An article about female grafitti artist

1. X W W W S T Y L I S T C O U K
STREET ARTIST SWOON’S
WORK IN NEW YORK
CITY. SHE SPECIALISES IN
LIFE-SIZE CUTOUTS OF FIGURES

2. W W W S T Y L I S T C O U K X
S T R E E T A R T
Forget Banksy, Stylist speaks exclusively
to the new breed of female street artists making
a splash in the art world
WORDS: LEE COAN
t’s the middle of the
night in a scary corner
of Queens, New York.
And a stylish young
woman is being attacked
by a dog. But he isn’t the first to take
a bite out of Claudia – one of the most
unlikely women you would ever expect
to find in a ghetto, at 3am, with a spray
can in her hand.
Previously, Claudia Gold has been
chased by muggers, junkies, gangsters,
obsessive fans, rival street artists and
the police… all in the name of her art.
Why? Well, to her devoted fans (who
include actresses Cameron Diaz,
Scarlett Johansson and singer
Santogold), Claudia is Claw Money,
one of the biggest names in modern
street graffiti.
For years, Claw Money kept her
identity under wraps, fearing a lengthy
jail term. Behind the shroud of secrecy,
however, was the story of a woman
who has become known as a truly great
street artist regardless of her sex
– a woman who some would say has
been as influential as the UK’s popular
graffiti legend, Banksy.
“When I first went out to tag [when
graffiti artists ‘brand’ objects with their
personalised signature] or the toughest
corners of my neighbourhood,” Claudia
tells me in a rare interview, “there were
no cell phones, no other women; I
couldn’t have been more alone. I was
completely isolated and in real danger.
I’d go out into the roughest corners of
my city and everyone was out to get
me – the police, vigilantes, stalkers,
security guards, other crews, criminals,
that dog – but all of that is why I think
graffiti is actually so attractive to
women, to be a girl going out into such
a man’s world, with everyone out
against you and your art, it couldn’t
really be more romantic.”
From 1989 to 2005, Claudia as Claw
Money painted thousands of claws
across New York and beyond. “People
assumed I was just some big fat man,
pawing at walls,” she tells me. “Not
even my family knew what I was up to
at night.” Then, when celebrities
started wearing T-shirts with Claw
Money’s claw on them, the few friends
who knew what she was up to started
saying it was her “moral responsibility”
to come out. “They said I had to give
girls a positive role model,” says
Claudia. “At first I didn’t get it, because
it’s illegal, but now I do. It’s about
encouraging women to do exciting
female things in such a male-
dominated world.”
FROM THE STREETS UP
Claw Money proved that girls could
not only succeed in the world of
graffiti, but command as much respect
as their male counterparts. Where
once the art world looked down its
nose at graffiti and street art, elusive
graffiti artist Banksy has revolutionised
the scene. Sotheby’s sold a Banksy
piece for more than £100,000 in 2008
while Damien Hirst is an avid Banksy
fan describing him as, “A surrealist who
makes you think about the world in
a completely different way.”
In the wake of Banksy’s and Claw
Money’s reputations, a new generation
of female street artists are bursting
on to the scene. Today, smart new
female artists like Germany’s
Neozoon, Brooklyn’s Swoon, Korea’s
Che Jen, Amsterdam’s Mickey,
Barcelona’s Miss Van and
G R A F F I T I V S S T R E E T A R T
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Graffiti artists tend to focus
on laying claim to a part of
their city with repeated tags/
imagery, whereas street artists
are more about turning an
urban landscape into
something more eye-catching.
WHERE CAN I SEE IT?
Graffiti artists are more likely
to hit the dangerous corners of
a city; whereas street art often
occurs in more fashionable,
and arguably safer quarters.
IS IT LEGAL?
No. Neither street art or
graffiti is legal. Keeping his
identity secret might have
helped create a hype around
Banksy but it’s also kept the
police from his door.
WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES?
Local authorities can give
you an £80 on-the-spot fine.
Larger fines, community
service charges, ASBOs and
even jail sentences are dished
out to repeat offenders.
I
THE
WRITINg’S
ON THE
WALL

3. X W W W S T Y L I S T C O U K
S T R E E T A R T
Brighton’s (11-year-old) Solveig,
are all being heralded as
exciting new talent. One of the biggest
names is the remarkable Koralie, a
hugely acclaimed Parisian street artist.
“I think that like all other ‘male’ jobs,
women are getting into street art little
by little,” says Koralie, whose work has
caused a huge stir both in her native
France and in America, perhaps
because it has such a fresh and unique
flavour about it. Her often geisha-
inspired pieces have an undeniably
feminine feel, so much so, that when
you see a wall “vandalised” by her
(she’s previously hit Paris, Brooklyn,
London and Tokyo) you instantly know
it could only have been produced by
a very daring and smart young woman.
artists, including Che Jen, Koralie,
Claw Money, Miss Van, Nuria, Sasu and
many more. Banksy’s 2009 Cans
festival featured a large piece by the
fantastic Swoon, and the current Made
In Britain exhibition now on at the
London Miles gallery features new
artists such as Chloe Woodgate and
Claudia Sabe.
Perhaps the most exciting thing
about the current wave of female
street artists is their ability to bring
something completely new to the
table. While so many male artists are
just trying to be the new Banksy by
brazenly copying him, many female
artists are doing truly original things.
The anonymous Berlin crew known
as Neozoon are unique, feminine and
slightly bonkers. They use fur as paint,
scrounging discarded fur jackets and
turning them into lavish hairy street
pieces. In their native Germany it’s
becoming all too easy to miss the
work of these hugely acclaimed artists
as their pieces are stolen by fans
within hours of them going up.
“We started in 2008,” a member
of Neozoon tells Stylist (refusing to
reveal her identity even during our
interview). “The name refers to
friends with different backgrounds
but similar interests and ideas. We
were always interested in the
schizophrenic relation of humans and
animals in the urban context. And by
discovering that loads of old fur coats
were put to one side in the process of
clothes recycling – we connected our
interest, the material and the wish to
work on the street to start Neozoon.”
DOING IT THEMSELVES
Neozoon’s work has included such
outlandish feats as installing a fake
cage full of fur coat animals at the
German zoos in Münster and
Magdeburg. “Soon we have to clean
out our working space, so a huge fur
coat King Kong on a tower block wall
would be great – preferably in New
York!” Neozoon’s spokeswoman tells
Stylist. However, Neozoon want to be
known for more than being female.
“There are still more men working in
public space,” she says, “but that
doesn’t bother us. Just about
everything except for pie-making
contests is male dominated. Why
should street art be an exception?”
One aspect of the scene where the
girls seem to be doing incredibly well
is in their ability to turn their art into
business. Since revealing her identity
Claudia has turned her once-criminal
art into a successful fashion label.
Claw Money clothing and jewellery
is worn by singers MIA, Kanye West
and Rihanna while Claudia has been
hired to make bespoke pieces for
Vans, Nike and Adidas.
NEXT BIG THING
With all the excitement surrounding
women in the street art scene, it has
even been suggested by some that
Banksy is a woman. “I don’t want to
be sexist but I don’t think Banksy is
a woman,” says Andrea Castano of the
blog UK Street Art (ukstreetart.co.uk).
“He has been painting for years, way
before street art became prominent
and popular so he was street painting
in the minority. His messages don’t
appear to come from a woman’s voice,
and I feel that they are on the whole
very masculine.” So not if it’s not Betty
Banksy who has shaken up the
traditional art scene – will the next big
name on the street scene to go
mainstream be female?
“I got into graffiti, because I didn’t
feel like I was excelling at anything in
my life,” explains Claudia. “I was
mediocre at pretty much everything
I did, at a time where so many of
my male friends were going out
tagging. I wanted to prove something
to myself – I thought if I can do this,
something that someone like me
shouldn’t be able to do, I can do
anything. I don’t know if that’s
inspirational to other girls, but it
was inspirational to me.”
C O L L E C T O R S ’ W O R K
From New York to the West Bank, here are some of the most iconic art pieces from around the world
BLEK LE RAT’S RATS
Paris The Parisian pioneer
of stencil graffiti art is so
influential that even Banksy has
name-checked his work, saying
“Every time I think I’ve painted
something slightly original, I find
out that Blek le Rat has done it
as well, only 20 years earlier.”
FAB FIVE FREDDY’S SOUP
New York The man who linked
graffiti to hip-hop and was
immortalised in a Blondie song
sprayed giant soup cans on
a New York train in 1980.
SABER’S RIVER
Los Angeles It’s nearly a mile
long, took nearly a year to
complete, yet Saber still didn’t
get caught spraying his mural on
the LA River’s concrete sprawl.
BANKSY’S HOLIDAY SNAPS
West Bank barrier
In 2005, Banksy headed out to
decorate Israel’s controversial
West Bank barrier. He painted
nine images including Balloon
Debate (pictured left) and was
told by an old man that they
made the wall look beautiful
before saying, “We don’t want
it to be beautiful, we hate this
wall. Go home.”
SHEPARD FAIREY’S OBEY
Rhode Island The man who
became famous with the Barack
Obama Hope posters made his
name covering the cities of the
world with a message to ‘Obey’.
What began in Rhode Island
spread across the globe.
“There is a big risk involved in the
scene that traditionally women haven’t
dared to take,” says Koralie, saying that
you need to do just that to succeed in
street art. “Being an artist is not really
financially safe, you must bear ups and
downs.” However, Koralie has made
money from her work, by turning her
work into a brand – selling prints, toys
and clothing online and in stores and in
galleries. “I think that a lot of women
are too sensible,” Koralie says.
“More women need to try and [be
adventurous] in this unsteady job. For
the ones that do, it’s pretty exciting.”
In the past few years the male-
dominated UK street art exhibitions
have proudly featured female street
PHOTOGRAPHYJAIMEROJOISTOCKPHOTONEWYORKTIMES/REDUX/EYEVINEREXFEATURESMISSVAN’SWORKTAKENFROMSTREETARTTHEGRAFFITIREVOLUTIONTATEPUBLISHING
MISS VAN’S WORK STARTED
APPEARING AROUND NEW
YORK IN THE EARLY NINETIES
SWOON AT WORK IN NYC.
MANY OF THE ARTISTS KEEP
THEIR IDENTITIES SECRET TO
AVOID PROSECUTION
KORALIE’S WORK HAS
GONE FROM PARISIAN WALLS
TO TRAINERS AND T-SHIRTS
BANKSY’S BALLOON
DEBATE ON THE
WEST BANK BARRIER
“I THOUGHT
IF I CAN
DO THIS, THEN
I CAN DO
ANYTHING”