Ahead of our highly anticipated release of Shok-1's Thorns, two exclusive and very limited edition 9-layer screenprints based on the iconic freehand X-ray mural piece the artist created in Berlin in 2016, we sat down with the pioneer of aerosol X-ray art to talk about his unique and innovative creative process and his artistic journey and inspirations.
Complicated journey. I’ll try to give you a brief version.
I always loved science and technology. For example, I used to solder together my own electronic projects when I was 8 years old. I made a rudimentary stun gun amongst other things! And I was always obsessed with what was inside things, how they worked. Pulling them apart. Understanding them.
When I discovered graffiti in 1984, I was immediately interested in the technical aspects of the medium, thinking of the spray can as a scientific object as much as an artistic one and a tool of rebellion. I wanted to master it, see how far I could push it.
I did all the conventional stuff for decades, became more experimental, and eventually the art and science sides of me came together in my X-ray style.
The original monochrome Thorns edition of 150 sold out in 11 minutes. These special colour versions are two previously unseen micro editions originally produced for an installation at my first solo show in Tokyo, soon after.
It depends very much on each picture, they all present different challenges.
I do shoot my own reference images on authentic medical equipment, which adds layers of meaning. I also have a lot of support from the radiology community, people often send me images.
It’s important to me to strive to make the paintings as accurate as possible. But I’ve also painted series of abstract compositions where the bones are fictionalised, or distorted real X-rays into pop cultural icons like videogame characters.
It can be extremely difficult. My recent mural project in Belfast, I was up until 5-6am a couple of nights working on how to balance the compromises between scientific accuracy, metaphor, a visually compelling picture … A lot of my concepts involve forcing together wildly disparate styles, ideas or fields. Interfacing reality and fiction. They often require a fair bit of lateral thinking to solve.
Well, they are usually an analysis of people and society. An idea of truth.
I always have a breadth and depth of meaning in mind by the time I paint a picture. But what I want is for people to make their own interpretations.
I’ve often thought about the similarities between a doctor interpreting an X-ray on a lightbox and the way we criticise art on a wall. I want the audience to formulate their own diagnosis, as it were.
I’ve always been interested in light, chiaroscuro … that which is revealed and that which is hidden.
A traditional X-ray is actually a dull, dark thing. The iconography of it that’s in most of our minds is actually the X-ray viewed on a lightbox.
You can’t discuss light in the context of Western art without considering its Christian roots. How illumination features in it, and what it represents. But I think much more so about the Enlightenment, the scientific method, how we push back the boundaries of understanding … I think it’s never more relevant than now in this so-called Post-Truth era.
Transparency, aesthetically, can be delicate and beautiful. But it can also imply revealing difficult or painful truths. I think to know the truth is beautiful, even if it’s ugly at the same time.
