ASKEW ONE INTERVIEW

“I like to paint the head floating as if it’s an immense entity in space, like a gas giant or something but they are in an entropic state.” This is Elliot O’Donnell or Askew One. He is one of New Zealand’s most highly cherished and revered graffiti artists. “I think mostly my works are about the fragility of life,” he says. This seems like a stark contrast to the Hip Hop culture he began in, but has now grown from. Since bombing trains, getting arrested in the 90’s, then, subsequently forming stronger ties with other graffiti writers and people in the Hip Hop community; he’s had a defining hand in one of New Zealand’s biggest hip hop entities, Disruptiv. Now he focusses on his own career and speaks to Grindin’ from Detroit — where the people there are no strangers to the word struggle. He says, “They don’t wait for people to give opportunity, they make it.” Askew stands strong in this conviction he says he’s always had. Beginning his love for art by drawing on his mother’s walls and devouring illustrations inside $1 comic books bought for him by his grandfather; his childhood is placed in the urban suburb of Morningside, Auckland. As a kid he expressed himself by dressing up as Batman. As he got older he realized he’d have to change his approach— to something more conforming to his neighborhood peers. It was a time, he explains, where hip hop was exploding. “Brother D put it best when he said we all rode the wagon until the wheels fell off”. Now, older and removed from the Hip Hop scene he still cherishes the crews he came up with like TMD and Stick Up Kids; he explaining that they’ve remained family to him. “We have grown up together, from being 15-16, to being in our mid 30’s and some now in their 40’s. We are a family, it’s not strictly about graffiti anymore because our lives are much more three-dimensional than they were when we were teenagers.”

How did the opening of your exhibition ‘Dust to Dust’ go?
It was great thanks. There was a reasonable sized turn out and a bunch of works sold. Most importantly I got to really introduce people to my recent paintings. I’ve had a lot of time in my studio revising my process since my last big show and I feel like this work is really individual – something I’ve really been working towards.

Do you mind giving us the back story about the inspiration behind the pieces?
Well, I’ve had a bit of a journey over the past few years and plenty to reflect on. These paintings, although primarily portrait based are my conversation about some really large concepts. I like to paint the head floating as if it’s an immense entity in space, like a gas giant or something but they are in an entropic state, just barely able to contain themselves before something huge or cataclysmic happens. I started thinking of the mediums like spray as being a metaphor for the building blocks of everything – the individual dots of paint are like a magnified subatomic particle. The entity works I do are either a bigger or much smaller version of that concept but still comprised of more particles – it’s infinite. I think mostly my works are about the fragility of life.

In your own experience, how would you say social media has changed the way consumers regard the arts and artists, musicians or creatives in general?
Definitely, I mean it certainly removes a fair amount of the mystique when you see bad photos of peoples every day lives on Instagram that don’t necessarily gel with the polished marketing material usually generated around their projects. I just see social media as another medium, it’s as powerful as you want it to be depending on the quality of your ideas or what you are intending to project. It’s also a leveller in the sense that it gives everybody with access a platform to project themselves. Some people use these tools thoughtfully and some people have entire IG accounts comprised of ‘duck-faced selfies’.

As someone who came up in a time where hip hop was just finding its feet in New Zealand, can you comment on a change or development on people’s attitudes towards graffiti as a crime (as some still see it that way), taking into consideration that you can now purchase graffiti on t-shirts from Farmers or on canvases for a lot of money?
As long as graffiti has been visible in the mainstream psyche it has been commercialised, this isn’t a recent phenomena at all. Of course it goes in waves like anything but as long as people knew of graffiti outside of NYC there have been books about it, exhibitions, movies and graffiti motif applied to random products.

When did you decide you wanted to be more of a fine artist as opposed to a graffiti writer?
My main aspiration in life since I was pretty young was to be an artist – point blank. This idea has never been strictly confined to one medium or platform, it’s always been a fluid concept. If I want to paint on the streets, for the gallery, make a film or a music video there’s no separation to me in an ideal world. The separations are mostly made by other people I reckon. What I’ve been trying to do is bring them all together and put my personal slant on everything I do so I get to wear the same hat all the time.

How will your foundations as a graffiti writer influence the path you take moving forward in the future as a fine artist?
I understand the importance to paint work that resonates with the here and now and the mediums I’ve used to work on the street have always found their way into my fine art works. A big part of it is comfort but it’s also honest. I also learned a real self dependent approach to promoting what I do through graffiti.

What happened in your life to make you say to others, ‘If you want something, work for it’?
I was pretty much born that way but along the way certain scenarios just really hit that idea home for me. A combination of having young parents, alternative schooling, making some bad decisions and being dependent on my creativity to survive have drummed that ideology into me.

You yourself make videos/documentaries. Focusing on your Sky’High piece, what do you think is the advantage of news/media about artists by artists?
Well Sky’high is an interesting character firstly. I got to meet her through Sam Dutch and P-Money and have a real affinity with her. She’s a real artist from real struggle and this outlet is vital for her on so many levels. She’s nuanced and really individual. She’s actually a private person and has a tight group of friends around her. She doesn’t just give her trust to anyone so I feel honoured that we clicked and she gave me and my partner a lot of candid insight. So yeah, to answer the question, as a total outsider I may not have got to know her quite the same but because I know her and I respect her I don’t want to do wrong by her. That loyalty amongst artists is something different than a typical media/artist dynamic I guess.

How has suffering a stroke changed the way you approach life in terms of opportunity, art, sense of self?
It wasn’t an actual stroke per se, it was stroke-like though. It was a constricted blood vessel in my right frontal lobe. It was a necessary wake up call about a few things. About burning the wick at both ends and how much stress was in my life. Things have definitely changed a lot since then in how I manage and approach what I do. My partner has been super supportive as well, working with me full time to make this career a reality without killing myself in the process. The whole scenario was basically the most vulnerable I’ve ever felt as an adult, it reminded me we all have limitations.

Watching videos of you paint, there seems to be a freedom in the fluidity of arm movements; as you spray the initial frame of a bombing. Can you describe the feeling of starting a piece or does the satisfaction or thrill come at the end?
Painting work outdoors is a very physical practice. The mechanics of your very specific physicality impacts the outcome of your painting. I have always viewed graffiti as an expressive and fluid art form with a dance like aspect to it. It’s a release when approached that way more than a technical process.

Your style stemmed from Neal Adams and Dick Giordano who drew Batman as well as other comic books and pop imagery. What other inspirational elements did you draw from after that and how did you develop your signature style from there?
I spent my childhood with my head constantly glued inside a comic book. The first ones that grabbed me were the Batman ones pencilled by Neal Adams and inked by Dick Giordano. Those were the $1.00 comics my grandfather would buy me from the local store when I was three or four in the early 80’s. As I got older my taste in comics got more varied but I loved 2000ad, particularly Simon Bisely’s Nemesis The Warlock, ABC Warriors and Slaine and also loved early TMNT comics by Baird and Eastman. I learned how to draw by copying out of these comics. Funnily I also like Buster and Beano a lot as well. I think there are still a lot of elements from those artists in my paintings today – I can see it.

Where did the name Askew One come from?
I went through a few names when I was young before I settled on that one. I liked the meaning and the symmetry of the letters.

Describe the sense of belonging you have from your crew TMD. How does it contribute to your identity as not only an artist but person also?
Well, TMD is a group of people I have been painting with almost as long as I’ve been doing graffiti. Phat1 is the glue in TMD and the one common figure that brought us all together. We have grown up together, from being 15-16 to being in our mid 30’s and some now in their 40’s. We are a family. It’s not strictly about graffiti anymore because our lives are much more 3-dimensional than they were when we were teenagers. I’m also in Stick Up Kids. Cantwo was really one of the first well-known writers to put me on, give me a chance to shine. I was put in MSK just over a year back now and that has a lot of weight to it. Pretty much the majority of my favourite writers are MSK so it’s kinda’ surreal at times when I step back and think about it. I’m honoured to be in all these crews, to have such incredible people around me and to call them peers.

When you look at a young artist, what elements in their work do you look for when defining ‘good’ or ‘great’?
There’s something quirky and raw in a young artists work that is often lost after years of conforming to trends or an idea of what others expect. It would be awesome if the ideas and honesty we have when we are children managed to survive through our work.

When you were caught bombing trains by the police and consequently went on the news, how did that affect you as a person? Did it contribute to you as an artist in terms of style or outlook? Perhaps a message in your art?
It was good and bad. Good because we were all over the news, bad because we had to go through the court system for six months. Ultimately it was a life experience and brought a bunch of people much closer together.

How has the culture of hip hop influenced you as a person?
Well, as a kid the idea of Hip Hop and graffiti weren’t as separate as they are now so I guess my attraction to it all was like it was one package. Nowadays I listen to a variety of music, like a variety of art and kind of cringe when I’m given the ‘Hip Hop’ label. It’s not that I hate Hip Hop because I clearly don’t; it’s just I don’t often like the ignorance and conservative attitudes, the do’s and don’ts and I hate 4-elements Hip Hop police. So retarded.

When you ran Disruptiv Gallery what were your hopes for it when you were starting out?
Just a platform for artists from my peer group to be shown in a gallery environment. It was a pretty basic idea but in hindsight it could’ve been done a whole lot better. To run a gallery is a full time job, the artists deserve to work with curators and dealers who know the business, give a shit and want to push you to develop. We were a bunch of artists who essentially would’ve liked that for ourselves but were trying to do that for others.

How would you describe NZ Hip Hop at the time the gallery was around?
It was an explosion. It was the predominant local music at the time and very trendy. Every corporate was throwing money and ridiculous products at us all. I think Brotha D put it best when he said we all rode the wagon until the wheels fell off. Overnight, NZ Hip Hop became a dirty word. It was the best thing in a way because the artists that emerged afterwards really rose from all the mediocrity and made genuinely great and individual music as a result.

When you closed it, were you satisfied that you had done what you set out to do with it?
No, but I was excited about the lessons I had learned. I knew what I didn’t want to do anymore and started focusing on what I do want to do. You have to make some mistakes to get clarity eh.

Is that culture you had with Disruptiv with bboys, bgirls and graffiti writers still alive today?
Maybe but I don’t feel connected to it the same way. I know people that do all of those things but it’s not this one cohesive unit like it was. I just think about art mostly these days.

Describe your personal point of difference, culturally, when you’re overseas representing New Zealand, as a white boy from Morningside (who used to dress up like Batman)?
Coming from where I grew up I understand a lot about being self reliant and driven – in a way that people from isolated places know about. I’m in Detroit right now, people are the same here – they don’t wait for people to give opportunity, they make it.

Many artists suffer from the demon of self doubt. What do you say to yourself as a means of counseling (so to speak) when you need to focus and stay dedicated to your work?
Self doubt can be crippling but it’s necessary. When people forget how to look at their own work with a critical eye is when they cease to progress.

Would you say you are a visionary?
I really don’t know. I’ve been called that as well as lots of other not so nice things. I don’t know. I know a lot of way more visionary people than me that I’m in awe of so yeah.. dunno.

In hindsight, what is it about you as an artist or individual that has allowed you to stand out from other graffiti artists in New Zealand, in realms of success and fame?
Never been afraid of being a big fish in a small pond.

What is your definition of Grindin?
Insanity. By dictionary definition, insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly each time expecting a different result. The amount of times you fail when working towards something, you have to be at least a little insane to keep going. You have to be pretty much undeterred by any reality checks you get served to make it creatively and that is never easy.

Interview by Aleyna Martinez