As a previous Flickr of the Week (FOTW) winner, FAKE has already impressed us here at Concrete Canvas. His stencil work is consistently impressive, clean and entertaining. So I was incredibly grateful when FAKE took us up on the offer to interview him. See what happened below:

Click the link below to read the interview:

Could you start off by telling us a little more about yourself e.g. how did you get into street art?
Well I live in Amsterdam, and am 28 years old. I work in fashion PR and I started with graffiti in my home town (Lelystad) when I was 14 years old. I have been arrested for tagging the whole school (toilets, doors, tables and the outside of the school) when I was 17. Some teachers found out it was me (I got rated out) and so they kicked me out of the school. This also meant I kind of stopped tagging and graffiti for 7or 8 years.

Meanwhile I was looking for a way to let out my creativity but I could not find a way to do it in a good-looking way. Then stencils came up and I told myself to start making them…. After 7or 8 months I still hadn’t done it until I saw a stencil on the streets by some Amsterdam record shop.

Can you remember your first street art piece and what was it?
My first piece of street art that I consider street art is the hopscotch girl with the chalk on the floor, this I think is still the best concept I ever made and I still try to top myself in all my other work.

You have tried many different street art techniques: paste ups, stencils, stickers, canvas work - which is your favourite and why?
Well, my fave of course are stencils on the streets, somehow I don’t like paste ups, I think it’sthe easy way of putting your art on the streets and not taking the risks, and also it never looks as good if the paint is on the wall. About the rest, I only feel attracted to make some stickers because of the trading going on between ’street artists’.

What other artists inspire you?
Well a lot of artists inspire me. Mimi the clown I love for his always recognizable art and his positive message he is trying to get across. Dolk is the bomb for his absurd themes and combinations of images in situations.
What really pisses me off though are these so-called street artists and the self-claimed critics (read: those ignorant and know-it-all consumers) that constantly try to compare everything. Not ‘all stencils’ are a reminder of Banksy. Fuck off!

What is the street art scene in Amsterdam like and do you think its influenced you?
I think it’s not big, 70 percent is graffiti, 20% stickers and 10% stencils. The graffiti of course is big but I don’t really like the attitude they have (by claiming public property and fighting over it) and tagging? I just don’t see the point, just some kids trying to get famous by damaging other people’s property.

The Amsterdam scene is not influencing me, and it’s easy for me to get noticed in Amsterdam because I am one of the few doing stencils and the only one doing the size I make them in.

England and the internet of course do influence me, but just the other way around, I try do be different and try to do that what others don’t.

Are there any art pieces you’ve seen that have really impressed you and you’d wish you had thought of?
90% of the work of dolk, the most the woman putting on the inflating sex doll. This is a master piece (even though I hate it that it has a political message)

I’ve noticed Kate Moss features quite a bit in your work, apart from her being a lovely supermodel are there any other reasons?
Well I work in fashion and I am still looking for a way to make fashion ridiculous a bit.. and Kate Moss her face is very recognizable in a stencil. This is the only reason I use her.

The boy’s that feature in your work (with Mickey Mouse ears) where did they come from?
This is a stencil made from a picture made by Arbus in central park NYC in 1962. This image is used by many different artists around the globe, stencils, stickers, paste ups, digital, everything! It’s just a beautiful but strange picture that makes you think of the situation of the moment of the picture.

I used it because I like to make pictures as absurd as I can but in a happy way, I try to make people think but also make them happy.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I think street art is often misunderstood and confused by vandalism. Real street art makes people think and adds something to the urban life.

Thanks for you time FAKE.

Links:
FAKE’s Flickr

Tags: FAKE, Interviews

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.