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Tagging Gotham: An Interview with
Peter Sutherland, Autograf
Before hip-hop
became the purview of bling-hoppers with zero rhyme skills, it was a multifaceted
movement encompassing not just DJs and MCs, but breakdancers, gangsters
and graffers. Good thing some people have longer memories than others.
Not only does Peter Sutherland's Autograf captures some of Gotham City's
most notorious graff artists, but in the process it reclaims some of the
movement's old-school outlaw artistry. There's a reason that many of Autograf's
subjects hide their faces. Just because 50 Cent is living large doesn't
mean one-time won't throw his forebears in the pen for creating inner-city
murals that make Christo's bullshit umbrellas irrelevant.
Morphizm: Why
graffiti artists? What is it about the medium that attracted you?
Peter Sutherland: I remember seeing the word "Ozzy" scrawled
in a drainage ditch when I was probably six or seven years old. I remember
being really hung up on those letters and wondering who had put them there.
I bet I envisioned some Hell's Angel outlaw biker types. It was fun to
ponder the word, why it was there and for how long. I grew up in areas
of Michigan and Colorado which had very little graffiti, but I always
enjoyed the little bits that I saw. When I moved to NYC in 1998, I was
amazed by it and found myself reading it all the time. It's a deep-rooted
interest that I had from a very young age. I was always into hip-hop and
skateboarding growing up.
Morphizm: Is
there still a debate as to whether graffiti is considered art anymore?
PS: For
me, graffiti is definitely art. I don't always like it, but I think it's
expressive. I think many who start writing graff find that it suits them;
they go with it and their style evolves. Anyone who has a passion for
something and develops their own style is artistic, because what they
are doing can be called expression. I can see why people don't like graffiiti
or think it's not art, but I don't think it's intended for everyone to
enjoy. Kind of like punk, heavy metal, hip-hop, any of that stuff.
Morphizm: Is
graffiti still a form of urban resistance or has it become a glossy pastime?
Is it still, as REVS writes, "dangerous?"
PS: I'm not really sure what you mean by urban resistance. But
I think in NYC there are writers who are really concious of neighborhood
and boroughs. Oftentimes, I think people write to fight back against all
of the gentrification that has happened and is still happening in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and parts of Queens. There are yuppies walking wiener dogs everywhere,
talking on cell phones and wearing Polo button-downs. It gets boring.
I think writers today glamourize an older, grimier New York, and writing
is a way for them to identify with it, or attempt to play some part in
it. I've seen both sides of graffiti. There are writers that don't really
have much else other than graffiti, and there are rich kids that buy all
the paint and want to be rock stars. So it is dangerous; you can get arrested,
locked up or catch beef with other writers. People do still get their
faces cut.
Morphizm: Why
did you want to become involved in both hip-hop and skateboarding?
PS: Because both skateboarding and graff are youth culture movements.
I lived and skated through much of skateboarding's evolution, and I'm
thankful to be in NYC to live and watch what is going on with graffiti.
Both are self-perpetuating cultures. Both have their heroes and legends.
Both like shoes and good music.
Morphizm: Who
are some of the graffiti legends you were excited to work with on Autograf?
PS: Stay High, 149, REVS, EARSNOT, VFR, DOZE, etc. I was out with
the 5MH crew -- who are not in the book -- and they were doing fill-ins
all night in BK at around 5AM. We got arrested after a pedestrian tipped
off a cop. That memory is the strongest in my mind. Being locked up for
one night really put graffiti into perspective for me. After that, I realized
what writers are up against.
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