Herakut

Interview with Herakut

We caught up with the super talented German-painting duo known as Herakut. They were kind enough to give us a few minutes of their time after their beautiful live-painted canvases had been put up for sale for charity at the gEvolving Stylesh show at Cargo, London.

 

- So can you tell the readers what you guys were doing in London and what this gEvolving Stylesh show was all about?

 

H: Itfs a live street art charity auction where we paint some canvases and they are then put up for sale with the highest bidder winning the canvas. When we were asked by the organisers to join and we heard it was for charity, we thought it would be a great opportunity to help out and paint in London.

- Can you tell us a little bit about the history of your crew and how you formed etc?

 

H: Akut started painting graffiti when he was 14 years old and helped to start a famous crew in Germany called Maclaim, who specialised in photo-realism graffiti. As he was painting for a long time with Maclaim, Akut wanted to evolve his style of productions and thatfs where I fitted in. I (Hera) met Akut around 3 years ago in Sevilla, Spain at an event where we painted together. We thought that we had a good contrast when working together and we decided to form our own crew known as Herakut which is obviously a combination of both our names.

 

- So Hera, you were also painting in Germany as well? Is that your home?

H: Yeah I was. Originally, I was in a crew in Germany called g24h and as a crew, we were doing everything related to graffiti apart from photo-realism. Actually, I didnft really like Akutfs stuff when I first saw him do it, but now itfs more like meditation for him and for me to watch! I started off as well, at 14 years old, with the classic tagging/bombing with pens but I didnft actually touch a can until I was in University.

 

- Akut, did you begin your graffiti career with photo-realism or did you start with graffiti in the traditional sense of the word?

 

A: In the beginning, I started with original/classic graffiti. Ifm from a small village and at the time we didnft know about the typical graffiti rules.

For me, it seemed like the normal way to paint old-school B-Boy characters first before doing letters. Then I thought that I had to try and give my B-Boy characters a more realistic edge by adding some texture. After a while, I felt like I got more out of the realism than doing stylised characters. Now, I feel as if I can play with proportions more and use my background of realism to create a new style of abstract characters. At the moment, I am basing my characters on Herafs characters because I like her proportions and shefs a great artist to work with.

 

- Where do you both draw your inspirations from? Who or what influences you?

 

H: In the last few years, we have been really influenced by the hip-hop group Atmosphere (MCfs Slug & Murs).

 

 

We would listen to the lyrics and then use a couple of quoted lines from their songs to create a piece of art. They would rap about something like, gGod loves uglyh and that would influence us to paint something ugly. We also are inspired by the San Francisco poet, Jeffrey McDaniel. We definitely feel that our works are almost like illustrations of the lyrics we read or listen to in everyday life.

 

- Are you both still actively bombing or painting on the streets?

 

A: Not at the moment but if it seems like the right time and place then we will. Nowadays, if there are any illegal paintings done in my village, the police will call me up to ask if I was involved or not! So I prefer to paint when I go abroad.

 

H: Yeah, Ifm a little hesitant nowadays because I got caught by the police in Germany and they donft have many female gvandalsh on their lists so if someone did see me on the street painting and they called the police, they would probably come looking for me.

 

- So where else have your painting events taken you to? What other countries have you visited?

 

A: Well, tomorrow I will be going to Odessa in Ukraine to paint and later on in the year we will be going to Sarajevo for 5 days. In November, I am going to be a judge at the Write4Gold competition in Japan which will be great. Originally it was supposed to be in September but because of location problems it has been delayed until November.

 

H: In the past, we have painted in Spain and Greece and whenever Akut goes abroad to paint and I have to stay in Germany to work, he will always put our gfingerprintsh there and will always write Herakut.

 

- I recently bought the book, gMaclaim: Finest Photo-Realistic Graffitih and loved it! I wanted to ask if this book was collaborated on equally by all members of Maclaim or was one of you, like Tasso, taking the leadership role?

A: The thing is, the Maclaim book was actually a project of mine during my university days so I came up with the basic concepts and structure of the book.We had a lot of different sponsorships for this book and thatfs why we had to put several gHow-toh sections in the book and I think that this is probably why the book has sold so well.

 

- I have to ask you the age-old question now; Street Art and Graffiti, is there a difference between the two?

 

H: I think I can talk for both Akut and I in saying that there is a difference between the two. With Street Art, there are a lot more techniques allowed. With graffiti, there are certain rules, which we respect and thatfs why we wouldnft call our work Graffiti, not in the regular way.

Streetart allows me to experiment and use tools like a paintbrush which makes a nice contrast to Akutfs spraycan work.I would be painting at a Graffiti Hall and people would ask me if I was an Art student. I would say no, but then they would always reply that this a Graffiti Hall so why are you using a paintbrush?

 

A: I also think that Graffiti is created on the street right at that moment but Streetart can be created at home first. You can create your sticker designs, posters and stencils on the computer and then take them outside.

 

- Do you see any differences between the British Graffiti scene and the German Graffiti scene.

A: Definitely, I think that there is a lot more humour and thoughtful concepts found in British Graffiti, as well as more stencils, but maybe thatfs because of Banksy.

 

- So have we reached a saturation point in terms of using original art mediums or do you think that we will just try and refine the older techniques.

 

A: I think that we will see some form of bombing on the web; a kind of virtual bombing on the internet. Painting streets that donft actually exist. That has to be the future of Graffiti and Street Art.

 

H: I hope that there will be more appreciation of Graffiti/Street artists from the art establishment, for example, fine art galleries.

 

I also want to see Graffiti and Streetart become an official art-style. Then maybe, people will feel more pressure to do better works of art on the street!

 

- What other future plans do you have?

 

H: We are both trying to finish off our diplomas in Communication Design and Graphic Design at the moment. Apart from that we are still painting from event to event and exhibition to exhibition. I guess when people stop liking the stuff we produce we will have to come up with a better plan!

 

- Can you give some words of wisdom to any budding young artists who want to pick up a pen, paintbrush or spray can?

H: Well, like what I told a girl from Brazil who emailed me recently, gFind a team, donft try to do it alone when you first start off. Find someone you can try and evolve with and be creative with and get them to judge your stuff so you arenft doing that by yourself."

 

A: Every country should try to create itfs own graffiti style because each country has its own indivdual culture. I have judged many competitions in many countries and I always see the traditional New York or Wildstyle pieces wherever I go. I think my message would be to be yourself and strive to be original.

 

Website : http://www.herakut.de

 

Written by Selph

 

 
     

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