Eine interview
HUCK catches up with the UK street artist who recently had some of his work presented to Barack Obama by the British Prime Minister.
More like this...
Take a walk around East London in the evening, and you are more than likely to see random letters painted on the closed shutters of shops. The man behind this alphabetical art is Eine, a street artist who has been painting around the city for the best part of a decade.
Such work hasn’t gone unnoticed and has earned the artist some unlikely fans. Just last week, Eine had a piece of his work selected by the current British Prime Minister David Cameron to give to U.S President Barack Obama on trip to Washington.
HUCK caught up with the self-confessed “vandal” to see what he made of this mainstream endorsement of his work.
HUCK: You described David Cameron presenting Barack Obama with your work as 'weird'. Could you expand on that?
Eine: Well, first of all, I have absolutely no idea how they had heard of me. To find out that the Prime Minister had heard of you, let alone wants a piece of your work and then wants to give it to the Presindent of the USA is pretty freaky. I sit in my studio, paint stuff and give stuff to galleries. Galleries sell it and I never have any idea where it ends up. It’s just surreal.
Did you know it was going to be presented?
I got a phone call on Friday asking if I would be interested and if they could pass my number on to Downing Street. I was like ‘yeah, ok’. They said David and Samantha are fans of my work and he was looking for a painting to give to Obama and would I be interested. I said ‘yeah’ but the only thing was that they wanted it by Monday. I had to email them over photographs of stuff I had available and they chose that painting.
Are you uncomfortable with your work being 'endorsed' by Cameron in such a way?
Er, I was happy with it going to Obama because obviously he was involved with Shephard Fairey who did that Hope poster with the image of Obama. So Obama has got an idea about street art and is a bit of a dude. The fact that it was going to wind up with him was a big factor in my answer. If it was going to stop with the Camerons, I might not have said yes.
Do you think such a gesture is symbolic of the mainstream acceptance of street art?
I don’t think you can get more mainstream than this. From an artist’s point of view, your dream would be to have a piece in the Tate but you never think of one of your paintings sitting in the White House. How many living artists have got that? Let alone how many graffiti vandals. It’s unbelievable. I’m still freaked out by it.
If it was going to stop with the Camerons, I might not have said yes.
Now that there is potentially money to be made from such art, does this impact on the quality of work being produced?
There’s definitely more people doing it. I’ve been doing graffiti for years. I started doing street art because I was going to be sent to prison for graffiti and I didn’t want to stop painting. By doing street art, there was a lot less chance of me getting arrested. I felt I could get away with a lot more. As the years went on, it turned into my job and it’s how I earn my money now. But the most important aspect for me is painting on the street. I consider myself a street artist and to call myself that, I need to have stuff in the street. A percentage of that has to be illegal.
Do you see some people getting into it for the wrong reasons?
Yeah, it’s the same as anything. It gets a bit of press and people think ‘I can do that. I can be the next Banksy’ and jump on the bandwagon. It’s to be expected.
Cameron’s gesture is slightly ironic considering that it was announced last week that his government is cutting funding for the arts by up to 50%.
Yeah, the UK Film Council has just had its budget just removed. It’s interesting because [Margaret] Thatcher was a big believer in ‘if you control the money, you control the culture’. She put money into it so she believed she controlled it. It’s the Tory government that is taking this money away and they are going to lose control of culture. People won’t stop making films and people won’t stop being artists. They’ll do it off their own steam and won’t be dependent on the government.
What's the reasoning behind the Care Bears on your website?
I was looking at other street artists websites and they all took themselves really seriously. They portrayed this bad dude, drips of spray paint, marker pens and that kind of hip hop gangsta imagery. A lot of them are just middle class graphic design kids that go round putting up stickers. For me, it’s fun and a laugh so I chose something quite juvenile and stupid.
Any legal comeback with you using them?
No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I got a letter now! But what are they going to do? Ask me to take it down. I haven’t got any money so it’s not like they can take any off me.
Now you are a recognised artist, will that put you off painting illegally?
No, I painted something on Sunday, a big wall, and I didn’t have permission to paint that. It’s what I really enjoy doing so I doubt I’ll stop. Banksy still does it.
Twenty First Century City by Eine. Now hanging in the White House.
Subscribe to HUCK for six issues
Only £20 (UK) / £43 (EU) / £58 (Rest of the World).
Eine interview (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (2)
Please note: Your comment may be held in moderation for approval by an administrator to prevent spamming. This usually doesn't take long, please be patient.
Do you not think it may just be a cynical ploy to look 'cool' by giving Obama a print by an artist that his wife came across while frequenting a trendy gallery?
"the worst thing a government can do is to throw money at the arts" - Yes, the last thing the arts world needs is public money free from commercial interests. I would hate to live in a country where the government supports and helps nurtures a rich and thriving arts culture.