Lush is the man. What else can you say? If you’ve seen his work, you either love it, or, if you’re someone without a sense of humour or some kind of sense of churchlike appropriateness, you’ll hate the work from this indomitable Melbourne graffiti artist.
Walls, trains, burners, chicks, tits and all the bits in between, there’s no mistaking his pieces – they’re the ones laughing back at you from the wall, just like he’s doing.
When we saw that Lush was opening a show at Backwoods Gallery this week, there was no hesitation in wanting to throw a few questions his way – so click in, and read on – but, if you’re at work, well … you’re on your own …
So, give us the run down – how did you start doing all this stuff, and why do you love it so – or is it now just a habit that you just cant
kick?
I’m on a mission from God. Except I don’t have ray-bans and a good
suit/hat/shoe combo like the blues brothers – oh and I don’t believe in
a God. I’m now going to go try find all of the above.
I get the feeling from having read a bit about you that you don’t take any of this too seriously – or is that just a mask for taking
it all serious, when you’re pretending to not take it serious?
I’m as serious as a serious legitimate graffiti Grandmaster can be.
I’m down with wicked fresh crews, have the hardest styles, and, like
Shooter McGavin, eat pieces of shit toys for breakfast.
Modern”Graffiti” was invented by dudes in flares or something – who’s taking that shit serious?
Exploding unicorns, tits, ass, chicks and dicks – often your work
reminds me of a tattered and well read Viz comic – where exactly do you get your inspiration from?
I always say the same shit to this question I guess – Ashley Blue ( A
real woman), and, lately that dead guy George Orwell has been ripening my plums. Ice-T inspires me – look at Coco – that’s pretty fair for a cunt that has an ugly poodle hairdo and all.
Larry David, because he’s Larry David.
You’re not really into the whole pro/graff lifestyle shit – but you
obviously love what you do, and there’s a definite fan base for your work – is having that kind of stuff in the background at all
important?
I’d like to travel for free and have a healthy hip hop lifestyle. In
the end, I just enjoy painting every day and getting haters bent – if I can make someone whinge because I drew two fisting lesbians then I’m happy.
Tell us a bit about your upcoming exhibition at Backwoods gallery –
what kind of work will be up?
Its mainly space scifi type spray art like stenciled and speckled
street art – you know, like the dude in the city who does that shit?
Yeah, I bogarted his shit.
Given you’ve mentioned that “street art” is often just about some
artists chasing a buck, as a road to a gallery career, is this all just a public service thing?
I’m just going to take the piss out of it all – in a scifi Ridley
Scott-does-aerosol-art way.
Every one talks about you parodying artists and styles, but maybe
they’re just too afraid of admitting that it burns – do you think that writers in general are able to take the piss or do you think they take it all way too seriously?
I’m just waiting for the day someone parodies me, then I’ll know I’ve become the enemy haha.
In an interview at Bombing Science, you said one of your projects was to do a bunch of pics, each with a word, which you’d then put into a story – how’s that coming along, and are you still working on it?
Well I need to write something worth it before I do it – I just haven’t
found the right little story to do.
We want to see more Lush painted on hot chicks asses – you obviously enjoy body painting, what do you most love about it, apart from painting on hot chicks asses?
It’s nice to hang around girls who are comfortable being naked. I’m
usually too busy being angry about how shit my piece is going to take in much else.
What’s a womans usual response to your work? Do you think you’d feel at home at a feminists convention or do you think you’d get get lynched – wait, do you even give a fuck?
Chicks dig it – then again I don’t hang with chicks who read the bible,
or are members of S.C.U.M.
What other crazy ass cool ideas have you got fermenting away in that brain of yours?
I try to write down every idea I have, from the bad to the good. I’d
like to try do some pieces with letters from subway art copied as
close as I can, like “everything has been done” or some wanky shit
like that.
Anyways, given that your show is this week, and you’ll probably spend the xmas season putting up rad burners of hot tits, you’re probably not thinking about what’s going to come next – but, what’s going to come next?
I wanna travel for free, so hit me up rich benefactor$!
LUSH AT BACKWOODS GALLERY from Zonk Vision on Vimeo … video via Everfresh.
Lush is exhibiting at Backwoods Gallery from December the 17th @6pm until December the 23rd – check here and on the Backwoods website for more details. Also take a look at his flickr account for heaps more pics …
Leave a Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *