Graffiti reclaimed

It’s argued that the graffiti movement has lost its innocence following its evolution into more commercial and profitable street art and it will never be as pure as the ‘glory days’ of 1970s New York. Over lockdown, however, London may just have found its soul again and its underlying graffiti scene has risen to the surface. Graffiti was born out of the boredom, depression and an unconcerned government. Much the same conditions we were recently faced with over lockdown. Once again, graffiti has acted as a creative outlet and a way to escape what’s going on. Not only does the movement seem to have reclaimed this lost innocence but it arguably feels more relevant now, as technology progresses and we are pushed into this digital age, the energy and human presence felt from graffiti feels more important and valuable than ever. 

One of the most important places for London’s writers over lockdown was Tottenham paint shop ‘VIP graffiti paint’. Being one of the only graffiti shops open over the whole of lockdown, owner Bill has been witness to this increased interest first-hand.

So, could you begin by telling us the story behind the shop?

Basically, this used to be a sports shop and around 2011 when we had the Tottenham riots this shop was vandalized. I was away on holiday at the time and when I returned to England, the shop was just ransacked- empty and smashed up. I decided to reopen again (still as a sports shop) but what I never calculated was that all the young people from Tottenham were hiding or away from the area so I wasn't able to carry on doing the business as I used to. I carried on for a little while hoping it would get better but it never got back to being the way it was. Then one day I left here and was on my way home and as I got towards Tottenham Hotspurs I noticed a sign saying there was a sports direct opening soon. I got home that night really stressed and I thought that things were getting from bad to worse but that same night I had a dream. I got up in the morning and I said to my wife I had a dream last night that I owned a shop that sold paint and I was really, really happy and she kept on saying to me “Paint?! You’re mad, what do you know about paint?” and I said, “I don't know nothing but look how happy I am”. You see it really was the most incredible dream and I was really happy that that was the thing for me but I thought nothing of it and carried on. Then about 3 weeks later a guy walks in here with his friend and says ‘bruv you got a job for me’ and I said not in here but I'm thinking of doing a market so you can come with me and do the market. Anyway we started to do the market and while he was here he kept on sketching and I go to him ‘What are you doing?’ and he says ‘I'm a graffiti writer and I'm sketching’ and I said ‘You're a graffiti writer?! People still do graffiti?’ and he goes to me, yeah, and he starts telling me about how he and other graffiti writers had been painting opposite the London eye and I thought there's no way you're doing graffiti in one of the most exclusive parts of London. Then one day he took me there and when we went in I saw about 50/60 people painting and I thought wow and I turned around and I said to him ‘You know what I'm gonna have the biggest paint shop ever’. He didn't know about the dream I’d had but once I saw that and he started telling me bits and bobs and this and that about it I knew that’s what I had to do. And that's it, that's how it started. First of all, it was a sports shop and after the riots, it wasn't going well and then I had this dream and just thought I'm gonna do it and even my wife said to me you're mad but the dream was honestly incredible. When I woke up in the morning I thought I'd won the balls and the rest is history, I'm here all the time and this is what I do.

So how did you become interested in graffiti? Was it from meeting this graffiti writer?
No no, I’m 60 years old and I have seen graffiti for many, many years. But I had actually thought graffiti had gone - I knew it was around a bit in the 80s but didn’t notice it so much after that. The thing is if you're not connected with it or not painting then you don't really see it - like anything in life when you have an interest in it, you see it more and more - I can be anywhere now and see graffiti whereas before it just went straight over my head I never used to register it.

Who are some of your favourite writers?

They’re all my favourite. They're all good, they’re all interesting and they all have a story. They all have a way of portaying their thoughts and their feelings as well and I find that's exactly what they're doing when they’re painting - they're portraying their feelings. For example, even colour sometimes tells me what their mood is, if they're using nice bright colours they are happy and if they’re using dull dark colours then they're not so happy, etc.

(photos by @avalentiner_ )

Who are the biggest writers to have come through the shop?

I've had them all. You name it they've been in. I have even had some from Europe come in. I don't really wanna give any names but I have had quite a few big writers come through and it's only from me being inquisitive that I found out who they were. Otherwise, they are very humble and down to earth and don't come in and give it the biggun. That’s how you can separate the real talents in my opinion.

Do you feel there has been an increased interest in graffiti over lockdown?

100%, I think a lot of people saw it as a saviour. They actually felt like they were being saved by the fact they were still able to go out and cut away from everything going on. A lot of people who were furloughed or lost their jobs were just so happy to go out and paint because when you're painting you're in a zone, in a comfortable place, you escape. The whole of last August, I did £2.50 a can so people going through hardship could appreciate what painting could do for them. Mainly, I think the increased interest just came from the fact that people had a lot of time to kill and what better way to kill time than to do a bit of painting!

(photos by @badboibusiness )

Why do you think graffiti has stayed relevant after all this time?

From what I can see once you start, you can’t stop and once you start to progress in your skills you want to go to the next level and the next level and from there you get to a stage when you're good and people start talking about you and when that happens it's a bit like football players, you become relevant in the scene. Another reason for me is that it's become more mainstream. People from Muswell Hill, Winchmore Hill, Highgate, Edgware etc - they're all getting into it cause it's not just something that vandals do like it was portrayed at the beginning, it’s something relaxing, creative and it broadens your outlook on life as well.

(photo by @dapavia )