FLYPRINTS INTERVIEWS BONZAI ‘Ultra School’

4 Friday November 12 2010 Written by flyprints
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This Thursday held way for the latest event and installation called ‘Ultra School’ at Upper Playground on Kingly Street in Central London. Upper playground is a street wear store just off Carnaby St. and they had local graffiti artist Bonzai do some pieces for the shop, all of which are available for purchase.

We at flyprints were lucky enough to get an interview with the man himself, so if you’re not so familiar with him or his work, read on.

Nyla Meets… Bonzai

Nyla: Whats up Bonzai, can you give us a quick introduction to yourself for anyone who might not be aware about the London graffiti scene.

Bonzai: Hi, I write Bonzai. I’m 37years old, been painting for 20years on and off. I live in South London, come from the south coast originally but now based in South London.

Nyla: So where did the name Bonzai come from?

Bonzai: It’s just a name that I came up with myself, it didn’t really mean anything, but it just happened that I was smaller than everybody else, so it just stuck.

Nyla: How did you get started?

Bonzai: I saw a piece of graffiti when I was younger on a train track that said Sphinx and I really liked it, so I just kept going back and seeing it on the train all the time and it just got me hooked. I wanted to know more about it and just started doing it myself.

Nyla: What tips/advice would you give to people who might want to start to get into graffiti?

Bonzai: Places to start, yeah basically if you are going to get into it learn your history first and foremost. Practice, there is always someone out who is better than you and wear a mask, always wear a mask!

Nyla: Do you think that hip hop has an influence on the graffiti scene and if so how?

Bonzai: For me definitely, because it was all linked with hip hop. When you’re a kid, the UK was being flooded by hip hop, people were either MCs, breakdancers, DJ’s, and I couldn’t do any of that so I took this up.

Nyla: Yeah, it was kind of underground all the same time wasn’t it?

Bonzai: Yeah, yeah so it went hand in hand. Every kid wanted to do it.

Nyla: How do you think the London graffiti scene rates in comparisons to other cities across the world?

Bonzai: I think it holds its own, it’s got lots of really good writers in London and yeah its always had its own unique style, personally I don’t really do a London style, but there are lots of people still doing it.

Nyla: With more and more graffiti artists doing gallery showings, like yourself, comments have been made about them ‘selling out’, how would you respond to this?

Bonzai: I mean, end of the day, I’m getting older and I need to make money, you know, so I don’t think it really is selling out, I just think if I can do something and make money from it, I’ve been doing it for years, just get some money back from it all.

Nyla: What was the motivation behind doing this show?

Bonzai: Ryan from Upper Playground got in contact with me, met him at Meeting of Styles in the summer, he obviously liked what I did and asked me if I wanted to do it. I don’t normally do shows, so it’s the first solo show in London I’ve done, I’ve done one solo show before, but this is first one in London. So to start with I was just doing a canvas at a time, I didn’t really like what I was doing so I just thought you know what I’ll do what I normally do straight over the top of all the canvases.

Nyla: Any future plans?

Bonzai: (Someone in the background shouts out ‘Marriage’) Haha, yeah just keep going. (‘Kids’) Haha nah nah none of that, just keep pushing it as far as I can, push myself as far as I can, bigger, better.

Nyla: Cool, thanks very much, good luck with the show.

For more Bonzai visit: http://bonzaione.com/