[January 30th 2003]
Interview

Interview with ASH - about consumerism, nature and standing in silly queues...
ASH was born in the year 1968 and lived in Paris most of is youth. He is considered a pioneer in the European graffiti scene. He has since 1988 been exhibiting regularly in various galleries and spaces worldwide. He is currently exhibiting at Senko in Viborg. ASH lives and works in Copenhagen. Miriam Nielsen met ASH for a chat about his latest show luxurious in Viborg. Interview and photo: Miriam Nielsen

ASH - Luxurious
14. December 2002 to 31. January 2003
Senko
Sct. Mathiasgade 35D
8800 Viborg
Tel: +45 40 62 71 54
Open sat - sun 12-17 pm
Pressrelease

Your show Luxurious is presented at the Senko gallery in Viborg. Unfortunately I was not able to visit, but I have seen the photos from there. What kind of space is Senko?
For me the space is very interesting because it has a very big window, and that allowed me to do something, which is very much in the street, and everyone can see it. The work was made especially for this gallery. I like the fact that you do not have to go through a small door to see it, so in a way the exhibition is up 24 hours a day.

Did you get any reactions from people in the street?
Yes very much so, a lot of young people stopped by and looked inside. Also regular people, like housewives doing their shopping were stopping to have a look.

What did you display in the window?
In the window I put up some folio with cut elements, and you can see the actual exhibition through these elements. The light from the gallery comes through these cuttings. I think it was very interesting to work with light, because it is so dark in Denmark in the winter.

You did a T-shirt design as well?
Yes, I did a piece of graphic work, which represents the Danish nature and this got printed on 11 T-shirts. The T-shirts are part of the installation.

Is your work always site-specific?
We, two of my friends and I (BadBC), have been working with space and architecture for the last few years. We follow the same concept at the moment and we work with the spaces. That is why I did this exhibition in
Viborg because it allowed me to do something which no other space allowed me to do.

What does it mean to you as a graffiti person to move inside, into a room?
Well, I still do work in the street. I don't think of graffiti in terms of inside and outside. I think of graffiti as something, which can be seen, and inside it can be seen by more people than if it was on the corner of a street, because if it is inside it will be seen through the media as well.

But the audience must be a different one?
No not really, all kinds of people will see it. What is important is to keep the attitude of graffiti, which is to be seen. Graffiti is made to be seen.

But galleries often appeal to certain types of people. Are they not visited by a slightly different crowd to the people, who pass a street corner?
Yes, but the galleries where I have been doing work are mostly popular, like the gallery Agnes B in Paris. I did a show there with other graffiti writers last year and we had as many people coming to the opening party as to an
opening at the Beaubourg (The Modern Art Museum of Paris). We had maybe a thousand people for the opening party. It actually caused security problems.

What kind of work did you do there?
For that show I worked with my partners from BadBc. We did a very big installation made from cardboard found in the street in a neighbourhood in Paris, where there are many clothes manufactures who get big cardboard boxes from China. In the evening at seven o'clock the streets are covered with these boxes and we collected these and glued them to the wall and made constructions. Among other things I wrote "Resist" in three-dimensional letters cut out of cardboard. The show also contained projections of light.

What was the idea behind writing ‘Resist’?
The show started the 28th of September. So we used the word Resist in this expo because of the September 11th events.

Do you have some kind of political agenda? Maybe related to graffiti being an illegal activity?
Graffiti has no political meaning in general. We never talked about politics between graffiti writers because we never cared about that. Graffiti as we make it is an affirmation of the individual, and a denial of a predefined life shaped by society. Then it is up to every one to add whatever message he wants. Some people see it more like an anarchist movement, back in the 80ies there was much connection with the punks.

I guess it is about other things than being seen?
No, the origin of graffiti is all about being seen by making tags around. Then big pieces appeared, because it was useless just to make tags (to many). Now there are too many graffiti pieces outside and people don't notice it. This is the reason why I am continuing my development through other media (galleries, books, TV etc.).

What is behind the title Luxurious?
Every day we get adverts through the mailbox, which pushes us to buy. In society we are always confronted with the idea of having a better life, a better material life. Most people want luxurious things. In this exhibition I work around this idea. When you live in a city there are always people who want to tempt you to buy things. If you live in the countryside it is different, you look at nature. Maybe you don't have the need for these things. It is this contrast that I try to express.

You seem to have a very romantic view of the countryside?
No, not really. I am not saying the country is better than the city because I am very much an urban person. In the exhibition the city is represented by some elements that look like subway lines. And there is a guy shooting with a rifle and on this I glued adverts to represent the aggression of advertising. It is about consumption, like for example when I was in Tokyo last year I saw teenagers queuing up outside a shop to buy Nike trainers, it is silly because it doesn't make them original anyway.

So which adverts did you use to make the shooting men?
I tried to use mostly meat promotions. I used the most common ones.

Your work in Viborg is very aesthetic, what does this mean to you and who are you inspired by?
Aesthetics is very important in my work, it is the way I get people’s eye attracted, make them curious, look at it closer and discover the message. Aesthetic reflects the tendencies of the moment in TV, advertisement, movies, design etc. So my inspiration comes from many sources. At the moment I like to use Scandinavian design elements.

Do you have any shows coming up in the near future?
Yes, I participate in a group show called Yuzen, which is in Holland right now and which may visit Copenhagen later this year. In April I have a show coming up in Mogadishini in Islands Brygge, where I plan to work more on canvases as well as with installation. Also I am working on one show in Paris and one in Berlin. I hope my partners and I will have a show in Agnes B in Paris again.