The exhibition presents a continuation of the Inclusions series, but the title Spray Can Diaries reveals that it is all connected to Nasty’s artistic path. Each inclusion represents a sacred and ancient spray can that he used to spray the photo proofed walls from his graffiti diary of the 1990s.
From early on Nasty recognized the high potential of the spray can as the ideal object for re- and up-cycling, but at the same time he knew how to turn the presumed leftover of graffiti into a nostalgic cultural asset and piece of history. Who knew that spray cans would develop into iconic symbols and insignia representing the graffiti art movement? Since entering the universe of graffiti Nasty always had this passionate fascination for the collection of spray cans, their designs, the name of the colors and the brands.
It was in the mid 90s when Nasty started to paint and sign empty spray cans and give them to friends or collectors he met along his artistic path as a souvenir. As the images demonstrate, that the working process leading to these refined pieces was lengthy and started around the year 2000.
Since 2005, Nasty started to compress the aerosol cans himself with various and very basic tools, such as, a cinder block, gardening tools or a manual hydraulic press. When he came across a collector in 2012, who ran a metal factory, he finally found the perfect match to speed up the compression process – an automatic hydraulic press.
„Keeping old spray can forever, while the graffiti on the wall will disappear.“
Nasty, 2022.
The working progress of the Inclusions is extremely intricate and complicated and at the same time it is time consuming and costly. It required Nasty and his team around ten steps of planning, prototyping and producing to obtain first results of freezing the free-floating aerosol cans into a transparent block. It took the artist about three years to research the new material and the chemical reactions with paint, metal and varnish.
The recycled cans, once were a banal left over of spraying graffiti, now appear in a new splendor. Despite the transience inherent in graffiti, Nasty has implemented the idea of eternity, which implies freezing an object and sheltering it from time.There is no other way to represent and honor the legacy of the graffiti tradition like Nasty does in his exhibition Spray Can Diaries.
Tania Di Brita
Artworks
Opening Reception
KOLLY GALLERY GENEVA
Rue des Bains 52
1205 Genève
Switzerland
vincent@kollygallery.ch
T +41 79 446 56 66
Only on appointment