STREETHING

K-Spray3, 28th March 07 @ The Butter Factory, Singapore.

Streething took a trip down south for the Singaporean leg of the K-Spray 6 city Asian tour.The event organised by K-Swiss, brought together 3 of Europe’s finest street artists: The London Police (UK), PEZ (SPAIN) and Flying Fortress (GERMANY), to put on a live installation and bring a bunch of like minded people to join in and have some fun.

At the doorstep we were greeted by 3 gigantic, inflatable-insignias of the infamous street art characters. It made a change from the normal cardboard cut-outs or blown up posters that we usually see with such events. Such effort can be noted throughout the event.

Signing in, we all get some stickers and a rubber dog tag, great that K-Swiss took the trouble to produce such items, it really shows that a close working relationship has been established rather than the “Hey you, we gonna give you money to make us look cool, so just show up and paint some stuff for these people then F-off!” attitude.

FULL REPORT after the JUMP

There is no shortage of bars and clubs in Singapore, the nightlife scene is bulging with variety and activity. However, there could not be a venue more appropriate for K-Spray than the hip and intimate Butter Factory. As we were literally “swallowed” whole by the entrance that is painted to resemble an open mouth, we were greeted by a barrage of colourful characters that adorn the venue’s ceilings and walls. The upbeat and cute characters created by the 3 performing maestros seem to be in mighty fine company.

The Art Bar (Butter Factory) is more laid back, offering patrons a chance to chill out amongst the colourful imagery. Once we stepped inside the main room, there was no sticking to the walls, appropriately undersized dancfloor was grinding with activity – thanks to DJ Koflow and his phat selection of beats.

Another thing we noticed was the long line of inflatable seats that lined the wall; these were created by K-Spray and featured characters from the artists on each side. We thought this was really cool, and we guess that everyone else did as we found that almost all of them went missing pretty quickly!

On the stage were 3 sparkling white doors that looked like they would open up to either the yellow brick road or the mad hatters playground. Upon closer inspection, the newspaper-lined floor and various utensils that were scattered around suggested that the doors would be the artists’ canvases.

It wasn’t long until our third-rate Sherlock Holmes type of analysis was proven correct as the artists took to the stage. As a crowd gathered to the front to watch the installation, the party was getting even more wild as the dance floor filled up, people were bouncing to hard hip-hop and dance hall anthems whilst the trio of artists casually took their time with their pieces.

On the far left, The London Police worked on one of his smiley faced characters, dubbed “The lads”.

In the middle, PEZ worked on his cheeky looking fish, the many evolutuions in his character kept people guessing on what it would look like.

On the far right, Flying Fortress worked on a Teddy Troop, the cuddly looking bears that sport a rather serious looking military helmet.

The process took rather long, but the eventual outcome was worth it. The artists did great in entertaining the crowd, Flying Fortress and The London Police comically tagged each others faces whilst posing for pictures.

The guys also took to the DJ-booth to hand out some lucky draw prizes, where Jamasterjules was lucky enough to grab the last goody bag complete with full zip up hoody, tee and beanie from Flying Fortress x K-Spray.

See the amount of drinks they needed for inspiration and to prove they weren't selfish drinkers, the artists took the trouble to serve the crowd and share the love.

Local artists such as The Killer Gerbil and ZERO were invited to tag on the pieces, usually a big no-no with such elaborate pieces. After that, the trio didn’t hesitate to tag anything thrown at them by their emphatic fans. For us, that really summed up the whole atmosphere, it wasn’t about one-upmanship or educating people, it was more about breaking down barriers and bringing people together that share a common interest.