Graffiti artist Fatso: ‘Anyone can be an artist – but they have to want to be’

I see the art world as playground. To explore and try new stuff.

Graffiti looks best outside illegally. When you put time and effort into making this thing, whether it’s a tag or a piece, that’s where it looks best. I think it’s hard to create that energy inside, because there’s no risk, which adds flavour. You have to be extremely confident and comfortable in yourself and your beliefs to write what you think high up on the wall for the whole city to see. 

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The things that I share are a combination between stuff I’ve heard and stuff I’ve seen, encounters that made me think of certain things, and rap lyrics, trap, a lot of UK, lot of Atlanta trap. I like the wordplay. I like things that have multiple meanings. Slang is a big topic of mine, I’m interested in social commentary. I like language. I like how if you say it in the right way, everyone listens, whether they like it or because they’re like, ‘What the fuck did he just say?’ The right use of language would turn anyone.

It’s inevitable that one day, my fine art and graff alter egos will merge. It’s one brain, same ideas, same thoughts, different outputs, but they’re so similar. I didn’t really ever see the graff thing as art. So I was like, ‘Oh, they’ll always be apart.’ It’s only recently I’m re-evaluating things. London has the most exciting graff scene in the world. We’ve got history here. You can’t rewrite history. You can make new history though. I love London graff because it shaped who I am. I absolutely love this city. It’s ever changing. There’s a lot of stigmas in it sometimes, but at the end of the day art’s an opinion. So if I do a big chrome tag and someone wants to view that as art, I can’t change their opinion. I know what I meant when I done it, I’m doing vandalism, adding to the fucking culture. I’m outside, having fun, writing my name and that’s as far as it goes.

The internet helps and has not helped. It’s a lively platform, anything goes, no rules, which is fun, but also it’s hard to know now who’s just a product of the internet, and who just enjoys what they’re doing and found their styles and the stuff they like through travelling, through books, through talking. Pre-internet, I remember going away by myself and doing all that. I’m not saying like kids shouldn’t use maps when they travel, these tools are here to help, but it’s like people already know too much about the place they’re going before they’ve gone. So the same can go for subcultures or restaurants or knowledge of anything. So now people who are in there, they talk too much, like they know the whole thing, but they ain’t done nothing.

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Social media is wicked. I love it. It’s like the circus isn’t it? Whole heap of clowns, whole heap of tricksters, couple strong elephants and tigers, couple monkey tamers and that. It’s fun, there’s something for everyone on there. 

It put you in contact with people, shone light on countries and cities in the world that we wouldn’t have known about their graff scene otherwise, which is sick. There’s always going to be people that are going to abuse it, like anything in life – drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, weed, whatever, whether it’s legal or illegal. Someone’s gonna do too much of it, and there’s always people doing too much of the internet who need to have a little day off and checked with what’s really going on.

There’s always going to be purists. There’s always going to be someone walking down a street with no shoes on because they know about getting grounded, but maybe it’s not the right thing to do in a busy city with chewing gum and spit everywhere. There’s always going to be another me who’s interested in the guy who ran around a niche place in Scandinavia with a Tipp-Ex pen writing messages, these people always exist. So it don’t matter how strong the internet gets, there’s always going to be people pushing back, doing real research, not just skim reading. My rule is, anyone can be an artist, but they have to want to be. They might not want to be, and that’s fine. And that means that person might not see certain things as art, but that’s just because they don’t want to, and that’s OK. It’s got a certain sense of vulnerability to it, being able to with your chest out say, nice, interesting work there.

I just find it quite funny. No matter how much of a serious artist you are, you’re vulnerable.

I think all graffiti writers could be great artists because they’ve already done the biggest step first, which is putting the work out there. Too many people make artwork in the studio, don’t share it, and it goes unseen. These people die and artifacts get found 10/20 years later and they say, genius in the making. We’re already outside putting work up, being like, ‘Yo, this is me, chest out, here’s my work.’ And it’s more treacherous in the trenches, in the streets, because you put your work out there and someone else can put their work over it, under it, next to it, clip it, beside it, whatever. When you put your work online, no one can touch it. If your work’s in the gallery, no one can touch it. We’re already two steps into being artists, but we just don’t want to be. It’s not for everyone. 

My big issue is there’s not enough Black people in the creative industry, in the art world. We’re changing it though, I just put my toe in, I’m gonna bring someone else in and then just change it. Why is that? It’s because it wasn’t shown as an opportunity in our communities. Because we are not from here, so we came here – or we’ve got sent here – and the race has already started. People are already halfway through. Maybe some people are near the finish line, if that does exist. And we started at the beginning. Let’s be real, it’s just going to take a little bit longer for us to catch up.

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