[Music]
what is art a question I get asked very
often and struggled to answer every time
I see myself an interventionist
even though i’m but labeled as a street
artist very often what I seek in my art
is not the image which I deliver of my
work it’s the reaction from the people
and connection the the viewer which I
expect what idea is inspired by my
experience my everyday life my
observations my observations of my
environment of the communities Island
the people that I meet the architecture
that I see it all reflects in my work
and with my work I expect the viewer to
question these things question my
observations in our environment that my
aim is to take people out of everyday
experiences and and spark a creative
thought spark a curiosity
spark an emotion the venn themselves
which would deliver some sort of
response in their own creative ways some
of you might know me for the piece that
I did a couple of years ago here in the
Feeney aware I’m from on a cinema called
Lavinia and this piece have provoked
quite controversial reactions due to the
reaction of a local graffiti community
which made the piece look more like this
very soon after it’s been painted I get
a lot of questions as how do I feel
about it was I offended and what’s my
response to the actions of a local
artist and the thing is I’ve been
overwhelmed nervous I actually this
reaction was something which which is
what I seek in my work the creative
response the having seen people to react
to my work and take their action in
response to it have
great conversation about the street art
about public art what is art and what is
graffiti and which should be legal and
should not and in the public space
however to explain more where I’m coming
from I probably would have to rewind a
little bit
a couple of years before I started
working so extensively in the street I’m
very passionate about travel I visit a
lot of places I travel a lot and one of
the regions are very much interested in
is Southeast Asia I traveled the first
in 2008 starting of the island of
Sumatra Indonesia the first expectation
to find this tropical paradise the
island of adventure and one day I end up
in the place which is extremely
overpopulated when Laura died poverty
and corruption and that was very
shocking to me to find to find out and
however surprising thing was that I
found communities were extremely
welcoming and friendly and open-minded
and connecting with these communities I
end up having hundreds and hundreds of
portraits which I took with my camera
and carried away from my trip until I
got settled down in Penang Island in
Malaysia while living in Malaysia since
2010 I’ve been creating the street
interventions bringing out my experience
which I gathered throughout my travels
the people which I met and which left
deep experience on me I I wanted to
connect the two you express my
connection with them in the public space
in the hope that somehow that would be
communicated to the viewer and make an
impact the emotional impact which I
really seek in my work one of the more
recognized pieces was this piece on a in
tenango of children on bicycle which was
a result of my thoughts about the about
how local see the environment how locals
see the community and what they see in
this trees in the charm of a town that
they live in I found that a lot of
people travel in the cars from one
shopping mall – you’re never really
being aware of what’s going on and
right in front of them and they’re
seeing the beauty and the charm of the
places that we live in I thought if I
would put this piece of a bicycle and it
might encourage a person or two to come
out to that Street and walk around it
actually or cycle around it and to see
to see the beauty of it and very soon
after I got response from locals of
people flooding and groups to take
images to take pictures with the artwork
to you to cycle then walk around and
explore more and more artwork started
popping up in the area more creative
people started reaching out to me saying
how inspired they were to do something
in the public space do something outdoor
where people see it and the people could
travel there the bicycles and explore
the wonders of the city yes later the
the piece is still there and now the car
traffic has been replaced the bicycle
traffic and and this this is example of
the breaking point
and in my creative career and my and my
work we understood how powerful the
artwork can be not the image not the
picture that we create but the emotional
connection of the art the emotional
connection which you put in the fall
that you put in in your art of that
connects to the people and how people
respond to it
I stood the power of it and they affect
and that my actions can somehow provoke
other people’s actions and living more
and learning in the region and learning
more about the communities and the
environment that you experience this
phenomenon as people call it
transboundary haze sad thing rather
inconvenient the sky gets cloudy couple
of months a year bringing the haze from
Indonesia which travels across the
borders to Singapore to Malaysia to
Thailand clouding the sky for 3-4 months
a year it become everyday experience for
people people just carry on their lives
it’s slightly inconvenient sometimes
sometimes it’s more but but people live
of it so they die and that affected my
work a lot that affected my thoughts a
lot and and what my experiences
every decade uh so the the levels of
pollution reach a critical level and
Singapore gets paralyzed so does
Malaysia airports get shut down the
schools get closed down hospitals so
overwhelmed with people with lung
diseases and in 2015 we had a tragically
hot here of extremely prolonged hot
season and that resulted in rather
catastrophic results
that puts the issue on a global media
there were reports reporting up to
hundreds of thousands of deaths in the
region and especially striking a lot the
core regions in Malaysia and Indonesia
and having hearing all that about about
Indonesia about the the region which
really inspired and affected me a lot
especially the Sumatra island as thought
has inspired me to channel my creative
energy channel my thoughts and channel
my work to see the cost and I came up
with a project splash and burn which I
named in the response of a slash and
burn activity which is a way of
agriculture and preparation of land by
burning the land which is the major
reason of the haze which we get in the
region for you to better understand what
I’m talking about this is a map of part
of Indonesia the part that I’m talking
about
I only stay in Malaysia at the top of a
map just and ever is the island of
Sumatra and the neighboring island of
Borneo for you to better understand the
proportion of air it’s not the tiny
tropical islands which might we might
imagine this is a huge territories and
Borneo island is actually bigger than
the France and so having that region set
on fire has a massive impact on an
entire region so I start the recent
you’ve more about about what are the
reasons and major causes to the effect
which we’re getting every year and I
found out that the palm oil industry has
a lot to do that and so so I started my
research as I started my research I
try to find the maps try to find the
date of the information where it’s all
coming from and I just get more and more
confused this is a map of allocated
plantation that’s a map of palm oil
plantations which I could find online
according to to the governments of
Malaysia and Singapore of a recent Ching
hua I finally know that agricultural
land and Indonesia looks more like this
which looks relatively big to the
proportion of the protected forest areas
which we have left in the islands this
is very new industry the palm oil
industry have been there for last thirty
years has been started to grow
extensively for for the last 30 years
and it’s still the most fastest growing
commodity in the world at the moment as
researching these maps I would get more
and more confused reading more and more
about media had controversial
information just like flooding my mind I
could not really understand what it is
about and I decided this is the time and
I have to go back to Sumatra and see it
for myself
once again the subject that I’m talking
about the moment you flew into Sumatra
is the fields and fields of palm oil
plantation and it’s very rare but you
see any bit of a forest or or cities in
the area the moment I land I connected
the number of people working in
environmental organizations activists
NGOs and I had meetings of them just
talking having conversations and
discussing the issues the problems that
affect them as as the community in
Sumatra the the moment you step into the
first office and you see an oxygen mask
in the corner of a bill of a room
waiting for the burning season you
understand the severity of a situation
and how affected people are and how are
they are forced to just pass their lives
and live vivir cost however once again
connecting to these people there you
find the most inspiring individuals the
most inspiring communities would do so
much work to protect and fight for it
and very response to my visit their
response to my ideas was really
overwhelming how
they solve this as an opportunity to
talk about what they care to connect the
outside because they really very much
isolated from the world even though
Europe is the second biggest market for
the palm oil industry very little of us
know about the effects of it but we are
causing by by little actions with you
every day by by eating that potato chip
or brushing our teeth it’s the product
is in everything
Parimal product is and everything out
paper is made from acacia trees grown in
the region and rarely that we think
about our connection to the community
globally we see our neighbors but but we
really think about our ripple effect of
our actions to the global community and
the global environment inspired by that
there was only one thing for me to do I
don’t I did the thing which I need the
best and I started making art I started
painting the painting since part by my
experience there and what I learned
inspired but all these conversations and
all this information which I gathered
that
I stayed in Sumatra and started working
on the series of paintings throughout
that process I reached out to a number
of artists overseas asking them if they
would be willing to actually contribute
to the cause somehow and I had
incredible as response once again from
creatives all over the world and and
people started flooding to Sumatra I had
more than ten artists joining me on this
project on this project to create their
art and communicate their passion for
communities and the environment in the
area to their to the audience this is a
piece by Italian artists pixel poncho
where he depicted or angry times one
event dangered species common in the
area as a robust and he plays them in
public spaces and parks to communicate
and remind people how close we are to
losing these fascinating creatures so
that the artist struck from Norway he
traveled all the way to Baku to live and
village which is bordering village of
of massive fields of palm oil
plantations vivir national park and he
did this piece on bill but which used to
be a gateway to the National Park and
now it just rusty old billboard in front
of the palm oil plantation office number
number of artists that should be be
tuned from Malaysia
Gabriel picture from UK axel white from
us came out all the way from us and
spent weeks living in the tiny little
houses with workers of plantation
exploring the everyday life of the
communities who have none other
environment but plantations itself the
lives of children who have never seen
anything else but palm oil fields he he
stayed this communities interacted with
them parked the issues that they find
important and and response from the
locals was overwhelming the Welcome we
got from from people and seeing how
eagerly that you communicate their
issues that everyday life everyday
habits they wanted to be connected to
the people outside they knew the product
that they work on the job that they do
is for someone far far out there in
Europe but they have no way to
communicate that and seeing these people
coming there and actually showing the
interest showing that they care was very
inspiring to them as well so it was to
us artists I Sakura doll from Spain
artists mark Jenkins
both of them have explored the impact of
the other industries and of the global
market to the environment and how the
how desert that the environment is in
the result of his obvious a Greek
cultural processes they placed the
installations far out even though these
street artists who who always worked in
the communities in the public space they
place the installations far out in the
fields to never be seen by a public eye
just to highlight the issue how little
do you know and how how much information
do you get of of the situation out there
which is very much dependent on us and
our everyday actions
having such an overwhelming response our
core idea was communicated the issue
raised up a dialogue bring bring out the
issue back to the global media back to
the global I outside of the burning
season not waiting for the disaster to
happen but starting on the conversation
way / you’re it’s very little time that
we have left to protect and to save
whatever we have to treasure they’re out
there in the region and we have to see
ourselves as a global community we have
to see ourselves as citizens and I feel
we had a response from we launched this
project through Guardian newspaper which
later caused by a great response from
many different media outlets and BBC we
had a support from Leonardo DiCaprio
Foundation spreading the word and
spreading the message about it and once
again I understood what artists to me
the art of communication the worth of
bringing dialog the art which connects
people the art which delivers the
message and raises the dialogues for us
to be more conscious about what we do to
be more conscious about consequences of
our action to be more aware of our
environments not just the immediate
environment in our communities but a
global environment as such and and this
brings me back to everything but I love
about art too this is one of the pieces
I did in the collaboration with a local
gravity artist is mean – from a Dan
Sumatra which I want to leave you with
and which brings me back to you to my
passion to everything what I do I want I
want you all to see the art which is
beyond the image to see the art which is
beyond what we see I want you to feel
the art you get the fact that they get
inspired and express the things which
you expire in your own creative way
thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
what is art a question I get asked very
often and struggled to answer every time
I see myself an interventionist
even though i’m but labeled as a street
artist very often what I seek in my art
is not the image which I deliver of my
work it’s the reaction from the people
and connection the the viewer which I
expect what idea is inspired by my
experience my everyday life my
observations my observations of my
environment of the communities Island
the people that I meet the architecture
that I see it all reflects in my work
and with my work I expect the viewer to
question these things question my
observations in our environment that my
aim is to take people out of everyday
experiences and and spark a creative
thought spark a curiosity
spark an emotion the venn themselves
which would deliver some sort of
response in their own creative ways some
of you might know me for the piece that
I did a couple of years ago here in the
Feeney aware I’m from on a cinema called
Lavinia and this piece have provoked
quite controversial reactions due to the
reaction of a local graffiti community
which made the piece look more like this
very soon after it’s been painted I get
a lot of questions as how do I feel
about it was I offended and what’s my
response to the actions of a local
artist and the thing is I’ve been
overwhelmed nervous I actually this
reaction was something which which is
what I seek in my work the creative
response the having seen people to react
to my work and take their action in
response to it have
great conversation about the street art
about public art what is art and what is
graffiti and which should be legal and
should not and in the public space
however to explain more where I’m coming
from I probably would have to rewind a
little bit
a couple of years before I started
working so extensively in the street I’m
very passionate about travel I visit a
lot of places I travel a lot and one of
the regions are very much interested in
is Southeast Asia I traveled the first
in 2008 starting of the island of
Sumatra Indonesia the first expectation
to find this tropical paradise the
island of adventure and one day I end up
in the place which is extremely
overpopulated when Laura died poverty
and corruption and that was very
shocking to me to find to find out and
however surprising thing was that I
found communities were extremely
welcoming and friendly and open-minded
and connecting with these communities I
end up having hundreds and hundreds of
portraits which I took with my camera
and carried away from my trip until I
got settled down in Penang Island in
Malaysia while living in Malaysia since
2010 I’ve been creating the street
interventions bringing out my experience
which I gathered throughout my travels
the people which I met and which left
deep experience on me I I wanted to
connect the two you express my
connection with them in the public space
in the hope that somehow that would be
communicated to the viewer and make an
impact the emotional impact which I
really seek in my work one of the more
recognized pieces was this piece on a in
tenango of children on bicycle which was
a result of my thoughts about the about
how local see the environment how locals
see the community and what they see in
this trees in the charm of a town that
they live in I found that a lot of
people travel in the cars from one
shopping mall – you’re never really
being aware of what’s going on and
right in front of them and they’re
seeing the beauty and the charm of the
places that we live in I thought if I
would put this piece of a bicycle and it
might encourage a person or two to come
out to that Street and walk around it
actually or cycle around it and to see
to see the beauty of it and very soon
after I got response from locals of
people flooding and groups to take
images to take pictures with the artwork
to you to cycle then walk around and
explore more and more artwork started
popping up in the area more creative
people started reaching out to me saying
how inspired they were to do something
in the public space do something outdoor
where people see it and the people could
travel there the bicycles and explore
the wonders of the city yes later the
the piece is still there and now the car
traffic has been replaced the bicycle
traffic and and this this is example of
the breaking point
and in my creative career and my and my
work we understood how powerful the
artwork can be not the image not the
picture that we create but the emotional
connection of the art the emotional
connection which you put in the fall
that you put in in your art of that
connects to the people and how people
respond to it
I stood the power of it and they affect
and that my actions can somehow provoke
other people’s actions and living more
and learning in the region and learning
more about the communities and the
environment that you experience this
phenomenon as people call it
transboundary haze sad thing rather
inconvenient the sky gets cloudy couple
of months a year bringing the haze from
Indonesia which travels across the
borders to Singapore to Malaysia to
Thailand clouding the sky for 3-4 months
a year it become everyday experience for
people people just carry on their lives
it’s slightly inconvenient sometimes
sometimes it’s more but but people live
of it so they die and that affected my
work a lot that affected my thoughts a
lot and and what my experiences
every decade uh so the the levels of
pollution reach a critical level and
Singapore gets paralyzed so does
Malaysia airports get shut down the
schools get closed down hospitals so
overwhelmed with people with lung
diseases and in 2015 we had a tragically
hot here of extremely prolonged hot
season and that resulted in rather
catastrophic results
that puts the issue on a global media
there were reports reporting up to
hundreds of thousands of deaths in the
region and especially striking a lot the
core regions in Malaysia and Indonesia
and having hearing all that about about
Indonesia about the the region which
really inspired and affected me a lot
especially the Sumatra island as thought
has inspired me to channel my creative
energy channel my thoughts and channel
my work to see the cost and I came up
with a project splash and burn which I
named in the response of a slash and
burn activity which is a way of
agriculture and preparation of land by
burning the land which is the major
reason of the haze which we get in the
region for you to better understand what
I’m talking about this is a map of part
of Indonesia the part that I’m talking
about
I only stay in Malaysia at the top of a
map just and ever is the island of
Sumatra and the neighboring island of
Borneo for you to better understand the
proportion of air it’s not the tiny
tropical islands which might we might
imagine this is a huge territories and
Borneo island is actually bigger than
the France and so having that region set
on fire has a massive impact on an
entire region so I start the recent
you’ve more about about what are the
reasons and major causes to the effect
which we’re getting every year and I
found out that the palm oil industry has
a lot to do that and so so I started my
research as I started my research I
try to find the maps try to find the
date of the information where it’s all
coming from and I just get more and more
confused this is a map of allocated
plantation that’s a map of palm oil
plantations which I could find online
according to to the governments of
Malaysia and Singapore of a recent Ching
hua I finally know that agricultural
land and Indonesia looks more like this
which looks relatively big to the
proportion of the protected forest areas
which we have left in the islands this
is very new industry the palm oil
industry have been there for last thirty
years has been started to grow
extensively for for the last 30 years
and it’s still the most fastest growing
commodity in the world at the moment as
researching these maps I would get more
and more confused reading more and more
about media had controversial
information just like flooding my mind I
could not really understand what it is
about and I decided this is the time and
I have to go back to Sumatra and see it
for myself
once again the subject that I’m talking
about the moment you flew into Sumatra
is the fields and fields of palm oil
plantation and it’s very rare but you
see any bit of a forest or or cities in
the area the moment I land I connected
the number of people working in
environmental organizations activists
NGOs and I had meetings of them just
talking having conversations and
discussing the issues the problems that
affect them as as the community in
Sumatra the the moment you step into the
first office and you see an oxygen mask
in the corner of a bill of a room
waiting for the burning season you
understand the severity of a situation
and how affected people are and how are
they are forced to just pass their lives
and live vivir cost however once again
connecting to these people there you
find the most inspiring individuals the
most inspiring communities would do so
much work to protect and fight for it
and very response to my visit their
response to my ideas was really
overwhelming how
they solve this as an opportunity to
talk about what they care to connect the
outside because they really very much
isolated from the world even though
Europe is the second biggest market for
the palm oil industry very little of us
know about the effects of it but we are
causing by by little actions with you
every day by by eating that potato chip
or brushing our teeth it’s the product
is in everything
Parimal product is and everything out
paper is made from acacia trees grown in
the region and rarely that we think
about our connection to the community
globally we see our neighbors but but we
really think about our ripple effect of
our actions to the global community and
the global environment inspired by that
there was only one thing for me to do I
don’t I did the thing which I need the
best and I started making art I started
painting the painting since part by my
experience there and what I learned
inspired but all these conversations and
all this information which I gathered
that
I stayed in Sumatra and started working
on the series of paintings throughout
that process I reached out to a number
of artists overseas asking them if they
would be willing to actually contribute
to the cause somehow and I had
incredible as response once again from
creatives all over the world and and
people started flooding to Sumatra I had
more than ten artists joining me on this
project on this project to create their
art and communicate their passion for
communities and the environment in the
area to their to the audience this is a
piece by Italian artists pixel poncho
where he depicted or angry times one
event dangered species common in the
area as a robust and he plays them in
public spaces and parks to communicate
and remind people how close we are to
losing these fascinating creatures so
that the artist struck from Norway he
traveled all the way to Baku to live and
village which is bordering village of
of massive fields of palm oil
plantations vivir national park and he
did this piece on bill but which used to
be a gateway to the National Park and
now it just rusty old billboard in front
of the palm oil plantation office number
number of artists that should be be
tuned from Malaysia
Gabriel picture from UK axel white from
us came out all the way from us and
spent weeks living in the tiny little
houses with workers of plantation
exploring the everyday life of the
communities who have none other
environment but plantations itself the
lives of children who have never seen
anything else but palm oil fields he he
stayed this communities interacted with
them parked the issues that they find
important and and response from the
locals was overwhelming the Welcome we
got from from people and seeing how
eagerly that you communicate their
issues that everyday life everyday
habits they wanted to be connected to
the people outside they knew the product
that they work on the job that they do
is for someone far far out there in
Europe but they have no way to
communicate that and seeing these people
coming there and actually showing the
interest showing that they care was very
inspiring to them as well so it was to
us artists I Sakura doll from Spain
artists mark Jenkins
both of them have explored the impact of
the other industries and of the global
market to the environment and how the
how desert that the environment is in
the result of his obvious a Greek
cultural processes they placed the
installations far out even though these
street artists who who always worked in
the communities in the public space they
place the installations far out in the
fields to never be seen by a public eye
just to highlight the issue how little
do you know and how how much information
do you get of of the situation out there
which is very much dependent on us and
our everyday actions
having such an overwhelming response our
core idea was communicated the issue
raised up a dialogue bring bring out the
issue back to the global media back to
the global I outside of the burning
season not waiting for the disaster to
happen but starting on the conversation
way / you’re it’s very little time that
we have left to protect and to save
whatever we have to treasure they’re out
there in the region and we have to see
ourselves as a global community we have
to see ourselves as citizens and I feel
we had a response from we launched this
project through Guardian newspaper which
later caused by a great response from
many different media outlets and BBC we
had a support from Leonardo DiCaprio
Foundation spreading the word and
spreading the message about it and once
again I understood what artists to me
the art of communication the worth of
bringing dialog the art which connects
people the art which delivers the
message and raises the dialogues for us
to be more conscious about what we do to
be more conscious about consequences of
our action to be more aware of our
environments not just the immediate
environment in our communities but a
global environment as such and and this
brings me back to everything but I love
about art too this is one of the pieces
I did in the collaboration with a local
gravity artist is mean – from a Dan
Sumatra which I want to leave you with
and which brings me back to you to my
passion to everything what I do I want I
want you all to see the art which is
beyond the image to see the art which is
beyond what we see I want you to feel
the art you get the fact that they get
inspired and express the things which
you expire in your own creative way
thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
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