Infamous London wall-scrawler, Sweet Toof has collaborated with legendary Swedish graffiti artist Rolfcarlwerner for a show at Stoke Newington’s BSMT Space. Cut and Run will be a celebration of cut-out forms from life size Skull Humanoids to cans and hi-rollers, as well as a multivariate of beautiful objects created by the artists individually The show’s on from 14th – 23rd December and all the info is here. We caught up with Sweet Toof as the show was being hung.
Hey Sweet Toof, how’s it going?
Tired… (cheeky grin).
How did you and Rolfcarlwerner hook up and collaborate for this show?
From Hackney to Hälsingand! We met a few years ago painting under a bridge, he did a piece, then I did a piece and we just kinda became friends.
He’s been painting since the 80s – did you discover his work back when you started out? When did you come across his work?
I went over to Sweden to do some work and saw his archive and history. He got into graffiti at the same time as me, around 1986. It was just interesting seeing the Swedish style, lots of characters with B-boys and lettering using skinny outlines; fades and under arms -all these different techniques. I was quite heavily inspired by the Chrome Angels and Non Stop from London, Rolf by the Swedish crews. He was mainly a wall painter and when I was younger I used to paint more moving things….
What can we expect from the show?
We spoke a while back about making cut out pieces for the forest, then then we decided that it would be quite a nice concept rather than doing a show with canvas or drawings. So you can expect plenty of cut outs along with ceramics, cans, trains, baseball bats, and a couple of large canvasses thrown in for good measure.
You love getting soggy sneakers and going to paint massive gums on canalsides – are there any spots on any of the canals in London you reeeeealllllyyyy want to get to but is proving impossible?
I feel with the canals, they’re ever changing, I mean the whole of Hackney wick has completely changed. I got off the train the other day and thought I was in Greenwich, so many canalboats these days. But I almost feel as if I’ve had the canals, I loved playing with the reflections creating the double jaw in the water. There’s always new spots, you see something and think oh that would be nice to go over there and thats what keeps you going. Or you’ll do a spot and someone will go over you but then these days it not even about people going over you, it’s whole walls just getting knocked down and turned into a block of flats. When I was first painting the Wick, no one wanted to go down there cos it was too dangerous, but now everyones going down there, families etc, just feels a lot safer. The places I used to paint at night, people rock up there in the daytime and paint and just don’t care. I don’t know if the police or authorities have just given up or they just see it as bit of culture.
Where can we see more of your work?
Hopefully on your walls at home, not tucked under the bed or put on eBay!
