Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.11.2013, Blaðsíða 20

20The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 17 — 2013
THE NUMBER 1 MUSIC STORE
IN EUROPE ACCORDING TO
LONELY PLANET
SKÓLAVÖRÐUSTÍG 15, 101 REYKJAVÍK AND HARPA CONCERT HALL
Art
Guido was commissioned to paint
this wall in part to reclaim it from
persistent tagging, a form of graffiti
art he used to practice as a teen.
The 26-year-old grew up in Mel-
bourne, Australia’s graffiti capital,
tagging trains with his friends.
“We did the logo-based, repeti-
tive branding stuff,” he says. “It’s
fun and it taught me everything I
know about this, but I just started
getting into lots of trouble for it.”
Guido was arrested five times in
Australia for his graffiti and the time
and money involved seemed like a
waste. While this could have put him
off of graffiti for good, it instead be-
came the impetus to creating more
professional and developed work. “I
started to think that there had to be
another way to redirect the graffiti,”
he says.
He went to university in Bris-
bane, Australia, where he studied
visual art and experimented with
watercolours. He was developing
his style in this medium, but was not
receiving the same level of satisfac-
tion he got when he was working on
a great mural and unconventional,
outdoor canvases.
“There’s a drive with graffiti
that’s hard to replicate anywhere
else,” Guido says. “What inspired
me was that people were going to
see it. It’s out on the street, you
see it immediately; it’s going to be
judged immediately.”
Conceptualised
street art
Graffiti was no longer about rebellion
for Guido, but about the potential to
exhibit his art in a public forum.
“I tend to think of graffiti as anti-
social. You don’t have to speak to
anyone, you don’t have to ask any-
one permission, you just do it, and you
hide your face when you do it, and you
might not even tell people that you did
it,” Guido says. But his murals are not
something he can, or would, choose to
hide behind. Now if he wants to spray
paint a wall, he asks.
A recently completed work on
a home just up the street from his
mural at Seljavegur began with a
knock on the door. The base of the
house had some typical tagging on
it and Guido and a friend asked the
owner if Guido could paint over it.
He showed her other works he had
done and she was particularly tak-
en with his detailed paintings of old
faces. She fetched a bedside pic-
ture of her grandfather and asked
Guido to paint him, the very man
who had built the house.
The woman was out of town
when the newspaper Morgunblaðið
called to ask her about the mural
and when she saw the image of her
grandfather’s face painted on the
home, she wrote Guido to share the
most beautiful feedback he has ever
received for a painting.
“I came to realise it’s because it’s
supposed to be there. It’s a part of
that building now,” he says. “People
see a familiarity within that face and
to the woman whose grandfather
that is.”
Coming to Iceland and into
his own
Guido came to Iceland for the first
time in April to participate in a
two-month Nes Artist Residency in
Skagaströnd. The mayor of Skagas-
trönd drove Guido around the town
of 500, enthusiastically pointing out
walls the artist could reclaim. They
were old, cracked, weather beaten
and perfect for Guido.
“I really like corroded surfaces
or a crumbling wall. It’s like I’m bor-
rowing and using this texture to
make my art better. A painting on a
white wall is just a painting. A paint-
ing on these old shitty walls is more
than that,” he says.
Skagaströnd’s natural beauty
provided unique inspiration to
Guido who has worked primarily
in Australia and the UK. “Having a
snow topped-mountain in front of
you, sea behind you, and, essential-
ly, the next stop north is Greenland,
that to me was so inspiring,” he
says. “That was just as interesting
Australian artist Guido Van Helton rides up a construction lift at Seljavegur 2 to meet his
canvas. The wall he paints is old and slightly corroded, two stories high and the west fac-
ing part of a building that once used to be a theatre but is now an industrial workspace.
With his can of Spanish Montana brand spray paint, he creates the outline of a grey eye,
and the image of a woman’s face, her vintage dress and the man she dances with begin
to blossom in proportion to it. If a static image can be said to look fluid, Guido’s murals
appear to swoop and fall with each soft layer of spray paint he adds, bringing the wall
and his photo-inspired works to life.
Words
Alex Baumhardt
Australian Artist Reclaims Reykjavik’s Rough Walls
Guido Van Helton creates refined street murals
from his past as an anonymous tagger
Nanna Dís