To create “The Versus Project III,” Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark, also called the duo Layer Cake, enlisted an ensemble forged of graffiti artists from across the globe, together with Akue, Raws, Flying Förtress, and Bond Truluv. Hartl and Hundertmark gave every bit its begin after which shipped off the canvases throughout the globe deliberately unfinished and with out instruction to the receiving artists. Hartl says this strategy of collaborating with out communication produced shifting outcomes, showcasing the distinctive items of every artist concerned.
“The collaboration occurs with out settlement, and everybody can do what he needs. There have been no pointers for the collaborating visitor artists. The spontaneous and shocking half is, amongst different issues, what makes the venture so thrilling,” Hartl explains. “Since our venture is just not a traditional collaboration by which you agree on a standard plan, and the partial, mutual overpainting is even a part of the idea, we thought ‘Versus’ could be a really applicable title.”
After every artist added their signature touches, Layer Cake completed every canvas, taking particular care to make sure that nobody artist’s work was overshadowed or misplaced. A collection of unified works showcased the present milieu of post-graffiti, modern artwork. Two earlier installments of “The Versus Project” have been exhibited lately on the Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin.
“Most of the work took two rounds till it was completed,” Hundertmark says. “We put the final layer on every canvas, however after all, every artist was requested on the finish if he’s glad or needs so as to add one other layer. We consciously pursued that each one three artists stay midway equally seen on every canvas, and nobody slips utterly into the background. Nevertheless, you may see on the canvases a type of wrestle for kind, floor, and focus of the picture; a conflict of various, however nonetheless one way or the other comparable, worlds. At greatest, not one of the three artists has received, however every has made seen a piece course of that needs to be thrilling and attention-grabbing for the viewer.”
Hartl says creating the works in “The Versus Project III” has proved a rewarding alternative to create and study from his and Hundertmark’s revered heroes and friends.
“We labored with heroes from our youth and artists we nonetheless look as much as at this time. To be capable of proceed engaged on all these canvases and add our fashion was simply nice enjoyable and an insanely inspiring venture, which we wish to proceed sooner or later,” he says.
Alan Ket, cofounder and curator of the Museum of Graffiti, says this exhibition offers audiences a uncommon peek into a creative course of not generally seen throughout the worlds of neither graffiti nor studio portray.
Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark began and completed every portray in “The Versus Project III” with goal of highlighting every contributing artist’s distinctive items.
Layer Cake and Museum of Graffiti photograph
“Artists don’t sometimes permit different artists to govern their work, so this reveals the nice respect that the artists have for one another and the elimination of the ego that all of us have,” Ket says. “I discovered it attention-grabbing that the artists have been keen to launch management of the ultimate end result of the work and go away it within the palms of Layer Cake. The forwards and backwards that existed among the many artists permits for a stage of thriller to exist with every portray from the second one artist completes their flip. This is a radical, free and open method that I do not usually see within the work of studio painters.”
The energy of collaboration has knowledgeable Layer Cake’s creative course of because the pair’s formation in 2015. After one night spent portray a canvas collectively on a whim, Hartl and Hundertmark realized collaboration can result in development and artistic evolution, and Layer Cake was born.
“The entire factor began fairly spontaneously by a joint portray session the place we painted a canvas collectively one night. At the top of the night, we have been each very proud of the work, and we seen that we had talked the entire night however not a single phrase about what we really simply painted,” Hundertmark says. “As it’s when one thing is enjoyable and works nicely, we’ve got repeated this a number of instances. We paint principally temporally on a standard picture with out settlement. Again and once more, we partially paint over till we’re each glad with the consequence. We have discovered that this manner of working at all times takes us far out of our personal consolation zones, and in a sure method, we’re led to a brand new stage that has now additionally impressed our respective solo works.”
Hartl says he hopes viewers of “The Versus Project III” acknowledge and change into impressed by the important significance of collaboration in not simply the worldwide graffiti scene and the modern artwork world however each aspect of life.
“We hope our venture and the exhibition will encourage guests to have extra crew spirit of their lives, not solely since you create extra collectively, but in addition since you usually create various things collectively than when everybody creates alone. New views are at all times necessary in life,” Hartl says. “It’s particularly necessary for us to indicate what necessary locations friendship and networking have at all times had and nonetheless have within the graffiti scene. This expertise of constructing, time and again, is one we ourselves have at all times thought of very particular, distinctive, necessary, and really optimistic.”
Ket says “The Versus Project III” locations into stark aid the sweetness that outcomes when artists are free to create and develop upon their very own visible language, and the exhibition’s messages really feel particularly pressing in a modernity fraught with division and strife.
“This present reminds us that there’s magnificence and energy in collaboration, and at this time greater than ever, we profit from collaborating with our friends, with our group, and with our households,” Ket says. “The way forward for our planet depends upon us seeing and understanding that when working collectively, we will make issues new, thrilling, and higher.”
“The Versus Project III.” Friday, February 3, by Sunday, April 16, on the Museum of Graffiti, 276 N.W. twenty sixth St., Miami; 786-580-4678; museumofgraffiti.com. Tickets value $16.