Visited Kristiansand a couple of weeks ago for the Kål Festival by good friend and the curator of the thing Vlek. Its a cool festival as they state on their website “The Art of Living is a festival that focuses on the connection between visual art and public health.
The festival addresses themes such as: freedom of expression, equality, inclusion and user participation.
The festival produces street art, organizes workshops and contributes to debates”
I was honoured to be asked as they have had some of my friends an heroes paint around the town in previous years the likes of Roa, Issac Cordel, Cbloxx, Dot Dot Dot,Martin Whatson and Mark Jenkins and many more. So it was nice to make a mark in the same town as them. This year i was joined by Ben Eine, Espen Henningsen and Stay one as part of the festival.
First up before Ben landed was a piece i’d been working on for a while. Dritt is a less offensive Norwegian word for shit (the type of word a naughty kid would use). The wall was a makeshift hodge podge of re bar and ply in a tumble down plot behind the theatre. We chopped down the undergrowth with a chainsaw and dodged our way around the rubble and the holes. The new rude kids had posed for each letter back in London, their names are from left to right Rudi, Jaigo, Boudica Wren and Sadhbh. Thanks as ever for the kids patience while i took their photographs for the studies for the works.
It took a while but i even managed to pop a Rude kid up high, his name is Laser Ray.
Then Ben arrived and we set about a large wall in town, by Smash burger (which we lived out of (great burgers)). We were blessed with great weather! Working quickly we knocked it out in a day.
Onto the power station that was trackside for another days painting.
Rose and Lilly with their Father Ted phrases seemed to fit perfectly on a set of stairs by a power station (careful now!).
Finally we headed out of town to paint in a place that reminded me of Tou Scene in Stavanger but instead of beer this factory produced paper, the company was Hunsfos Fabrikker on Hunsøya island in Vennesla since re purposed as hive of cultural production. I Adapted my new Rude Kids Wren, Rudi, Sadhbh and Rudi to write a more acceptable word for the small creative community thats grown within the factorys grounds.
It was a great week in a lovely town with good friends. We came we saw we painted. Thanks to Arne for all his hard work and super slick production. We left our marks and hoped the locals liked them.
