Showing as part of next week’s Creative Sydney extravaganza, Pedestrian are proud to support Scratching The Surface, an installation and live painting event that will explore the quality and temporary nature of public art in Sydney. Superstars of the craft such as Beastman, Max Berry, Numskull, Phibs and Roach will all take part as well as share their top five favourite pieces with Pedestrian in the lead up. Today Beastman shares his favourite works while explaining the collaborative nature of street art and the futility of draconian anti-graffiti laws.
Ambush Gallery Warehouse – Sydney – December 2009
This wall was part of an exhibition I did with Phibs, Numskull and Yok at Ambush Gallery in Sydney. This particular section of the mural I painted with Phibs came together really well on one whole side wall of the warehouse. I currently live with Phibs and I have learned a lot from painting with him over the last year. This was the first of many walls we have painted together.
The Record Store Wall – Sydney – October 2009
This wall is memorable because at the time it was the biggest wall I had ever painted by myself. It took a whole day to paint and the wall is in a great location in Surry Hills. The wall previously had a piece by Lister and Kill Pixie on it for a few years, the owner of the wall wanted something new on it but he couldn’t find someone who wanted to paint over the piece. I was walking past it one day and noticed he had buffed over half of it, so I approached him to see if I could paint it, being friends with Lister and Kill Pixie I knew they wouldn’t mind if I painted the wall… So three days later I did. The wall is still going strong today…. I might actually try and repaint it with something new soon.
They Keep Painting, We Keep Painting – Sydney – April 2010
I paint with Numskull and Roach regularly, situated on Foveaux St in Surry Hills, we painted this wall along with another artist, Saynt, as part of the Keep Australia Colourful Campaign, which took place on the NSW Governments first ever Anti Graffiti Action Day. We painted this to stand up for Graffiti as a form of art and culture and to show how our city could look if there were more places for artists to create pieces legally.
Worlds End Studio – Sydney – 2008
In 2008 I shared a large studio space called Worlds End in Sydney with Ben Frost, Numskull, Trent Whitehead, Kill Pixie, Teagues and some others, it was a great experience for me as an artist working alongside some really talented and motivated artists and friends. I shared a section of the studio with Numskull and this is a photo of our wall towards the end of my time in there. The days and nights spent in that studio I will always cherish… good times.
Split Face – Gold Coast – April 2009
I was up in Queensland for an exhibition I had at Nine Lives Gallery in Brisbane, whenever I go up there I stay on the Gold Coast with my good friend Sam Smith. We were wandering around one day looking for something to do and stumbled across this large wood panel in an abandoned martial arts studio and decided to paint it. So we went and got some black and white acrylic and paint and went back to do it. We decided to just paint a face split down the middle and each paint a half. It was the first collaboration we had done together and we were really stoked how it turned out.
All Images Provided by Beastman
