KS interview with Tr853One
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TraseOne -A self-taught Street artist from Singapore who has been doing great creative stuff both in streets and Galleries, has his work exhibited in numerous commissioned projects and exhibitions both on local and global platforms and Has a nice profile on Street Art in his country. After some time of following his cool works we decided to have a dioalouge with Him and have him talk with us about some aspects of his work and life.
Kolahstudio: Would you please let us know how you started to do street art? when and where was your first action?
Traseone: I started off drawing on paper for a few years just to get my style right somewhere in ’99. A couple of years later I met a crew whom I learnt a lot from and was lucky enough to debut in a hiphop event painting legally. I screwed up pretty bad though.
Kolahstudio: What does it mean to You? and do feel it should be illegal?
Traseone: To me doing street art is merely presenting a different voice to a different audience. There is no denying that there is a sense of elitism in fine art. Street art exposes the work to a bigger audience because it is out in the streets and will be seen by many compared to a painting sitting in a gallery.
It depends on the message that the artist is trying to send across. An illegal piece will definitely attract more attention but if it has no meaning then I guess it treads on the line of vandalism.
Kolahstudio: We like to know what does it mean to People in your city? do you see more Positive reactions or negative?
Traseone: Mostly negative. When I show my street art work the question that I often get in return are “Is it legal?”, and if they’re not, then comes the talk about laws and consequences. The positive comments do not come from locals. For them, It should either be legit and go by the books, other than that it’ll usually be frowned upon. That is how myopic my people are, sadly.
Kolahstudio: How is the street art scene in your country according to you? how can you describe it for us?
Traseone: Seriously boring. Probably due to influences like what I mentioned above, not many dare to make bold works out on the streets. To make legal work means to have your proposals vetted and censored taking the essence of the work away most of the time. So works end up not as impactful as initially thought out to be.
Kolahstudio: You works seem to have nothing with your own local culture but with international theme of street art/skateboard scene?is it true and what do you think about it?
Traseone: In a way it is a throwback to my own culture. The concept of the shadow skaters started because I wanted to do something to pay tribute to one of the things that influenced me to do street art; the local skateboarding culture. The reason why the paintings work at night is also a reflection on how the local guys usually come out and play at night because it’s naturally cooler than the blazing day. And I’ve seen and known of great local talents in the skateboarding scene yet they’re not as celebrated as those in the international arena. That’s one of the reasons why they’re painted in small scale as well, to signify that the scene is barely big enough to be noticed, just like how the shadow skaters are found in obscure corners of the urban landscape.
Kolahstudio: what do you think about Graffiti/street art in the world? Your inspirations? who are those you like or admire their works?
Traseone: It is very vast and inspiring to see artists who have incorporated lots of other mediums into their work apart from the usual materials like cans and markers. There are people from Graffiti Research Lab (GRL) who use technology into their work, Mark Jenkins who makes tape sculptures, The ever innovative Banksy, and many more. These artists have gone beyond using the conventional tools and techniques to make more powerful works out on the streets.
Kolahstudio: Your works are playful about using their containers (canvas/ Wall and situation around it like in your shadow skateboarders)?
Traseone: Yes, I try to incorporate the surface into the work to give it more meaning and value to the surface. To me, the canvas is more than just a surface to paint on. Same goes for the walls I paint on the streets. To label something street art, the work needs to have a purpose for being where it is, only then can it be categorized as street art.. it has to be site specific.
Kolahstudio:(we ask thisfrom most of artists we have interview with… )Do you know anything about IRAN at all? . what do you think and what is your image about IRAN?
Traseone: I’ve come across street art in Iran one time when I was looking at graffiti and street art around the world, and I must say most of the works are powerful in a sense that they are politically driven. Even the style of works, the letter styles in most of the graffiti art works for example have a strong resemblance to the Islamic state. So I can really connect the works with where you are from, even culturally. Where I’m from, our culture is adapted from all over the world, thus it is easily reflected upon to have an international theme. I’d love to take a trip down and check out the country and culture for myself, if given the chance 🙂
