Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.04.2018, Page 38

38The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 06 — 2018
Örn Tonsberg is the definition of a mul-
ti-media creator. While he’s primarily
known as a graffiti artist, whose work
you might recognise from the walls
of places like BarAnanas, he’s also a
painter, illustrator, and screen printer.
If that’s not enough, he’s also the rapper
behind 7berg and one of the founders of
Veganæs, a vegan diner which will soon
open in Gaukurinn.
We sat down with Örn to talk about
what made him the artist he is.

Old school MTV & 2def
I remember seeing tags in the back-
ground on MTV and being like, “What
is this?” I was immediately crazy in-
terested in it. There was this one shot
in an MTV commercial where this guy
was skating against this tagged wall
and I used to freeze that frame just to
look at that wall, just to look at all the
tags.
There was also this Icelandic graf-
fiti page online called 2def. He used to
take pictures of all the best graffiti in
Iceland on film cameras, develop them,
and then scan them in and put them on
the page weekly or once a month. This
was before camera phones or anything
and I’d just sit and refresh the page
waiting for something new.
I picked up a can when I was maybe
12 or 13 and haven’t stopped since. At
first, the anonymity of it got me, just
being able to go and do something. But
then as it progressed and people start-
ed doing better pieces, bigger murals, I
realised it was so much more than just
tagging.
Hip-hop culture
Getting into hip-hop culture back
when I was younger really changed
everything. I’m just a hip-hop head.
Back in the day though, it was hard to
start rapping because it was just a dif-
ferent environment than what it is now.
People would look at you like, why are
you rapping? That’s not your culture.
You’re not supposed to do that. But we
started making music anyway, Rot-
tweiler and me and others.
I just wanted to do everything
in hip-hop. I started out DJing and I
wasn’t good at DJing and then I start-
ed rapping and tagging and I was ok at
that so I stuck with it. I even did some
breakdancing too but that didn’t really
work out either. No, there was no career
in breakdancing for me.
Animals
In my work, there are always animals.
I think when you work with paint-
ing people, especially doing it in the
streets, people are always so opinion-
ated about the pieces because we relate
to people on a different level than we
relate to animals. People have so much
identity to us but we relate to animals
emotionally. They represent something
in us. There are enough people in the
city so I try to balance things out, you
know, to build a zoo here on the walls.
Toy Machine - ‘Welcome To Hell’ (1996)
Skateboarding was a big thing for me.
Videos like ‘Welcome To Hell’ by Toy
Machine and all that stuff was hugely
inspiring. I used to watch them reli-
giously and that’s something that still
sits with me in my aesthetic, especially
‘Welcome To Hell’.
There was something about the
freedom and energy in skating and the
self-expression, just going out and do-
ing things on your own terms and do-
ing it big. The beauty of skating really
grabbed me.
Vegan food
You can’t do anything without food.
You need to eat well because food is
the most vital art form. If you want to
make something good, you have to feel
good.
Culture
Hell, Food & The Zoo
With Örn Tonsberg
A few of graffiti artist Örn Tonsberg's favourite things
Örn Tonsberg, yesterday
gpv.is/making
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“People have so much
identity to us but
we relate to animals
emotionally. They
represent something
in us.”
MAKING OF
AN ARTIST
Words: Örn
Tonsberg
with Hannah
Jane Cohen

Photo:
Julie Rowland