21 November 2011
MC: On a national and even international level Perth has a really high standard of skateboarding. Growing up there were you ever exposed to the activities of the local rippers? If so whom?
KZ: Early on people like Karmen and Grumps, later I got to know the Folklore kids at the time, Trees, Barry, Boserio, etc.
Which local skaters and artists inspired you?
I think without a doubt Grumps and Dabue were guys who were, and still are, so prolific and hardworking. The TFC guys, in particular, Shime and Dash were huge inspirations when I was starting out.
What was it about the skateboarding sub culture that had you transfixed? Were there any elements from the “skate ethos” that you added to your basic outlook?
I think like a lot of guys from my generation, the movie KIDS was a huge influence and that late nineties New York / US skate culture was a massive influence. Particularly with people like Harmony Korine and Gonzales coming out of it.
Way back you painted at Claremont Skatepark right? What did you paint?
An Alice in Wonderland production with William Daek and bunch of other little bits and pieces. It was great spot.
Did you ever paint at Woolies?
Nothing good…
I remember you did a series for Folklore a while back. How did this come about and have you done any graphics since?
The series came out in 2007. I was always hanging out with / painting with Jon Shaw who was the art director back then and asked me to create a limited edition series, I haven't done any since.
Even though they obviously go hand in hand I would say that the co-existence of The Island and the Outpost Project is probably the highest profile unification of aerosol art and skateboarding that this country has seen. What is the general vibe throughout the posse of artists that have work out there?
I think everyone’s excited that they get to work on such a massive scale.
Would you say that you had a filmic approach to your paint projects?
In a sense. I absolutely enjoy combining photography and film into my practice.
I am sure that any aspiring artists and skaters out there would like to know the approach you took to moving to New York. What are three pivotal moments that allowed you to move to the Megopolis.
I first moved to Sydney where I met Ron English, who is one of the godfathers of the street-art/pop-surrealism movement in the US. He encouraged me to move over to New York, where I began to exhibit and worked under a mentorship with him. It was a lot of luck and work, but I love it here.
I saw the early stages of your colossal project out at Cockatoo Island and at that point the scale of things flabbergasted me. The finished photos are nothing but breath-taking. You must have blown peeps away by rebuilding your childhood home. How has it been received?
It's been received really well. I wanted to come home to create something that reflected on the fact I was a detached kid that came from the suburbs. A multi-layered homecoming where I could come home, build my home and try to understand where I came from.
What was the hardest thing about building a house?
Everything. It was six months to create with a two month build, it was a tough build.
Are you going to help build our course?
I'm sure I’d fuck it up, but why not?
Are you going to be around for the final?
I leave for the States mid-November but I'm looking forward to seeing videos.
Hungry for more Kid Zoom? Check the Kid Zoom website. And a big thanks to Jon Shaw who helped me out with some background info.
For your talent to be noticed from an isolated part of the world you pretty much need to be a human lighthouse: one whose luminescence is visible eons away. Growing up in Perth I saw various skaters and aerosol masters glow to a degree where they eventually got the international credit they deserve. Many other gurus went unnoticed. In Perth the graff and skate scenes fed off each other. The city is small enough so there is a cross over of subcultures. The separate scenes aren’t big enough to be self sufficient, so intermeshing goes down. And this creates a very rich, diverse environment for those who are immersed in their respective sub-cultures. Western Australian whizz-plankers like Brett Margaritis, Chipper, Andrew Brophy, Alex Campbell and Nick Boserio all shone so brightly their talent was undeniable to the worldwide masses. In the paint world; aerosol masters like Dash, Shime, Yok, Isoe and most recently Kid Zoom have all repped the West to a degree where they’ve received a global thumbs up. As we crank up to The Island (which is being held in unison with the Outpost Project) I thought it would be fitting to have a Chin Wag with Kid Zoom (aka Ian Strange) who has gone and recreated his childhood home inside the Cockatoo Island Turbine Hall! What a bloody legend.
MC: On a national and even international level Perth has a really high standard of skateboarding. Growing up there were you ever exposed to the activities of the local rippers? If so whom?
KZ: Early on people like Karmen and Grumps, later I got to know the Folklore kids at the time, Trees, Barry, Boserio, etc.
Which local skaters and artists inspired you?
I think without a doubt Grumps and Dabue were guys who were, and still are, so prolific and hardworking. The TFC guys, in particular, Shime and Dash were huge inspirations when I was starting out.
What was it about the skateboarding sub culture that had you transfixed? Were there any elements from the “skate ethos” that you added to your basic outlook?
I think like a lot of guys from my generation, the movie KIDS was a huge influence and that late nineties New York / US skate culture was a massive influence. Particularly with people like Harmony Korine and Gonzales coming out of it.
Way back you painted at Claremont Skatepark right? What did you paint?
An Alice in Wonderland production with William Daek and bunch of other little bits and pieces. It was great spot.
Did you ever paint at Woolies?
Nothing good…
I remember you did a series for Folklore a while back. How did this come about and have you done any graphics since?
The series came out in 2007. I was always hanging out with / painting with Jon Shaw who was the art director back then and asked me to create a limited edition series, I haven't done any since.
Even though they obviously go hand in hand I would say that the co-existence of The Island and the Outpost Project is probably the highest profile unification of aerosol art and skateboarding that this country has seen. What is the general vibe throughout the posse of artists that have work out there?
I think everyone’s excited that they get to work on such a massive scale.
Would you say that you had a filmic approach to your paint projects?
In a sense. I absolutely enjoy combining photography and film into my practice.
I am sure that any aspiring artists and skaters out there would like to know the approach you took to moving to New York. What are three pivotal moments that allowed you to move to the Megopolis.
I first moved to Sydney where I met Ron English, who is one of the godfathers of the street-art/pop-surrealism movement in the US. He encouraged me to move over to New York, where I began to exhibit and worked under a mentorship with him. It was a lot of luck and work, but I love it here.
I saw the early stages of your colossal project out at Cockatoo Island and at that point the scale of things flabbergasted me. The finished photos are nothing but breath-taking. You must have blown peeps away by rebuilding your childhood home. How has it been received?
It's been received really well. I wanted to come home to create something that reflected on the fact I was a detached kid that came from the suburbs. A multi-layered homecoming where I could come home, build my home and try to understand where I came from.
What was the hardest thing about building a house?
Everything. It was six months to create with a two month build, it was a tough build.
Are you going to help build our course?
I'm sure I’d fuck it up, but why not?
Are you going to be around for the final?
I leave for the States mid-November but I'm looking forward to seeing videos.
Hungry for more Kid Zoom? Check the Kid Zoom website. And a big thanks to Jon Shaw who helped me out with some background info.
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