Cable Street

Interview with Probly

“Cablestreet is dedicated to producing quality exhibitions and supporting the artists community who made all this worthwhile. Working outside the Popular Culture and Mass Mainstream we redefine space without following trends. By collaborating with artists and sponsors, we have consistently pushed the boundaries and stretched the imagination, and will continue.”

This crew has produced some of the best Art Shows in London. They have created beautiful commissioned work, live-paints and hosted many exhibitions for young and talented artists. We went to have a cup of tea with the founder of the cable Street Collective, Jim aka Probly. His house was stuffed full of amazing canvases done by many different artists. In fact, he had so many that he couldn’t display that they were just stacked on the floor!

- How did Cable Street begin?

P: It started with a few guys painting in a disused warehouse in Cable street and then to one in Dalston. From there we moved on to shows in places like the Dragon Bar and then painting at festivals like the Sprite Urban Games in 2005 and Lovebox Weekender 2006. Cable Street joined forces with Manga Entertainment for the Lovebox and other co-sponsored events. We just want to progress and take it to bigger and better venues. For the group show at the end of the year, I pick artists who I think have done highly original work in the past year who has pushed things forward and have a good understanding of the scene. Eventually, I want to own my own gallery where I can just showcase the artists I love.

- What's your own personal style?

P: I've been drawing intensively for the past 3 years and my style is constantly evolving. I don’t like to draw the same characters over and over, I’m quite impatient and I need to see new things all the time

- It’s hard to be 100% original isn’t it?

P: In this day and age, everyone’s been there and done that. All artists copy someone else’s style to a certain extent. Nowadays, no one can claim that they came up with something new.

- Are you like an art agency? Didn’t you do some work for Tiger Beer?

P: In a way, We have been asked to a lot of commercial work, but we just choose the projects that interest us. A lot of people want the aesthetic of streetart because it has that “cool” image attached to it.

- How do clients choose from so many different styles?

P: We have a book that we show to clients and they usually pick an artist from the book that suits their need.

- How do you make a living in London?

P: I'm a freelance illustrator and designer. For example, I’m doing a project at the Hayward Gallery for an Awards Ceremony. I like my graphic design to be quite extreme and made up of many images put together. So there’s two different worlds, there’s the corporate side as well as the graffiti and fun stuff and I try to keep them as far apart as possible.

- What made you want to start organizing events?

P: At the time, I didn’t see any exhibitions that made me excited or interested me. I was inspired to try and create exhibitions that were full of the types of things that I found interesting. For example, comic books, anime, painting and graffiti. There were some solo artists doing shows where you could see they were going in the right direction but there was never anybody just doing it for everybody.

There seemed to be no opportunity for young talented artists who were really pushing them selves as they didn’t have the P.R connections that a few other artists had.

The objective was to try and create a community scene but it will always be difficult because the scene is so disparate. You have the Dragon bar and Jaguarshoes but they seem to be two different crowds. You do have a bit of merging and crossing over but Jaguarshoes seems to be more of a fashionable “Who’s hot and who’s not” kinda place. If people just went to exhibitions because they actually liked the art, it would help us to create more of a community.

- After the interview

Probly showed us his roof. From here, you could climb onto at least 8 other flat rooftops. Each wall was covered in pieces by many of Probly’s house guests. Some of them were recognizable from the streets in London. Elph, Dave the Chimp and Flying Fortress.

Website : http://www.cablestreet.co.uk

Written by Selph