Concrete Playground Meets Big Elz, Lil Elz and Gary Silipa

A few weeks ago I wandered down into the city to find a wall. Standing next to the wall were three of Auckland’s best graffiti artists - Elliot 'Askew' O'Donnell (Big Elz) , Elliot Francis Stewart (Lil Elz) and Gary Silipa. I had a quick chat to the guys about their involvement with Auckland Art Week, happening October 26 – November 04, their collaborations as a group, and found out what makes them different from each other as artists.

[photo credit: Dani McAllen]

Hi guys. Thanks for taking the time to have a chat to me today about your involvement with the Auckland Art Week, it’s my pleasure to meet you! Let’s dive right in shall we? How long have you guys been into graffiti and been doing what you do?

Big Elz: For me, it’s been 20 Years. I think it has a lot to do with the generation that I and the other guys are from. Kids got into graffiti at that time when we were in high school, kids these days are more into dancing – but back then, when we were of that age - graffiti was what kids did. There was heaps of it back then.

Lil Elz: Yeah for me it’s been 15 years.

Big Elz: I motivated Lil Elz to get into it, I met him at high school, at Auckland Metropolitan College. It got closed down, but it was a hippy school, where all the drop outs went! He was drawing detailed battle scenes and like warships and stuff, and I thought he had a bit of talent. I told him to put some of his stuff out on the street.

Gary: Yeah I was the same, I started at school too.

[photo credit: ONEFIFTY]

So what are you guys going to be doing at Auckland Art Week?

Big Elz: We are doing a mixture of things! There is a collaborative piece happening on Elliot Street in Auckland with the three of us at the back of the old Mid City. And there was one other mural that was happening on the side of the Basement Theatre that the Public Arts People at the Council have pulled the plug on, last minute – so it won’t be happening.

Lil Elz: I am painting this graffiti here [behind you], on the side of Brooklyn Bar.

Gary: I’ll be working on the collaborative piece together with the BE and LE outside Mid City.

[photo credit: Elliot Francis Stewert]

Awesome. Can you guys share some more details about this collaborative piece?

Big Elz: All the designs that we are painting had to be approved, and the collaborative piece has been too, obviously. It’s a kind of abstract image that consists of mainly Garry’s artwork, that is contained within a head that he has also designed, and then there is a sort of glowing cube in the middle – which represents ‘thinking outside the box’. And that could be thinking outside the box about artworks in public spaces, or whatever slant you want to put on it.

How big is this graffiti work going to be?

Big Elz: It’s going to be the on the stairwell behind Mid City, and on the walls up the top of the stairwell, which is an old fire exit. It’s a couple of metres tall, but the image is actually going to be painted across the stairs and across the wall, so you can only see it when you’re looking at it dead-on. Otherwise it’s just abstract!

The graffiti art landscape in the city is constantly changing. What happens if someone paints over the work you create for Auckland Art Week?

Big Elz: Then someone paints over it. It would more likely be the council to paint over it than anyone else. They are the one that normally paints stuff out. I am more worried about the council painting over my stuff than taggers.

Gary: It’s more offensive ‘aye when the council do it! *laughs all round*

Lil Elz: It a tagger does it, that’s nature.

Big Elz: Yeah it’s organic if a tagger does it. [The council] grey colour isn’t that organic. That’s just systematic-bureaucratic-boring-grey.

[photo credit: Askew1]

Ha! I totally agree. That city-grey colour is boring. On another note, can you guys give me a bit more of an insight in to you individually as artists?

Big Elz: I come from a fairly traditional, graffiti-writing background. I am somewhat inspired by New York subway art, but more evolved. I have a bit of a modern slant on it, and more of a localised [Auckland] slant too. My fine artwork, which has started to influence my bigger outdoor mural work is more slogan based, but I also paint a lot of these exploding heads, like profiles. That’s kind of where I am with my work right now!

Lil Elz: I’m more of a cartoonist (ish) more than anything. I’m a naturalist. I just walk straight into it, it’s normal for me, it just comes out of me – I don’t over think it. I don’t even really want to think about it, I just want to keep making stuff. And I know it’s true because it just comes out. It’s not like I have thought about what I am going to say [or do] I just go.

Gary: I draw simple symbols and use simple colours. Although they seem to be simple symbols, they actually mean a lot.

Big Elz: Less is more.

Gary: Yeah exactly. I like less is more. I like stripping things back to just basics.

[photo credit: The Good The Bad]

That sounds cool guys. Thanks for the quick chat. Just before I let you guys go, and let Lil Elz get back to the graffiti painting on the wall, can you tell me where the public can find more information on you guys?

Big Elz: Check out onefiftyexhibition.com. It’s our main focus as a group, and is a series of exhibitions that the three of us do jointly. We just did our first one, and we are doing an on-line one in two weeks, and we are doing a Wellington one hopefully in November or December [2012], and we are hoping to take it to L.A. next year!

The exhibition takes the ONE FIFTY title to the extreme. The theme runs exclusively around the number ONE FIFTY. There will be ONE FIFTY pieces of art exhibited; each piece will be ONE FIFTYmm x ONE FIFTYmm; each item costs ONE FIFTY dollars; exhibition runs for ONE FIFTY minutes.

You guys are on fire! Good luck at Auckland Art Week, and taking your exhibitions on the road to LA. Enjoy the sunshine!