SheOne is an artist I was introduced to in my first year of this course, I immediately really liked the aesthetic of his work because I felt entangled into the swirls and markings of each finished piece. sheOne, real name James Choules (1969-) is a British artist who works with vast range of materials and processes on a huge variety of platforms such as largescale public murals and gallery exhibitions to original fashion pieces. He first began experimenting with the use of graffiti in 1984 along with a wave of English graffiti artists in that era, however you can see that his work is much different to that of other graffitti artists such as Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat. Below are two examples of their graffiti, Basquiat sitting with an installation piece and Keith Haring’s infamous Crack is Wack mural.
Basquiat took a much darker approach to his work with elements that look very sinister to the average onlooker whereas Haring’s mural takes a rather child-like and light-hearted theme. sheOne however, is recognised for is expressive, abstract manner towards his graffiti outcomes. Choules’ flourishes any canvas he comes into contact with these bold expressive and winding lines and marks to me this draws in the viewer, it drags us in like a tornado throwing our viewpoint around the vast scale of his work.
"Choules' work, like all good urban art, makes subtle use of its environment. It's about a highly advanced technique of lifting detail from the surface with subtle flourishes of light and shade. Having watched him at work, I'm always amazed by where he paints and how he does it, on one occasion i saw him paint alongside several other artists on a long wall in east London. Most of the artists chose the flattest, smoothest surfaces for their piece whilst Choules went straight for a crumbling, crooked and semi hidden wall (the last place you'd choose if you wanted people to see your work). He then set about utilising the crumbling stone and peeling paint, lifting it out further with his trademark black flourishes. On another occasion i saw him paint in a burnt out paint factory, moving through the space adding little details to old signs, doorways and even an abandoned forklift truck. Unlike a lot of the street art mob, Choules isn't on a mission to become famous. He's an artist traveller who uniquely inflects his persona with subtlety on the world around him. One of a kind" (Rob Swain, 2013)
Rob Swain talks about witnessing Choules at work. According to Swain, Choules would choose the most distressed and broken parts of a wall to display his graffiti (unlike other artists that would choose the flattest and whitest sections); he would then exaggerate and a bring forward these imperfections with his flourishes of light and shade. I think this idea of adding to a canvas’ blemishes is similar to idea of a girl wearing makeup to conceal or distract others from their least favourite features, whereas instead of concealing them Choules prefers to complement them.
Above is sheOne’s ‘Saturn XI’ alongside and page from one of my experimental zines. Comparing my own work with the artist’s I can see that the monotone colour scheme from afar suggests suggest there is a similar message, howbeit when you look deeper at them both, Saturn XI has a sense of fluid quality contrasting from the chunky solidness of my own work. My point of view is that my work looks as if I have thought more about the layout and composition of the finished outcome even though I didn’t, I worked straight from inspiration in attempts of transferring my emotion into it. Saturn XI however looks as if it has been thrown on to the canvas without thought yet sheOne has purposely contemplated the placement of each wave and swirl.
Something that especially I like about sheOne as an artist is that he applies his art to any surface and I find it so interesting as to how he can apply it to anything he comes across. He even did a collaboration with Pelé Sports creating a limited edition design for a pair of football boots (below). Potentially I could now think about applying my work to something completely different instead of just paper, I would like to experiment with 3D elements in the future.
http://www.blackatelier.com/info
https://www.urban-nation.com/de/artist/sheone/
https://80sinsanity.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/art/
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