybe that we could walk together.
09:28You could only spend one day in my shoes.
09:48I was very close to Nanna.
09:50She was one to talk to me about a lot, but she wouldn't talk too much about, um, being stolen.
09:56But I'd ask her lots about, you know, identity and, um, like, I wanted to know.
10:03Can you feel my pain?
10:05Can you feel my pain?
10:06Can you feel my pain?
10:07I felt pretty disconnected from culture for a while there because of having left home at
10:14a very young age.
10:15Probably when I was 12, 13.
10:19I lived on my own.
10:29When I started getting serious about graffiti
10:31was after I had my daughter.
10:33It became about quality over quantity.
10:36I couldn't paint very much.
10:39I wanted to basically get an artistic career
10:44out of, you know, with painting.
10:49So the pinker the better.
10:51Think of it as cotton candy.
11:00Today I'm painting with my daughter Tanisha
11:03and one of my friend's daughters Tanika.
11:07Thought it would be a good opportunity for them to have a paint too.
11:22When I became a mum my whole philosophy changed.
11:28I actually wanted to put my creative practices
11:32into something that, you know, I could actually pursue as a career.
11:47I think seeing opportunities arise through council grants and so forth.
11:53Doing workshops sort of paved the way for me in the work that I'm doing now.
12:01I'm at that point where it could go either way actually.
12:05The pinks in the background.
12:09Through this journey of art into work,
12:13I believe it really helped me become stronger in identity
12:18and finding myself through art.
12:24Now I pass on what I've learnt through my job and commissioned works.
12:33I just want to express why it's on my mind.
12:39I just want to impress when I take my place in line.
12:44So come on and stop wasting your time.
12:48Cause it's time to get serious and stand up and fight.
12:56Love it.
13:16This is my first solo show in Tandanya.
13:19This exhibition is actually called Sketch Fetish based on my sketches.
13:24So this is a quote that I felt was really important to everything I do.
13:29Dreaming of my future, knowledge of my past.
13:31I sprayed up my name so that it would last.
13:34During the exhibition, I actually had everyone come and add to this
13:38and let the audience participate in a bit of live graffiti.
13:44And now here we have selected sketches from your sketchbooks.
13:48Yes.
13:50Which is quite nerve-wracking because my sketches are really personal
13:54and I actually didn't feel that they were really valid in a place
13:59of a gallery place.
14:00I can do it.
14:01I know I know I know I can.
14:03Gonna try to fix myself and get myself right up again.
14:06Never gonna stop.
14:07Never ever gonna stop.
14:08Nisha's work really appeals to me because I think it challenges the idea of
14:12Aboriginality and particularly around what artwork Aboriginal people should make.
14:19And this kind of idea that can also lead the work to be about sexuality and the body.
14:25I'm about to explode.
14:26I'm blowing up like a bomb.
14:28Every time I'm getting down, I'm picking myself up again.
14:31So I'd probably have to say this would be my ultimate favourite sketch.
14:36To me, it symbolises everything about femininity and graffiti and just flows.
14:44And I'm picking myself up again.
14:45Up again.
14:46Up again.
14:47I think the fluid nature of sketches too, there's something that can't be kind of replicated
14:51when you do a finish or a bigger painting.
14:54So I think, you know, for me they really appeal coming into a gallery space and seeing those
14:59intimate personal works.
15:02Yeah, they are very intimate.
15:04It comes from a special place deep down in my heart when it comes to the time for me to
15:09take
15:09What are your feelings on the commercial gallery opposed to being out on the streets?
15:14Well, for me, I mean, for me the streets were the gallery.
15:17Well, it is the gallery for my work.
15:19You don't have to walk into a building.
15:21Like, you walk past it and everyone can see it.
15:24Well, thank you for this extra special look and this special guided tour of your show.
15:28Off again.
15:29Off again.
15:30Keep picking myself up again.
15:31Every time I'm getting down, I'm picking myself up again.
15:34So when I started out doing graffiti sort of in the mid-90s, there wasn't a whole heap
15:41of females at all.
15:44We had a crew, Lady Killers, that was started 2012, you know, between mutual friends.
15:52It was a collective.
15:52We put together exhibitions, walls, parties, and all about basically supporting each other
16:00and making things happen.
16:02And we did it really well.
16:07It was just incredible.
16:13The name Lady Killers just came from the fact that we were very strong women and we knew
16:18we killed it.
16:27After Tanisha was born, I got involved with Marian Council's Art of Respect program and she was
16:33probably only a few months old and that was my first experience of being a participant in a workshop.
16:40Marian Art of Respect program was developed to get young juvenile delinquents to stop tagging
16:47and they organised workshops to do canvases and then put them into doing gallery exhibitions
16:54and selling their work and, yeah, it was a really good experience.
16:59And then ended up working my way into actually being a facilitator.
17:06That's kicked off facilitating workshops for me.
17:10Mish, how are you?
17:11Tony, hey, how are ya?
17:12Good.
17:13So what's your job at Tandanya?
17:15So I'm the community arts and youth engagement officer here.
17:18So it's a role I actually really love.
17:20Yeah.
17:23I've facilitated workshops for all sorts of kids from Aboriginal kids to mixed races, kids
17:31with cancer, kids who are deaf, all sorts of kids.
17:37What's the crossover like between your role as an artist and your job at Tandanya?
17:42Yeah.
17:42So a lot of the workshops are so art-based workshops.
17:46Do you think I can come and do one?
17:47Tony, I'd love you to be part of it.
17:49I think you'll enjoy it.
17:58Where we are at today is Tandy College, the place of learning for a lot of Aboriginal and Torres
18:04Strait Islander students.
18:06Throughout my time, I've mentored a few young artists.
18:10I can see there's this connection to culture, to where they come from.
18:14That can turn into a bit of frustration perhaps.
18:19I met Nish when I was, I think I was about 16 years old.
18:23And yeah, she pretty much took me under her wing and showed me that the cultural side
18:27of art was really empowering and showing me where I could take my art.
18:38It's always fun with Shane, it's always kicking it in a bit of a freestyle manner as a collaboration.
18:45You know, we don't get too bogged down in, right, what are we going to do?
18:48How are we going to do it?
18:49It's more just letting it flow naturally and I think as artists we tend to, you know,
18:54let it go and see how it ends up.
18:58If there's a story or something significant that we need to acknowledge, then we incorporate
19:03that into the work.
19:06It's about respecting the community.
19:09We've got Uridla, which are the two mountains in the Adelaide Hills, which represent the ears
19:15of the big kangaroo, which is Tandanya.
19:17That's what we're painting today, the story of two.
19:22One thing that I'm very big on is each one to each one.
19:26So it's not just about me teaching young people.
19:31Like I believe young people have a lot to teach us.
19:35I just kind of wanted to do what all my mentors have done for me and help out when I
19:38was struggling.
19:39So that's what got me into, got me into the mentoring stuff.
19:43It's a two way street almost.
19:45So it's like the saying, Nappajee Nappajee, like I give you, you give me.
19:49So I'm keen to see what everyone's going to say about the new piece though.
19:53Yeah.
19:54I think I'll like it.
19:55Yeah.
19:56I reckon.
19:59Nisha's a pretty good role model in the community.
20:01She works with lots of kids from not just the city, but she goes out onto the lands and speaks
20:05with the kids out there.
20:06And I think it's important for the youth to see Aboriginal people doing good things.
20:15So 2015, I won the Gladys Elfic Award for dedicated service to youth through culture and arts.
20:24Yeah.
20:25It was beautiful to be nominated and be acknowledged.
20:28But I think, yeah, working with the young people for me and seeing their happiness and what they get out
20:34of it,
20:34is to me, that was amazing.
20:38Woo.
20:55So you need to get some paint for workshops.
20:58Yep.
20:59Um, all of the top row, please.
21:04One of each.
21:05Potion.
21:06Flirt.
21:07And moberry.
21:09Two greens on the end.
21:12I'm so surprised by the colours.
21:14Yeah.
21:15Yeah, it's great.
21:16There's such a huge range.
21:18I love it.
21:18Yeah.
21:18So, how many we got?
21:21So...
21:2237.
21:2337.
21:23Alright, so nozzles.
21:25Now, I'm understanding nozzles are imperative to the design, to the way in which the paint comes out.
21:32Nozzles is like the key.
21:34That's right.
21:35So my favourite would have to definitely be the New York Fat Cap.
21:38Really versatile.
21:39I love that I can feel with it.
21:41I can outline with it.
21:43But I can really control it.
21:44And I do say to the kids, like, the bigger ones come out smaller and the smaller ones come out
21:49bigger, just to confuse them.
21:50Then you've got your astro, your ghost cap.
21:53If you want to do something big and quick, this is your, um, your choice of...
21:57Definitely.
21:58Okay, not for kids.
21:58We're going to go through a lot of paint in the workshop with those.
22:01Definitely.
22:02They love them.
22:02When they find them, they love them.
22:04That's why I hide them.
22:10So we're in Port Adelaide now, and not far from Kuru.
22:15Kuru are an Adelaide-based Indigenous youth dance troupe.
22:20Pretty keen to, yeah, work with these young ones, because I haven't had the chance to work with Kuru more
22:25before.
22:27So is this what you meant when you told me you're a good rapper?
22:30Oh, the finest.
22:32Do you want to hear me bust out something?
22:34Oh, give me the low bit.
22:37Yeah.
22:37Can't have you standing there looking pretty.
22:44Hey, ladies.
22:45Hi.
22:46Kuru Kuru.
22:47Hi, how are you?
22:49Ladies, this is Tony.
22:51Hi, everyone.
22:52Lovely to meet you.
22:53I should stand here.
22:54I'm a participant too.
22:55Yes, you are joining in.
22:57You need to wear one of these.
23:00This is the New York fat pack.
23:05Like, it's all in your wrist.
23:06All your movements in your wrist, okay?
23:08If I get too close, that's what happens.
23:11Too far away, that's what happens.
23:14So you kind of want to find your happy medium.
23:17Um, yeah, let's get busy, huh?
23:20There's some nuggles in there.
23:23So, T-R-E-G-O.
23:25Yep.
23:26Trego.
23:27Trego.
23:32Beautiful.
23:39I try and teach kids the right way of using cans.
23:43Try and avoid teaching them or, you know, condoning anything about tagging.
23:50It's really interesting.
23:52I've been so surprised at how much coverage you can get in such a short time.
23:55I mean, it makes so much sense that it's attached to the street.
23:58It's quick.
24:00Um, but then I can also see the potential over a long period of time, or really putting in a
24:04lot of work,
24:05how you can get some pretty amazing outcomes.
24:08Yeah.
24:08Nice look.
24:10I love this popping colour.
24:12It's very 80s, kind of electro-boogie.
24:17I think it's really important for young people to have a variety of ways to express themselves.
24:29It's about creating public art, transforming spaces into something beautiful.
24:37How are you finding the workshop?
24:39It's more easier than I thought.
24:40Yeah, it is, isn't it?
24:42What do you think?
24:45They're pretty good.
24:46They're pretty good.
24:47They're very good.
24:47This is great.
24:48Yeah, what's your favourite part of working with Nish?
24:51Creativeness.
24:52Which kind of just lets you do what you want.
24:57I'd like kids to get some skills, of course, but inspiration to go on and get a career out of
25:04the arts.
25:10Seeing the kids' reaction, their satisfaction, their joy, it actually blows me away.
25:19I love that there's a variety of techniques and styles.
25:24I love this.
25:25This is amazing.
25:27Love your work.
25:29I hope people see the work that I've been doing with young people and hope that young people are inspired
25:36to, you know, do work in the arts and maybe follow my footsteps, perhaps.
25:47I'm looking back at the sun, thinking what have I done?
25:50Trying to figure out what's beginning, what's begun.
25:52Fighting with myself in the moment of truth, man.
25:55Why was I hurting back in my youth?
25:57Yeah.
25:58In my past life, I lived in black and white on the seaside.
26:00And the colours seem so bright in the dream time.
26:03Searching for a little more peace.
26:04Now I'm dizzy, yo.
26:06Free some memories receiving like a radio.
26:08My hands on people have a heap from the heavens.
26:10My message comes clear as I tell past the prison.
26:13My feet are tired but my big shoulders never strayed.
26:16Rest it in these eyes still...
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