ABOUT \\ PROJECTS \\ NETWORK \\ CONTACT \\ A-Z
\\ INTERVIEWS
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interviews |
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>> H.O.P.E.
“The thing with
street art is that you have to be
quite brave to do it.“ H.O.P.E.
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>>> Please tell us about yourself ... I sign my work as: H.O.P.E. My education has nothing to do with
art. Nor does my profession and career. I studied Law-University of Athens.
I only recently started experimenting with different forms of
art, such as street art, and drawing. I’m an autodidact. The thing with street art is that you have to be quite brave to
do it. It makes my life seem less empty. Otherwise it would be so boring
and linear. I think most of us are equipped to do great things, but too caught up in apathetic daydreaming to do anything
important. I also think it takes a lot of courage to enter other people’s
world. By the time I stick something to the wall my world is shattered and no longer exists. It’s definitely not a pathetic way of getting a message across. >>> How would you describe your style of work ? As far as my street art is concerned, I like to think it has a
sense of symmetry. Sometimes, placing characters in opposing extremes makes this symmetry more apparent. For instance, I place my works
close to commercial panels, because I think it’s the right
antidote to them. No one asks us if we like to live in cities that are turned into
commercial landscapes. On the contrary, people tend to think they grow up in
a safe beautiful place, which is such a lie. At first I liked to make things that weren’t too big, or too
abstract to relate too. The ones that you want to get closer, but you also
want to run away. Now, I feel mor free to let myself be guided by my instinct. When I draw, I am more interested in the procedure of drawing,
than the drawing itself. So I end up making things that I’m unable of
explaining to others. The funny thing is that the more you’re interested in
depicting your feelings, rather than anything else, the more you end up making something that seems complex. >>> How do you feel about an ever-growing interest
and commercial exploitation of streetart as the new pop culture ? Nowadays, I feel like there’s a backlash against culture in
general. People are more interested in buying and selling, than art
itself. Street art is spoken about as if it were a passing fad. To me street art is more a constant search for truth. So, it’s sad that one person’s passion for truth is easily read
as fad. On the other hand, I do think that there are some people dealing with art that want to foster new talent, wherever this comes
from. >>> Your favorite project ... What I find intriguing this period, is moving from street art and
exploring other forms of art. For my first solo exhibition called: “The sun may not shine tomorrow, so suck my dick” which opened on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14th, I did a performance under the title: “Nail it up again and throw it into the sea”. What I can recall from that performance, is that it was a
complete mind-fuck experience, in a good way. A psycho-drama type game, where my only aim was the engineering of chaos. The character I
played was a guy left on the road that the only thing he owned was a
wooden box, a pen, an adhesive tape and a notebook. So what he did was write some phrases on this notebook, tear them off and stick them on the pavement. He was trapped within language to the point of exhaustion. But that’s not a bad thing, because everything
important seems to come through exhaustion. >>> Do you see your art as universal, as globally
understandable ? Art has its own language, one that is mysteriously spoken by all human beings. It’s sort of a revelation that you don’t
have to explain it. It’s nice that some things have to be unspoken and still
understood by everyone on this planet. >>> Which aspect of your work is most often
overlooked ? I think there’s more of narrative in the things I depict, that
people tend to overlook. I’m more interested in presenting the results of
something than the person or thing itself. >>> What is to come ... I have no idea. I like to let myself driven by instinct. |
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urbantactics Link |
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