Trevor6025 doesn’t like the term ‘street artist’, even though many would consider him to be that. Trevor6025 regards himself as a fine artist, one who simply uses the streets as his avenue of expression (if you pardon the pun). It’s in laneways and street corners that Trevor6025 (the numbers are the postcode for Craigie, Hillarys and Padbury) creates self portraits – which cover themes of self-identification, war and more lightheartedly a trip to Athens and range in size from discrete stickers to huge A0 paste ups. A participant in the recent Windows on William project, Trevor6025 took a moment to chat to Scott-Patrick Mitchell about his practice.
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How long have you been creating street art for?
I’ve been making art since 1996 and didn’t really hit the urban landscape until 2000. My approach was using the city and the built environment as a backdrop for my prints/posters. I didn’t realise at time but it was propaganda. Researching aspects of propaganda I discovered there are certain types, black, grey and white, each having its own characteristics and objectives. I think the general public and some art circles have this notion of ‘once art work is in an urban environment it automatically becomes street art’. This way of thinking and auto grouping has its flaws.
What’s one of your earliest street art memories?
Earliest street art memory was probably seeing the stencils of “Sins” in and around Perth city, that would have probably been 2000 or 2001, you could tell through his execution, style and thought process that this guy was a real artist. The earliest graff memory is seeing early Hells Kids work at Craigie Sewage Plant. There are some disused septic tanks that are still covered in graff from 95/96 and Craigie was the original stomping ground for that crew so its a open museum of some crazy old Elms, Oak and Buex pieces.
What was it about street art that appealed to you?
Street art/graffiti has this mystery about that produces more questions than answers. I like the fact that an unseen artist has produced something on a different playing field. Its that DIY punk attitude and way of thinking that produces some abstract and tangible ideas that a gallery environment doesn’t always offer. It’s also the camaraderie that comes with crews or groups of artist working together for one purpose.
Your work is largely autobiographical in the sense that you feature yourself in your work – why is this? Is it to give your work a face, or is it a subtle taunt?
I think Joseph Beuys said ‘Everything is Art’ and Andy Warhol created 15 minutes of fame and it stated that a self portrait is the hardest artwork an artist can produce. I took those ideas and decided that the artist is the artwork and self promotion is the key, glued it on a public space and created Trevor. It was a declaration ‘The War on Trevor’. The ambiguous nature of the work lent to more questions and as far as I could recall no other artists had done large black and white posters dealing with a subject matter of such. It was also a naive attitude and not thinking so much about the artwork back then. Now I think too much.
What’s the significance of the ‘6025’?
It’s like Disneyland. It’s the best place in the world! If someone asked you what defines you, what do you feel strongly about and then told you to draw that 100 times in the most interesting and exciting way you know how, that’s the significance of 6025. For most part it’s salvation, a purpose. The Craigie boys know what it’s about, family, friends, morals, values, lifestyle: it’s the core elements that create strong bonds that last a lifetime and I’m sure there are others that have found their 6025.
For more information visit www.trevor6025.com.
