Nicholas Hansen - Street Art Films exclusive director's interview

Hansen: This Street Art Series of short films pays homage to the short film format, a necessary developmental stepping stone towards making the seventy-three minute feature documentary Rash. It is great to be streaming this series of ancillary films to expand the context of this lively period of street art in Melbourne. Little did we know that street art would become embraced by society as a new and legitimate form of art and be taught in schools. The primary aim for Rash was to explore the motivation for new forms of street art that chose to communicate more directly with the public while also recognising name based graffiti as an inspiration and an established art from which these new forms arose. Throughout the late 1990’s I worked in central Melbourne and witnessed ways street artists experimented with stencils, posting work in the smaller, obscure laneways. These artworks were a surprise and wonderment. Earlier in the 1980’s as a fine art student I experimented with stencilled painting, so was very excited to see its reappearance as a social prompt and dialogue with the passer-by. 2002 was a conservative time in Australian politics and and the lead up to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq was an explosive catalyst for artistic protest in public space. The 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games was also approaching and local councils were strategising either to engage with street artists or clean the city for visitors. Melbourne became a globally recognised street art capital due to the array of talented artists who visited from overseas and moved here from other Australian cities. The public were important players in the way they enthusiastically received street art. By avidly documenting street art the passerby was active in protecting this ephemeral art form. Unlike mainstream media which primarily stoked interest in the invasion of Iraq, street art was a trusted form of media, with its thoughtful actions critiquing society from the independent sector. Many of the artists in Rash and this Street Art Series were celebrated in the Space Invaders show at The National Gallery of Australia (2010).

Hansen: 1. Gallery VS Street This short film explores the tension between artists' passion for placing work illegally on the street whilst managing an art career and exhibiting artwork for sale in galleries. Interviews with Tai Snaith, Andrew Gaynor, Civil, Lister and James Dodd help articulate the fine line street artists walk. Whilst street artists were anonymous to the public, they frequently met, socialised and discussed their work at each other's gallery shows. Exhibitions were a great forum to show, sell and discuss work as artists rapidly developed their techniques and styles. The real test of the art form was in the street, where if it survived the criticism of other artists in the form of ‘going over’, property owners and councils who ‘buffed’ or removed it, then the ephemeral art enjoyed more recognition. 2. Girls Do Street Art Of course girls do street art! This film gives voice to women’s attitudes and ideas around what was a predominantly male street art scene. We hear Tai Snaith, Vexta and Buni discussing ways they produced artwork and the points of differences with the more male, crew-based street art practices. Watch out for the scene where Buni promoting her ‘Die Buni die’ exhibition, puts up a bill poster right under an original Banksy parachuting rat stencil in Chapel St Prahran. The short film includes work by Buni, Rohani Osman, Miso, Aryse, Pore and Poise, Pets, Arlene TextaQueen, 3Jane and Pandarosa. 3. Drawing Room This short film is a visual essay-style documentation of the ‘empty show’ phenomena in Melbourne. These events saw artists organising clandestine gatherings to install artwork in abandoned factories, often awaiting development. This empty show was in the future site of Fitzroy’s famous ‘Cheese Grater’ officially known as the NKYA development. The film set out to capture the late-night banter and revelry of artists producing work across the expansive interior spaces of an old factory. The space was later informally opened as an exhibition, to a select group of friends. After the ‘show,’ I brought this event to the attention of the architect Ivan Rijavec, who was intrigued, not offended by the alternative use of the pre-developed space. 4. Phibs Tim Phibs, a legend of Melbourne and Sydney Graffiti and Street Art, painted murals extensively in Fitzroy palace, so much so the place became alternatively known to many as ‘Phibsroy’. Tim Phibs became an early core member of the Everfresh crew and in this short film discusses his graffiti and street art roots, which Tim based around the values of an art practice. Also in this short film, we see Tim painting Fitzroy walls with visiting Chali 2na from the hip-hop band Jurassic Five. 5. Urban Express (Short Film 2004) This short film profiles the street art practice of ‘Mu’, Miles Allinson and ‘Portenti’ Dominic Allen, focusing on the ideologies driving their practice of hijacking billboard advertisements for political messaging. Mu and Portenti, articulate their street art as a form of free media, hacking existing advertisements and countering the right of commercial billboards to proliferate as a way of taking back public space. As we see the artists critiquing specific advertising messages, we hear from the locals Lachlan Burns, Kosta Kostoski, Val Flynn and Very Impressive offering the public critical perspectives from the street. The mediums of paste-up bill posters, stencils, installation and interventionist performance art are combined with a pulsing soundtrack by True Live and The Cat Empire. This film was shortlisted for Tropfest in 2004, won Best Film and Audience Award-winning short film at the Music and Film Independent Artists (MAFIA) documentary film festival (2004) and also the Audience Award, Open Channel, Love Your Work (2004). 6. Shepard Fairy, (Obey Giant, USA) An extensive interview with American contemporary artist and activist Shepard Fairey, (Obey Giant, USA). Shepard Fairy’s art and career are synonymous with street culture and have inspired street artists around the world. In the interview, Shepard talks about his trajectory through skating, design school, stickering, and stencils to his epic paste-up murals. I interviewed Shepard Fairy at the Semi Permanent exhibition in Sydney in 2003. Shepard went on to design the ‘Hope’ poster for Barack Obama’s successful 2008 election campaign. In Shepard's words “So hopefully my work inspires a reaction, an interpretation and then also potentially encourages other people to go out and try to do the same thing.” 7. Scien and Klor (123 Klan, France/Canada) Graffiti duo Scien and Klor (123 Klan, France/Canada) share unique perspectives in this interview filmed at the Semi Permanent exhibition and as they paint with local graffiti artists in the backstreets of Newtown Sydney in 2003. Scien shares his love for Hip-Hop as ‘the most complete culture that we have artistically ever seen’. A culture, made up of dance, rapping, music and art. ‘I don’t know another culture which has got all these together’. Scien describes their work as ‘graffiti style with graphic design’ and discusses the connections between collaborating with other graffiti artists painting a wall and collaborating on digital design for the internet. www.123klan.com 8. RASH Trailer for the award-winning feature documentary 'Rash'.

Hansen: Rash includes interviews with nineteen street artists and footage of many more installing art in public spaces and exhibiting their work in galleries. The vibrant network of artists were actually very enthusiastic to share ideas behind their practice of pushing their artwork right in the public eye. I was lucky to meet Dlux (James Dodd) early on and he introduced me to some of the artists. It was a gradual process to earn their trust, to film their ‘illegal’ activities.

Hansen: Apart from a VicScreen (Film Victoria) script development mentorship the feature and short films are a self-funded feature documentary project. The outsider culture of street art and graffiti lent itself to this independent production approach. The clandestine approach to producing work in the street meant I often filmed at night, this afforded me daytime to run a film production business, which essentially funded the production. The crew was primarily friends studying film at the time and the street artists who were design graduates worked on the design. Jake Smallman worked with me on the title design and David Hooke aka Meggs designed the film poster. Alongside the thriving graffiti and street art environment, Melbourne had a very lively Jazz and Hip-Hop scene. Ryan Ritchie of True Live ensemble had a residency at my local bar and we went on to collaborate and develop the soundtrack. The band was made up of MC Rhyno, Thomas Butt (double bass), Tamil Rogeon (violin), Tim Blake (cello), Ivan Khatchoyan (drums) and Thai Mattus (keys). Sound post-production was carried out by Clark Randerson from Mnemonic studio.

Hansen: Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) was the perfect platform to launch Rash. Apart from the capacity audiences, Rash received the runner up Audience Favourite Documentary award just behind ‘Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room’. Nick Feik MIFF programmer wrote in the festival guide, “graffiti and street art has rarely been looked at from the perspective that this film offers. Rash is an unashamed celebration of the spirit of rebellion and invention that animates the work.” Also in 2005 Rash took out the Film Critics Circle of Australia, ‘Best Australian Documentary Feature' award. These awards helped open doors to distribution with Madman and overseas festivals including touring 8 cities in the U.K. with the 12th London Australian Film Festival. The response from critics was mostly favourable. Adrian Martin writing for The Age on August 2nd 2005 commented: The film “offers an intriguing glimpse into a vibrant and occasionally pretentious subculture”. And, on a more positive note, Tom Ryan, film critic for The Sunday Age commented Rash was "Smart, savvy and to the point.” And Richard Moore for the Sun Herald, wrote on July 27th 2005, “Rash is full of visual delight. Hansen takes his camera down alleyways and into railway over-passes to reveal the city’s street art in all its shadowy nocturnal glory.” Rash went on to premiere at the Melbourne Film Festival (MIFF) in 2006 and broadcast on ABC TV. Selected screenings include the National Gallery of Australia (2011), NGV Australia (2010), State Library of Victoria (2000), Tate Modern (2008), the Barbican Centre London (2006), Adelaide Arts Festival (2006) and Melbourne International Film Festival (2005). I hope that audiences will research the ongoing careers of many of the artists and commentators in Rash and the Street Art Films series.

Hansen: Producing Rash further inspired my interest in the themes of politics and media and gave rise to my next documentary Breaking the News (2010). Breaking the News is a one-hour documentary filmed over four years in Australia's most misunderstood neighbour Timor-Leste. Breaking the News explores the high cost of being a truth-seeking journalist in an emerging nation. Upon completion Breaking the News encouraged academic research into ways in which multi-linear alternatives may challenge the very linear production methodologies which gave rise to the misinformation spread by some mainstream media through the Timor-Leste 2006 crisis. This research involved ‘unlocking’ outtakes, archival footage, Wikileaks cables and news and networking these materials in an internet-based multi-linear program. This online interactive documentary prototype, 'Labyrinths & Leaks, Cablegate Timor-Leste’ explores methods for overlapping evidence from leaked US embassy cables, news media and documentary interviews, asking who knew what, when, as political actors struggled for power.