Monorex interview
HUCK catches up with Terry Guy, the founder of art collective Monorex, to chat about live art battles, hassle from the authorities and getting kids involved.
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HUCK: How did Monorex start?
Terry Guy: We started out as a small design collective, just friends jamming in Camden. I realised there was a lot of artists who didn’t know how to market themselves, didn’t know how to negotiate a deal or didn’t know how to get their art seen, so I tried to get some docs together to start a business. Every year, we’ve picked up new clients like Reebok, Ubisoft, Casio, Oakley and Umbro. They come to us because we’re connected with the right people. It’s grown into a proper network.
Who are the main artists you work with?
We’ve got the five main London-based artists of Sticka, Jimi Crayon, Disco Teck, Mr K and Alfa, then we’ve got a network of about 100 across Europe that do jobs for us, if needs be, on a freelance basis. We’ve got a mix of all skills in there, Sticka’s from a Central St Martins background, some are good with a spray can, some are good with paintbrushes, and most of them are really good on Illustrator. But we’re not a graffiti collective. We can do that, large free-hand spray commissions, but graffiti, to me, is the illegal side of spray-can art like painting trains. A lot of people don’t realise you can do a fine art portrait with a spray can. I see us as a specialist design team who can come in and solve a solution.
Can you tell me about Secret Wars?
Secret Wars started three years ago. There were loads of art shows, especially in East London, that were all about being seen, drinking a drink and networking which is important but very few people actually went to the show to look at the artwork. We started to think ‘How can we get the eyes back on the walls?’ Secret Wars was an experiment in that. Now we do Birmingham, Southampton, London, Bristol, Cardiff, Malmo, Dresden. There’s sixteen artists competing each year in each city and then the winners come together for a big championship. Every year we add another three or four cities. Monorex funded the first two years but now brands are getting involved like Google, who commissioned us to do a battle for Gordon Brown and Queen Rania from Jordan. So you had like 200 of the richest businessmen sitting there chatting and drinking champagne, while we were on stage, it was really bizarre. It’s fun. If Monorex is the business then Secret Wars is like the face and the party, and is really a sort of magnet to what we do. We meet a lot of people through that. Whatever industry you’re in, you’re only as powerful as your contact list, it’s not just about money or ideas.
Do you think there’s a conflict in taking something that is, by its very nature, rebellious and counter-cultural and repackaging it for big corporate brands? Do you get stick for that?
Yeah definitely, that’s why we never claim that we are a graffiti crew because we’re not. But there will be kids on the internet or whatever who say ‘this is sold out graff’ just because it’s a spray can commission. There’s always going to be haters because those artists are getting paid really well and the kids, I’m sure, would want to be in their position. There’s jealousy and hatred but we just do what we enjoy doing. If a brand like McDonalds came to us and said ‘you need to do this, this and that’ to the point where there’s no creative input from us, that would feel like selling out. Even working for McDonalds would turn us off and I know that we wouldn’t do it. We turn down loads of brands. We need to choose the right ones that step us up each time.
Do you the authorities give you guys much hassle?
I think they’re pretty supportive. Painting that wall out there is illegal [points]. Although we’ve got permission from the people who own it you still have to get permission from Hackney Council. They allow billboards to go up left, right and centre but when it’s a nice piece of art and they hear the word spray, it always makes it a little bit harder. So if police come and ask if we have permission, we say yeah and they’re cool like, ‘I like what you’re doing’ and drive off. As long as it’s artwork and it’s good and it’s not a tag and it’s not crap on someone’s front door, I think it’s fine.
What’s School Wars?
School Wars literally came out three or four weeks ago and it went live on October 24 in Village Underground. Basically, it’s the junior version of Secret Wars, so it’s a black and white art battle but the time is chopped from ninety minutes to thirty to make it a little bit easier for the kids. Sixteen schools travelled down and battled it out in teams of five. They didn’t know what they were drawing, it’s all freestyle, so there was a little bit of pressure on them to stand up and do their thing. We did workshops in the morning to teach the kids tips from the artists that are in Secret Wars, got them drawing and then after lunch went into the tournament. It’s still in the experiment stage.
Is it important to you to get kids involved in art?
Yeah, I think it’s amazing. When I was at school, the only person who came in from outside the school was probably the army. That’s great and it did excite you at the time but it definitely wasn’t my cup of tea. It’s really easy for kids to relate to live art because all the comic book, graffiti connections are like things they see on TV. All the kids so far have loved it and all the schoolteachers have loved it too because they know they can’t teach that sort of art. So yeah it’s really important for us to pass knowledge back and show them what we’re doing as a career, to hopefully inspire some of them to do the same.
What have you got planned for the future?
The Hoxton Pony approached us to customise and rebrand their downstairs, so for the launch party (November 4) we’ve painted the downstairs and then upstairs we’ve come up with a different type of Secret Wars, where the artists use the windows. I've worked out a way to do it so we don't damage the windows, I think it's going to be pretty special.
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Monorex interview (text) by Shelley Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (3)
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For anyone interested in what we do then check our links:
http://www.secretwars.co.uk
http://www.monorex.com
http://www.schoolwars.co.uk
We brought down a group of young people for the School Wars competition and it was incredible. Big up to Monorex for what they are doing for young people.
Krissie
http://www.futureculture.co.uk
your boys are starting to get a bad reputation around
town for ripping off other artists work...