politics of the stencil


ds


ds is the stencil artist from london, who’s been capturing attention for his multi-layered, starkly coloured, highly politicised artwork. from his armed fox-tailed woman facing the rising sun to his kim jong-il works and his infamous bad kitty piece, his stencil works are an unmistakablely part of the london street art scene. inspired by japanese animation, propaganda posters and miniature design, ds is born out of and inspired by the graffiti movement of the early two thousands. he’s often likened to banksy, but ds is the heir to the throne with his own style, a development upon what came before, the new generation of london street artist.
interview with i.t.a.


i must say ds that your hard line political stencil pieces have been capturing our attention at the powder studio for some time now. we certainly enjoy an artist who has a political message behind his work, so welcome to powder.

firstly, what have you been working on in twenty fourteen and what projects do you
have coming up?

There’s a lot, but the main ones would be my #EasterEggGrenadeHunt pieces. Colourful grenade stencils were hidden in London & Paris and through my social media people could follow clues to find and keep. I managed to do a cheeky piece on the Pont des Arts while I was out there, which was definitely one of the nicest spots I’ve sprayed. The other big thing was an addition to the DS team - my new manager Steve Stevens from I.A.M ( Investables Artist Management ), which has allowed me to focus on just creating which brings me onto what’s coming up - Lots! Three joint shows in July where I will be launching a new colour variation of my Miley’s Smash Hits prints and for further along you will have to wait and see.

what led you out onto the street? did you first produce in a studio or somewhere else before you started your street art? did anyone introduce to the life of a street art?

In 2002, I moved to Dalston in London’s East, back then Banksy was still relatively unknown but very prolific, him & others like London Police and D*face attracted me to the world of street art. I had a go myself, they were very basic one layer stencils of robots but it was my first taste of doing it on the streets and one that was to stay with me. I had a love for painting too but it wasn’t till I went to uni to study art that it twigged stencil art was the medium for me. I developed my style to primarily be on canvas, which has made it tough to replicate on the streets. The intricacy of the multiple stencil layers make them fragile as well as time consuming to spray, not things you want to be worrying about when doing illegal walls.

you’re renowned for your stencil art. do you work in other mediums? what is it about stencils that led you to make that your predominant style?

I have a short attention span so exploring other mediums is what I use to break up constant cutting out. Painting, graphic design, interior design, photography - I love creating in general. Presently I’m customising a chess board and its pieces.

how does creating on the street benefit you as an artist and how would you say it actually benefits the community?

It benefits me hugely with exposure - no gallery can beat the foot traffic passing a piece on a good public wall. Spots thick with good street art are a massive attraction nowadays, many businesses are thriving because of its influx of tourists and admirers that it draws.

where would you say your inspiration comes from for a piece and once the inspiration comes what is the process you undertake in creating a new piece?

The process of my art starts with the conception, inspiration comes from everywhere, its hard to pin point: anime, film posters, politics, something I spot walking down the street or something I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye. After the concept has formed next normally a photo-shoot is set up to get the right character, pose and light for a great stencil. The image or images go through photoshop to sort out contrast, size and positioning - printed to size ready for cutting out then spraying. In all it takes roughly about 2 weeks a piece.

so you work on the city walls in public places. how do you choose your street canvases? is there something you specifically look for when choosing the positions for your art?

More and more the location is determined by the subject of the piece for example my Miley/Disney piece was done outside the Disney HQ in Hammersmith, London. For other works that don’t have a particular location planned, then how much public exposure do the surroundings enhance the piece and is it possible for me to spend 30 mins spraying there.

being an illegal activity, how do you undertake to get your artworks up on the wall without getting yourself into trouble? and have you ever been caught by the authorities when you have been out there creating?

No, never been caught thankfully, once you do it changes the game dramatically and you start having to drop your signature. How I avoid being caught is either I spray at 3am or now mainly I just put on my high vis jacket with ‘Improving Walls’ on the back and do it midday. It’s a mix of looking like you should be there so people don’t bother you and city folk not wanting to know your business that allows me to get away with it.

your stencil art is highly politicised. what would you say are the major themes running through your work? what political issues are most pertinent to you at this moment in time?

Yes definitely. There’s a lot, but the next satirical piece will probably involve Putin.

banksy is often mentioned as a major influence upon your work. besides the mysterious stencil artist himself, who would you say are your major influences and who are the artists on the uk street art scene at the moment that you would recommend people keep an eye out for?

Still big fans of D*face, Eine and London Police but other artists would be Dran, Conor Harrington, Huck Gee, Jeff Soto and Handiedan. All absolutely rock!

last year, you made the daily newspapers with the controversy surrounding your “bad kitty” stencil art piece and your subsequent stencil of the council graffiti wall cleaner. can you tell us how that all came about and how you actually came to be in the right place at the right time to capture the follow up image?

I was lucky I guess or unlucky as I thought at the time. Came back the morning after I sprayed the piece to document and it was already getting removed. It wasn’t my plan initially to make a stencil of the graffiti remover but my mind was made up on retaliating with another piece in the same spot.

and lastly, as you’ve exhibited in galleries what do you appreciate about exhibitions that you can’t get out on the street?

Joint shows I love because I get to meet other artists but all exhibitions are avenues to introduce my art to new people. I'd rather go to a show of mine and people not know I’m the artist because I can eaves drop and find out what they really think

cheers for taking the time out ds to chat with us here at powder. we look forward to catching some more of your stark, striking pieces when they hit the streets.

@ds_art

check the ds site

like facebook.com/ds art

instagram @ds__art

and check out the investables site