EYEONE / LOST
I have known EYEONE for well over 15 years. Aside from being a talented artist (both graffiti and fine art), an amazing graphic artist, and a curator, Eyeone used to own and operate The Macondo, an all ages punk and hardcore venue (and cultural center), that lasted from the mid to late nineties. For a number of years The Macondo was the only home for punk and hardcore in Los Angeles. Eyeone currently works as an artist and recently published a book of Los Angeles graffiti called Lost.
Lost - Ten Years is a special edition book celebrating a decade of the publication of the L.A.-based 'zine Lost | Graffiti in the City of Angels. The book features highlights from the long out of print first 12 issues, as well as unpublished material from some of L.A.’s most influential graffiti writers, and the true pioneers that pushed the limits of this art form on the streets of Los Angeles. Lost | Graffiti in the City of Angels began in 1998 as a self published D.I.Y photocopied fanzine started by EYEONE of the Seeking Heaven Crew. Though Graffiti as we know originated on the East Coast, it was the L.A. based graffiti writers that set new standards, bombing freeway overpasses, heaven spots, and scaling huge buildings in the never-ending pursuit to push the limits of their art form. Just as graffiti has evolved over the years, so has LOST as a publication. We sat down with EYEONE to talk about his inspiration, the evolution of LOST, and his thoughts about Graffiti in Los Angeles.
LOST started as a magazine…
Yeah it was a fanzine. It started as a photocopied ‘zine that was just made from regular size paper folded in half. I was inspired from seeing all the ‘zines in the hardcore scene where people were documenting what they were involved with. I felt that graffiti needed that. I wanted to do something that was from within the graffiti scene that talked about things that were going on within that scene and the experiences that people had.
The concept behind the name LOST came from me wandering around downtown photographing graffiti, and I just envisioned being lost in your own city looking for things that people are doing out on the streets.
What year did you start the fanzine?
LOST started in 1998, so it’s been ten years. The book marks the 10 year anniversary. It’s a compilation of stuff from the first 12 issues with some additional material. Looking back at 10 years of work, you learn a lot. You have the benefit to see how a project evolves… I expect it to keep evolving. This issue is a milestone, and I’m already working on the next 2 issues.
Do you think that a D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) type of ‘zine could even exist now in the internet age?
That’s what I have been facing, especially with graffiti. You can find pretty much everything going on in the graffiti world daily almost instantaneously on graffiti sites from all over the world. Doing a ‘zine that is a localized thing allows me to document and collect, so that when you pick up an issue of LOST you see a body of work over time by specific artists or specific crew in a specific part of the city. I don’t think that the internet offers that… it moves so fast, and what happens today may be forgotten next week. With LOST I’m trying to collect images over a period of time where you can see a retrospective of someone’s work or the development of an artist’s style. Print is a very attractive medium to me, but it’s become more of an object you collect as opposed to a main form of receiving information.
Yeah, that’s what I thought was interesting even with the title of the book, LOST. It’s kind of like a lost art form… The whole do-it-yourself fanzine…
Definitely.
The way the book is printed and bound, it really holds true to that do-it-yourself aesthetic. Was that intentional?
For sure. When I started the magazine I was doing it myself with whatever I had at my disposal. The first time I got a photocopy hookup, I did it photocopied. I started working at a print shop where we had a bindery, so I started printing the zine and binding it myself.
As far as a model, I definitely looked up to Dischord Records… everything they did was under their control and they got to voice what they wanted to voice. I was inspired from both hardcore and graffiti, because in both of those scenes you do what you can with what you have.
Is that why you chose to self publish the book?
That’s exactly why. I feel that as my own publisher I would have a lot more control of my voice and with what I want to say with the book. I find that a lot of media on graffiti that comes through a major publisher looses a lot because there are a lot more intermediaries between the creator and the final project.
What drew you to graffiti as a subject and as a medium?
The first time I consciously wanted to do graffiti was after seeing Beat Street as a kid. I had no idea then that it was a complete Hollywood fabrication, but it really made me see that you could do something besides what I was seeing in my neighborhood which was all of the gang writing. I would credit the MAK crew, and MANDOE and NEO in particular, for pushing that inspiration further and actually pushing me to take a can and go painting. NEO was known for doing this footprint, almost like the Hang Ten, logo all over L.A. MANDOE had this really amazing tag for the period… It was a one-line tag with very abstract letters that really departed from all of the stuff that I was seeing at the time. I saw a piece in my neighborhood by KRENZ, who goes by YEM now, that was the last straw for me. When I saw that piece, it was a street level illegal piece, I decided that I had to try to do it.
How did you choose which artists would be in the book and which artists would be in the magazine?
The most pragmatic criteria for the book was to feature artists that had appeared in the first 12 issues of Lost. In those first 12 issues I was really aiming to represent writers that were very active in L.A. but who weren’t necessarily the most visible online or in the magazines. If you took the time to look for graffiti or if you were living in L.A. you would see their work, and I thought that their work needed to be shown.
The writers that I have in the book are people that really represent L.A. graffiti to me. For example, ATLAS… He has a very unique style that everyone would identify as an L.A. style. HAELER is a very well known bomber, and his letter form is very big and bold, and that says L.A. to me. I wanted to get writers that represent what L.A. graffiti is all about.
A lot of graffiti writers are making the move from the streets into the galleries. What are your thoughts on that?
Personally, as a graffiti writer, I approach a gallery show differently that I would my graffiti. When I do a gallery show I do more introverted, personal, pieces. The aesthetic is something that I can’t deny because it’s a part of the way that I learned about the arts. What I show in the galleries is not graffiti, although it contains some of the same subject matter.
There are artist like TWIST who have been very successful in the museum world, and his artwork comes from his background as a graffiti writer. When you see it in a gallery you automatically see the connection.
On the street level he was doing things so differently than so many other graffiti writers that it stood out even on the street.
That’s why I thought it was so important to have someone like THE PHANTOM in my book. He was one of those artists whose work was in the city on the streets, and the medium he chose was spray paint, but it wasn’t automatically identified as graffiti. That really set him apart from other artists on the streets. He’s been shown in galleries and in a different context, but his stuff is so strong that it works in any situation.
Do you think graffiti gets a bad rap in the eyes of the public?
I think it does. One of the advantages of publishing my own book is that I can try to transcend that argument. Most books that come out from an established publishing house will have a disclaimer or an explanation that tries to convince the reader that graffiti is art. I don’t need to debate that because I feel that graffiti is a valid art form. In the mainstream graffiti still gets a bad rap. It’s almost schizophrenic in the way that we accept other forms of visual communication… There was recently a study of billboards in L.A., and they found over 4000 billboards that were illegally placed. As residents of the city we accept that as a natural part of our environment so we don’t question it. Graffiti is so in your face, and has so many negative connotations, that people are hesitant to accept it. It’s been over 40 years since what we know as graffiti today has been taking place, it’s time to really transcend the negative connotations that it has.
Where can we find LOST?
The kind of places that carry Lost are the types of places that support independent media and carry stuff beyond the scope of the average mainstream consumer items.
Bodega (Boston)
Bombing Science (Canada + web)
Colette (France)
Hennessey + Ingalls (L.A.)
Meltdown (L.A.)
Routes (L.A.)
Skylight Books (L.A.)
Tradition (Westlake Village)
Turntable Lab (N.Y./L.A. + web)
and through http://lost.seekingheaven.com
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Lost - Ten Years is a special edition book celebrating a decade of the publication of the L.A.-based 'zine Lost | Graffiti in the City of Angels. The book features highlights from the long out of print first 12 issues, as well as unpublished material from some of L.A.’s most influential graffiti writers, and the true pioneers that pushed the limits of this art form on the streets of Los Angeles. Lost | Graffiti in the City of Angels began in 1998 as a self published D.I.Y photocopied fanzine started by EYEONE of the Seeking Heaven Crew. Though Graffiti as we know originated on the East Coast, it was the L.A. based graffiti writers that set new standards, bombing freeway overpasses, heaven spots, and scaling huge buildings in the never-ending pursuit to push the limits of their art form. Just as graffiti has evolved over the years, so has LOST as a publication. We sat down with EYEONE to talk about his inspiration, the evolution of LOST, and his thoughts about Graffiti in Los Angeles.
LOST started as a magazine…
Yeah it was a fanzine. It started as a photocopied ‘zine that was just made from regular size paper folded in half. I was inspired from seeing all the ‘zines in the hardcore scene where people were documenting what they were involved with. I felt that graffiti needed that. I wanted to do something that was from within the graffiti scene that talked about things that were going on within that scene and the experiences that people had.
The concept behind the name LOST came from me wandering around downtown photographing graffiti, and I just envisioned being lost in your own city looking for things that people are doing out on the streets.
What year did you start the fanzine?
LOST started in 1998, so it’s been ten years. The book marks the 10 year anniversary. It’s a compilation of stuff from the first 12 issues with some additional material. Looking back at 10 years of work, you learn a lot. You have the benefit to see how a project evolves… I expect it to keep evolving. This issue is a milestone, and I’m already working on the next 2 issues.
Do you think that a D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) type of ‘zine could even exist now in the internet age?
That’s what I have been facing, especially with graffiti. You can find pretty much everything going on in the graffiti world daily almost instantaneously on graffiti sites from all over the world. Doing a ‘zine that is a localized thing allows me to document and collect, so that when you pick up an issue of LOST you see a body of work over time by specific artists or specific crew in a specific part of the city. I don’t think that the internet offers that… it moves so fast, and what happens today may be forgotten next week. With LOST I’m trying to collect images over a period of time where you can see a retrospective of someone’s work or the development of an artist’s style. Print is a very attractive medium to me, but it’s become more of an object you collect as opposed to a main form of receiving information.
Yeah, that’s what I thought was interesting even with the title of the book, LOST. It’s kind of like a lost art form… The whole do-it-yourself fanzine…
Definitely.
The way the book is printed and bound, it really holds true to that do-it-yourself aesthetic. Was that intentional?
For sure. When I started the magazine I was doing it myself with whatever I had at my disposal. The first time I got a photocopy hookup, I did it photocopied. I started working at a print shop where we had a bindery, so I started printing the zine and binding it myself.
As far as a model, I definitely looked up to Dischord Records… everything they did was under their control and they got to voice what they wanted to voice. I was inspired from both hardcore and graffiti, because in both of those scenes you do what you can with what you have.
Is that why you chose to self publish the book?
That’s exactly why. I feel that as my own publisher I would have a lot more control of my voice and with what I want to say with the book. I find that a lot of media on graffiti that comes through a major publisher looses a lot because there are a lot more intermediaries between the creator and the final project.
What drew you to graffiti as a subject and as a medium?
The first time I consciously wanted to do graffiti was after seeing Beat Street as a kid. I had no idea then that it was a complete Hollywood fabrication, but it really made me see that you could do something besides what I was seeing in my neighborhood which was all of the gang writing. I would credit the MAK crew, and MANDOE and NEO in particular, for pushing that inspiration further and actually pushing me to take a can and go painting. NEO was known for doing this footprint, almost like the Hang Ten, logo all over L.A. MANDOE had this really amazing tag for the period… It was a one-line tag with very abstract letters that really departed from all of the stuff that I was seeing at the time. I saw a piece in my neighborhood by KRENZ, who goes by YEM now, that was the last straw for me. When I saw that piece, it was a street level illegal piece, I decided that I had to try to do it.
How did you choose which artists would be in the book and which artists would be in the magazine?
The most pragmatic criteria for the book was to feature artists that had appeared in the first 12 issues of Lost. In those first 12 issues I was really aiming to represent writers that were very active in L.A. but who weren’t necessarily the most visible online or in the magazines. If you took the time to look for graffiti or if you were living in L.A. you would see their work, and I thought that their work needed to be shown.
The writers that I have in the book are people that really represent L.A. graffiti to me. For example, ATLAS… He has a very unique style that everyone would identify as an L.A. style. HAELER is a very well known bomber, and his letter form is very big and bold, and that says L.A. to me. I wanted to get writers that represent what L.A. graffiti is all about.
A lot of graffiti writers are making the move from the streets into the galleries. What are your thoughts on that?
Personally, as a graffiti writer, I approach a gallery show differently that I would my graffiti. When I do a gallery show I do more introverted, personal, pieces. The aesthetic is something that I can’t deny because it’s a part of the way that I learned about the arts. What I show in the galleries is not graffiti, although it contains some of the same subject matter.
There are artist like TWIST who have been very successful in the museum world, and his artwork comes from his background as a graffiti writer. When you see it in a gallery you automatically see the connection.
On the street level he was doing things so differently than so many other graffiti writers that it stood out even on the street.
That’s why I thought it was so important to have someone like THE PHANTOM in my book. He was one of those artists whose work was in the city on the streets, and the medium he chose was spray paint, but it wasn’t automatically identified as graffiti. That really set him apart from other artists on the streets. He’s been shown in galleries and in a different context, but his stuff is so strong that it works in any situation.
Do you think graffiti gets a bad rap in the eyes of the public?
I think it does. One of the advantages of publishing my own book is that I can try to transcend that argument. Most books that come out from an established publishing house will have a disclaimer or an explanation that tries to convince the reader that graffiti is art. I don’t need to debate that because I feel that graffiti is a valid art form. In the mainstream graffiti still gets a bad rap. It’s almost schizophrenic in the way that we accept other forms of visual communication… There was recently a study of billboards in L.A., and they found over 4000 billboards that were illegally placed. As residents of the city we accept that as a natural part of our environment so we don’t question it. Graffiti is so in your face, and has so many negative connotations, that people are hesitant to accept it. It’s been over 40 years since what we know as graffiti today has been taking place, it’s time to really transcend the negative connotations that it has.
Where can we find LOST?
The kind of places that carry Lost are the types of places that support independent media and carry stuff beyond the scope of the average mainstream consumer items.
Bodega (Boston)
Bombing Science (Canada + web)
Colette (France)
Hennessey + Ingalls (L.A.)
Meltdown (L.A.)
Routes (L.A.)
Skylight Books (L.A.)
Tradition (Westlake Village)
Turntable Lab (N.Y./L.A. + web)
and through http://lost.seekingheaven.com
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posted by Tradition at
3:26 PM
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