Came across these yesterday on the ‘legal painting wall’ at the Stokes Croft end of Ashley Road. Haven’t really blogged these boards much before, as there’s such a regularly changing set of pieces on them that it’d seem odd to try to capture that the whole time.
Still though, these pieces were interesting in a different way, as Paris, Xenz and Busk were all painting like mad at Glastonbury Festival, and all ended up back in Bristol at various points after it ended. So, guessing these bits were a bit of a laugh, done to shake off the cobwebs and cross eyes caused by days of detailed painting in the same style. After all, as a wise man once said, you gotta get up to get down…
Close up on the Paris and Milk…
…Xenz and Busk.
And one final closer one on the Xenz, cos not seen a Xenz dub in that style, well, ever before…
UPDATE: Bumped into Busk tonight, apparently these dubs took 15 minutes to do, and that monster in the middle is by the artist who’s currently calling himself Gark, but possibly not for long. Man of a million names…
Bristol graffiti 
Cheers for that man. On the name change, think i’ve said before, you’ve got a point. All a bit set up now to change on this one, but it’s part of the plan if/when this place gets an upgrade.
Said before as well, not exactly new to this at all, but there’s only so much you can know, and this blog’s been a good way of finding out more. It’s more of an info sharing place for people who really do know nothing at all anyway, and revisions to mistakes are always welcome.
That’s really dark about Killer, didn’t know that, and gutted cos did like his style. Had seen the tribute stuff around but hadn’t tied the two together. Genuine mistake tying him to those ghosts, and haven’t actually covered them for ages now anyway.
Shall go back and correct, and if you’ve got any photos of his stuff you’d like to send in for people to see then do.
“only your Technique will Create your Freshness” -Xenz, 2003
okey dokey. shame about the lack of letter structure, flow, balance, rhythm, FUNK eh? and why exactly is your shoddy little piece disappearing off the top of an 8 foot hoarding? oh thats right, you skipped over the basics and decided to leech off of graffiti. made a bit of dough by now i imagine. nice one.
twat.
Cor, someone sounds bitter!
“Life is what you make it…” Xenz, 2008
Fresh Prince:
To be honest man, this blog is about graffiti, mainly in Bristol so I think the blog name is fine. If your going th go all “street art” on me, street art is classed as a sub-genre of graffiti.
The majoritory of the tags on here are named correctly, as far as I can see anyway. Any tags or pieces you know that are wrong then go ahead…
Sure there was a mix-up with Killer, but I dont think this guy has ruined the rep of graffiti in bristol or made enemies, hes documenting it for others to show how good the talent in Bristol is, getting to places where people might not know.
End of the day, if you dont like it, dont take part. Otherwise, help out and improve.
Ok, I wanted to clear that up, I didnt really need to be so rude, especially when you’re so nice in your reply, you’ve got good manners!
Please delete my previous comment aswell, it’s not somthing that should be common knowledge.
Maybe i shouldn’t take part in this Blog as Cord says, cos i dont like most of the content, i keep coming back though cos i keep thinking I’m gunna see some bristol graffiti, i mean just look at that xenz piece. Lord have mercy. That guy really cant paint a dub, or a fuckin hand style for that matter.
Anyway, keep doing ur thing, theres plenty of people on here who love it.
No problem at all mate, this blog’s not about any one person, but only about the street art/graf/whatever that loads of different people are doing out there the whole time.
Good of you to come back, really do value everyone’s opinion on the content, as it’s a site for everyone. It’s not just one person writing for it anyway, but one day it’d be great to see it written by a whole bunch of different people from different angles.
You clearly know your stuff, so if you want to see the blog cover some different stuff, then scribble it down, grab some photos and email it in! Really do mean that, and if you haven’t got time for that, keep in touch anyway – bristolgraffiti@googlemail.com
I love a happy ending 🙂
Try keeping it constructive. Xenz has got a rep that you can only dream of.
A nice big throw up on manky old chipboard is what it is, a 3 man, 1 lady throw up dune and dusted in 45 mins.
Spittin about ”That guy really cant paint a dub, or a fuckin hand style for that matter”. You’re joking yeah?
That’s as ill informed as spouting ‘James Brown’ had no soul and Elvis didn’t like Burger.
Being a Style Master yourself, perhaps you could point out some places outdoors we can check your shit? You must be a painter with your masterclass advice on dub and stuff?
‘Leach off of graf’ now I know your joking. The man’s two decades of painting outdoors count for jack. He’s a genius I tell thee.
See we can be adults without spitting personal offenses.
Peace
Batter them with love.
Peace out
@ Mike Ironside:
Either you are Xenz, or you’re his boyfriend, either way, rest assured I dont dream of having a rep like his. Why would i want a rep for being a thirty somthing, toy sell out, trying to spin a few quick bucks from a scene i was never really part of or respected in? And its not just him, theres plenty of them.
That dub of his is shite. No i’m not joking. He clearly can, given plenty of expensive paint and all day at a legal wall, produce something that (to the untrained eye) looks like a decent piece. However when it comes to producing graffiti that squeezes style into somthing simple and easy to perform quickly, he fails miserably.
Im glad the owner of this blog didnt tell me to fuck off when i first came on here and started being rude. He was reasonable, and i cant exactly tell him he’s doing a bad job when im not contributing. I personally feel that the wrong people are getting a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. And im happy to speak about and share the things i feel deserve attention.
People arent bothering to get fame through actually doing graffiti anymore. They just self promote and social network, its much less dangerous after all, thats not graffiti.
And finally in response to your comment:
“Being a Style Master yourself, perhaps you could point out some places outdoors we can check your shit?”
No, you sound like a police officer.
mike ironside, ‘constructive’ – whats that? i’m just following the example set to me by xenz and ziml. they are the bitterest haters i’ve ever come across. ziml practically wrote the book on being an arrogant self-absorbed so and so. when i was younger it was TCF who were always being divisive within the scene. it probably stems from them being art students with an exaggerated sense of entitlement and the fact they never really sacrificed anything for graffiti. from what other type of environment could a pompous venture like kuildoosh emerge? have you seen the videos on youtube? jesus. there is a certain degree of arrogance in hoping others will go along with your whimsy.
hi good morning everyone its such fun reading that . all i can think to say from my experience is “jealousy gets you nowhere” and “small things amuse small minds” i spent roughly 8 minutes in the rain in front of that shit hole doing a shit dub before we went to the pub and i have spent more time reading about it than i spent doing it. thats amazing.so i wonder when has any of your shit dubs got so much press even if it is hatred. you know what they say……. and one last note on graffiti. graffiti is easy every one can write on walls. but we cant keep doing what we did at 16 at the age of 33 no can we? no we must try and progress in life. i dont do graffiti anymore in fact i cant really describe what i do (cue haters writing the word shit, toy etc yawn) and that dub was me having a go at what we did years ago its nostalgia. we dont even do outlines for that shit. so now i did a dub can all you all have a go at a colourfull burner. and stay of the crack when your on your computer..
love you all.
ps i do art for women not money.
“i dont do graffiti anymore “- Xenz
Point proved.
hello hello. may have come in a little late on this but i’ll chuck in my tuppence anyway..
i know very little about graffiti and am definitely not part of the scene. i just like nice things on walls. xenz is surely up there in that department. why does it matter that he’s not so good at something people have been doing for 30 years? (i can’t tell *why* he’s no good at it – looks just as boring as any other dub to me. like i say i’m not an expert). s’like saying “Wu Tang? they’re shit, their Lute playing is atrocious”. they may or may not be shit but it’s due to what they’re doing now, not their ability to replicate an old style.
nobody else seems to be doing what xenz is doing, personally i think it’s awesome and beautiful but even if you don’t agree, surely it’s great for ‘the scene’ and for our culture in general if new things are allowed to happen? culture is a living, evolving thing, but only if it’s allowed to be. fresh prince, it seems to me that you want to fossilise graffiti, to keep it as it was 20 years ago, not allow it to change. anyone who’s been attached to any scene can understand that impulse but it’s just not realistic or healthy. people are going to come up with new ideas, some will stick and recombine with other ideas, others will die off. but things will never be the same!
@freshprince
i gave up graffiti when goons began copying comedy names from tv and acting hard saying they are the original ones. graffiti has been hijacked but at least we know we kept that candle burning and that candle became a torch. I dont know about you but when i started painting graffiti on walls and stuff shit dubs like the one in question i could not afford a camera, digital cameras did not exist nither did the internet or mobile phones. im from the shit side of a shit hole and i aint lying or fronting AT ALL. we didnt do it for “photographs” we did it just to do it just like breakdancing or djing. so if you want only to see illegal shit like some pervert that just likes women head to toe in rubber then no i cant entertain you. But never challenge me with speed and style because everyone reading this knows i could probably prove you wrong illigal or legal. you owe me an appology, but i wont wait. and this hang up with me getting attention
“I personally feel that the wrong people are getting a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons.”
i can agree with your statement but saying im getting attention for the wrong reasons is also catagoricaly wrong. i think my work is beautiful not ugly and i am blessed and thankful and VERY lucky that other people find it beautiful too its just that you seem to hate the fact it doesnt look like the shit i did years ago or like can 2 or bates or other amazing graffiti writers. im an artist and only god, alah buddah or satan can stop me.
salaam
so your point was?
the new scientist have a book out called “how to fosilise your hamster” it has 100s of experiments you can do in your home. havnt got it yet but hope “graffiti” is in it
@ AndyKisaragi
No offence mate, but i stopped reading your comment at the line “i know very little about graffiti”
I’m assumin it carried on to mention how, regardless of the fact your not clued up on old school letter forms, you find what Xenz does beautiful to look at… Sadly for Xenz whilst trying to fight his corner, your just proving my point. People in the know are laughing at his attempt at a simple style. Those not in the know, think he’s fuckin sick. Hence the amount of dough he and his mates are raking in with their gay art exhibitions, off the back of the street art movement.
@ Xenz
I’m a lot younger than you, so i can always remember
mobiles, the internet and cameras. Probably wasn’t born when u started writing, don’t see what thats gotta do with anything really. I’m sure you are from a shit area, thats irrelevent really. No one chooses thier parents financial status, nor do they choose their race or sex. It’s not wealth, or the lack of, that makes someone good, it turns out even Banksy went to Cathederal school.
Anyway im sure you racked your paint back in the day, maybe even bust a head spin or two and generally kept it real.
You and your mates exist in a world so seperate from Graff it’s untrue. You’ve all got your heads so far up each others asses you can’t see it anymore, thats why you’re shocked to hear some negative feedback. You’re all used to circle jerking off over each other legal walls and canvasses, and getting feedback from clueless graff lovers.
And your comment:
“you seem to hate the fact it doesnt look like the shit i did years ago”
i dont care what u used to paint like, but if thats ^ better than what you did years ago, then i’d hate to think what your old shit looked like.
HAHA and whats this about?:
“so if you want only to see illegal shit like some pervert that just likes women head to toe in rubber then no i cant entertain you”
Just liking leather clad women is better than liking leather clad men aswell.
one thing, you cant just say that banksy went to private school because you read it in a paper, never assume. also, im not siding with xenz but you cant expect everything someone does to be perfect, everyone has an off dub. i’ve personally never met xenz or any of tcf so i cant say i know about their personallity but from the work i’ve seen he’s got some nice stuff, hes seemed to settle into more animals and objects now but hes still got some skill, no doubt.i personally haven’t seen any of his illegals but im still the next generation of writers and hes probably been painting all my life just about. canvases aren’t a problem nowadays, if you can live off what you love and still paint its all good as long as you dont just quit graffiti and start doing canvasses full time.also, freshprince, lets not revert to insults
The Fresh Prince wrote
“i’d hate to think what your old shit looked like.”
Xenz painted this in 1990.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xenz/2260607517/sizes/o/in/set-72157604299408371/
Thats 18 years ago and there is more style in that Sense piece than 95% of graff painted in Bristol today.
Ahem, oh yeah – In my opinion.
im not offended or shocked by these comments , I found it very funny. Negativity doesn’t stop me or persuade me to blend in it never has it drives me forward to create even more work. I can understand if your much younger than me that you feel like i should be kept in line if i do some wack shit i dont know your stuff but you know mine regardless if you like it.I cant force you to dig what i do, i do respect you for sitting up and saying actualy thats shit. your a man/boy (or a woman) after my own heart. But if your wrong about something its important for me to put you right just as well. im not gay .
(the bit about rubber was relating to graffiti as a fettish to explain that you should look deeper and see whats inside it might be just a normal everyday person and not what you have imagined in your mind…)
ok i dont do letters like other graffiti writers do them. It was 1996 that i began to transform letters into buildings, roads, ducting, and natural stuff like clouds and trees the stuff we see around us not just in graffiti mags i personaly found the traditional formula a bit tired and needed to expand. look at any of my pieces you will or should be able to make out the letters xenz if you have a trained eye ;}…
…its spraycan art. not just graffiti it doesn’t really describe what i do as you have so negativly pointed out and im sorry i ruined your week. but as i say i do respect your negative comments and thanks. Maybe i could see your work sometime and maybe learn a thing or two eh?
enough said.
http://flickr.com/photos/xenz/sets/72157604309825810/
chinese proverb
“a stranger in a strange town is a king”
Glad to see you aint getting ur panties in a bunch.
Yeah i had a look at your flickr, you’re an artist it’s true, i’m only jockin you cos i saw somthing toy you did, you can clearly paint mad decent animals and landscapes, not really my thing.
I’m not an artist.
The fresh prince of bristol.
One thing that strikes me is that there are A LOT of kiddies (or a really loud minority with trolling habits) sitting around, calling everything shit, and yet when I go around Bristol… I don’t really see anything or anyone improving on the big names. In fact, everything is at an all time low in terms of quality & visibility. If the ratio of bitching vs work was a bit better, it would be ten times less annoying to come here and listen to said kiddies calling everything shit.
on that piece: I love Xenz, but I agree with Fresh Prince to a certain degree that it wouldn’t have got my time, but it’s 8 minutes work, who cares that much? Not like you can’t go and paint over it with something better if you want. Xenz does class work elsewhere that, as he says, better fits the fact that he’s been painting on walls for 20 odd years. That’s called growing up and leaving room for a new generation… but where are they?
For f sake…
Who gives a monkeys?
That dub is a dub. So what. A quick few letters, no big deal. Grow up.
There are plenty of up and coming kids painting…
Open you eyes, stop winging, and if you really gave a s**t you would turn off that PC set, and paint something less boring instead…
Why dont you?!
@freshprince
not really trying to fight xenz’ corner here, don’t even know if he’d agree… but well done you did pretty much sum up what i said 🙂 maybe i proved your point, but i don’t know that it’s a good one?
basically, what i love about graffiti, street art, whatever is the correct term- illegal or not* – is that it’s public art. a gift from artists to passers by, with a lot of hard work put in to decorate something which may well get painted over within days. obviously there’s going to be a scene within the people who do it, with private jokes, appreciation of technique etc, but if you think that it’s only the opinions of “people in the know” that matter, why paint pieces in such public places?
*what is with the fetishisation of illegals? seems to me if you don’t do legals just because they’re legal, you’re being constrained by more rules, not less. the best attitude is surely, “fuck it, ima paint this”
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