Over the past year or so, I’ve been seeing several KA’a pieces popping up across the city and in exhibitions, but it was only after the guys from At Large gallery told me to check out some of the work done by their friends, Kirsty and Mathieu, that I realised that they and KA’a were one and the same. Their collective skills, coupled with their emerging activist-orientated tenants and their exploration of both urban and traditional indigenous cultures, has gifted the Melbourne streets with a blend of layered stencils and freeform aerosol pieces that are often unique in their execution.

Since then, then I’d wanted to do an interview with the busy duo, but unfortunately our schedules just didn’t make it possible – so when I saw that they were some of the many talented artists involved in presenting work with Sweet Streets festival, I happily managed to catch up with them for a bit of q&a time.

Could you tell us a little about yourselves, how you met, and how you ended up doing art together?

KA’a is a collaborative between, Mathieu Augereau, (who is a French aerosol artist), and I (Kirsty Furniss, an international stencil artist). We met in 2007, in central France, at the ten year anniversary of a collectively run alternative/artistic village set in an area renowned for its amazing cave homes and art studios. It was a massive celebration, and live painting was one of the events going on. I was introduced to Mathieu and some of his friends, as I was looking to meet and work with other graffiti artists. We both hit it off artistically and personally, so we organised to meet again at their arts warehouse in Axat, up in the Pyrenees mountains.

I was in awe of Mathieu’s textured unique graffiti style and he was really interested in the stencil work I was doing, so, we continued to experiment with a few joint works and walls,  and we’ve working together ever since.

How about the name KA’a, where does it spring from, and what does the name represents for you both?

The name KA’a was chosen for its  letters,  meaning  and sound.   Mathieu worked under the name Arg when we first met. I often just signed K, so K’a is a mixing of those, with a bit of background research relevant to the significance of the word KA.

KA traces back to people from the middle stone age in Africa; it relates to the world above, behind and inside the world- what is above us,  or inside  the rock, beneath the ground or deep within us. It is also used to signify the energy that inspires creativity.  KA, and words with associated meanings, continue to exist in the languages of Indigenous people in Australia, Asia and  America.  KA and ‘a are pronounced CA and A in CAR, respectively.

How long have you been in Australia for now, and why have you found yourself here in Melbourne? Are you staying for some time or do you have more plans to travel beyond here?

We arrived in Australia last December, and at first we visited my brother in Sydney – then moved to Melbourne as planned. I guess I was the driving force behind the move to Melbourne. I came to Melbourne to live and study/work back in 2001, where, in general, the city helped me to develop my activist and artistic (mostly street based) skills. I left 2005  to travel, and set myself up in Europe, but had always planned to return. It wasn’t too difficult to convince Mathieu, given that Melbourne is what it is – the major draw card for us was the big street art and culture scene here. As some say, Melbourne is the stencil capital of the world! We just felt that it was a good city to get our work out in, and one where it would  be well appreciated – of course, we also came here  to enjoy all the other things that Melbourne and Australia have to offer.

We’ve also been traveling beyond Melbourne to get away from the long winter, we visited friends in Alice Springs, and just recently we headed up to Darwin. Both trips were amazing and gave us a lot of inspiration. In both places, we helped out and contributed artistically to some great festivals, like the ‘Wide Open Spaces’ festival, out of Alice, and we really enjoy getting involved in projects and campaigns, so we did some workshops for kids and we also happily got roped in to producing images for posters and t-shirts for indigenous and refugee issues.

How do your pieces usually take shape, and what is the process by which you work on them? Are they fully collaborative, or do you each have certain elements that you bring to each piece?

Most of our work takes inspiration from people and places we have witnessed.  Personal photos serve as the initial stencilled character or scene, theres then a further discussion about the composition, colour  and dynamics of the work. We use Photoshop for the initial black stencil, and then all other coloured stencils are created by hand. In most of the works the freehand aerosol work or ink work is the very last thing to be added . You could say that our paintings are characterised by detailed stencils of people and scenes that are part of a dynamic composition – the focus is placed on a mix of freehand aerosol colour and texture work, in combination with additional mediums and layered stencils. In terms of collaboration, Mathieu has more say in the composition and will focus on the colours,  textures and freehand painting – since he has good technical skill.  Originally, I introduced the stencil, and Mathieu worked primarily on more abstract paintings and graffiti; I tend to still concentrate on the stencils.

I also motivated  the political and social justice nature of our art and  I  continue to search out images and inspiration that have a subtle, but strong, dialogue.

What are some of your primary influences when you are creating your work, and what do you find you channel when doing so?

A major influence on our work are the realities of certain people and specific landscapes. Culturally specific motives, flora, colours and characteristics are part of the language we employ. Environmental and social justice issues are also a driving force behind the subject matter of some of our paintings. Our art tends to focuses on those who are under-represented or oppressed/suppressed; it’s also primarily inspired by nature as well as its the natural worlds clash with chaotic development. The paintings and graffiti we create aims to have  (a somewhat subtle) political commentary.

Previous works have been focused on Asian cultures, and currently we are walking on Aboriginal terrain.

You incorporate both stencil work as well as graff & aerosol work into your larger wall pieces, how do you find this work differs from the work you primarily do for exhibitions? Are there any defining differences between the two approaches?

Many of our works on canvas are multiple layers of stencil, and ink is often used as the medium that allows us a more freestyle approach. There are only a few pieces that we have been able to achieve that balance between stencil and graff work on canvas – I guess size is a major factor, the ‘small’ canvas constrains the freehand work that we do. Our latest  works  are pretty inspiring, so we aim to push that aspect.

How does the Melbourne scene differ from your native France, what are the pros, what are the cons, and have you found your adaptation to the artistic life here a fairly easy one?

Melbourne has a really active artist scene, with a huge number of artists, disciplines and places and spaces to show work. It’s also really well networked and fairly inviting, compared to France. We’re used to being in large artist collectives, and in collective studio spaces run by artists. We had a really easy entry into such a collective in Melbourne when we went to the Irene community arts warehouse, and we were also warmly welcomed by a number of other spaces, like Blender studios & J studios. At the Irene Underground Arts Festival we met some great Melbourne and interstate artists, together with a bunch of other Melbourne mob – and they’ve all made the last 9 months a real pleasure.

The only ‘con’ to mention is the cost of living in Melbourne – it’s rather a big difference to what we are used to back in France. There, we paid very little in both housing and studio space, both out of town and in the city – as collective studios are mostly subsidised by local groups and the government. In France we haven’t had to paid to exhibit yet, either in galleries, or in independent artist run spaces, so the cost of exhibiting in Melbourne was a real shock – and some times it’s been a difficult cost to cover.

Can you tell us a little about your involvement with the Sweet Streets show that has been on at BSG, and how you found yourselves showing with the artist there? What else can you tell us about it?

We’re a part of a group Urban arts show at Brunswick Street Gallery – there are 12 artists showing diverse range of styles. Tessa Yee is the curator and she selected the artists – we saw the application early this year for the Urban arts show in the art almanac, that was advertised by BSG. The exhibition runs until the 21st October and is part of the Sweet Streets Festival – an urban and street art festival  that runs from the 8th to the 24th of October.

It features a few weeks of shows, painting, workshops and other events that will entreats all the street art lovers out there! If you haven’t yet got it the program can be downloaded from the website homepage – www.sweetstreets.net

Given all the group shows you’ve been a part of during your stay here, can we expect a full solo show from you at some stage, and what else have you been working on?

When we were in France, the Sweet Streets festival (previously the Melbourne Stencil Festival) was one of the events we looked forward to being involved with. As part of the festival we are also involved in painting a wall in the Collingwood underground – there are also a couple of vans and a utes lined up to get a paint job. We plan to do one of them as a demo on the 20th when the underground is open to the public. Most recently, we’ve also also been involved in a couple of art exhibition fundraisers for different organisations ,like the Friends of the Earth and ACE collective (Anti nuclear and clean energy activist group) as well as the the Flora and Fauna research collective.

We do have a solo exhibition planned for the end of the month, it is at Carbon black Gallery. That will be running from the 26th to the 10th November, with the opening night on the Wednesday 26th. For more information have a look at their website or our own site.

So, what do you hope to do for the remainder of the year, and what are you most looking forward to?

For a change of scenery as of  mid this month we’re relaxing on a bush block with friends near Castlemaine.

We’re heading out of Australia in mid-December, and we’ll be off to spend a number of months in S.E. Asia. We’re represented by two galleries in Asia, and we have a couple of exhibitions lined up in Singapore as well as Malaysia. We plan to pass about three months between Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia. Hopefully we’ll be meeting more artists, painting, and getting more material to work on.

After that, it’ll back to Europe in April-ish. The big art warehouse we left in the Pyrenees mountains will be waiting for us, with the onset of summer. Mathieu spent the last five year rebuilding with 8 other artists an old saw mill factory into a large art studio warehouse.It is quite cross disciplinary with the main focus on stop motion animation, graphic novels, fine arts and graffiti – so if there are any artists that are interested in spending time in an art studio/residence in France near the boarder to Spain, in a beautiful rugged setting, give us a shout.

Lastly – we’re are both really looking forward to heading to the U.K in June 2011, where we have a show planned in Bristol at Paintworks, a large venue that hosted the 2009 Dreweatts urban art auction. We aim to get together with a few Australian street artists to have an exiting  group show – and if some of the other artists can make it to Europe, hopefully they’ll also come to Bristol to exhibit, and paint outdoors, as well as mix with some English artists!

Check out a huge bundle of KA’a’s work at their website – well worth the browse through both their painting and mural galleries! Also, get along to any of the Sweet Streets events that they are involved in, and see their awesome work in the flesh. Kirsty will also be a part of the Sweet Street Artist Talks this coming Saturday, October 23rd.