Street art can be such a funny thing. The name suggests that there should be one style, that street art should be ‘this’ or ‘that’… but it isn’t. People think that just by putting the word ‘street’ before ‘art’, the field is suddenly narrowed, that the work produced is a specific type. Wrong. If anything, putting those two words together just broadens the scope of possibility.
Twenty Eleven isn’t your traditional street artist… but then, there is rarely anything traditional about this art form. His work incorporates text and illustration, the two combined in a painterly manner. Yes, he does stickers, tags and pieces, his font thin, sharp and jagged, flourished with a munted sensibility. But he also produces work that is akin to more traditional art, albeit rendered on found objects, discard fragments of other people’s lives.
Drawers and cupboard doors become canvases for distorted faces or elegant arms while empty paint cans get turned into new wave Ned Kelly helmets, perfect for being photographed in (he’s worn one in both recent issues of The Sunday Times and a local skate mag). His style has a Bacon Francis edge, that sense of a monster devouring from within, emerging from the blur of self-portraiture.
But his work is performative too, a script littered with insights and catches of conversations – ‘son of satan’, ‘let me go to hell the way i want to’, ‘I’m a child star’ and ‘inhale the new world odour’, just to name a few. Some are emblazoned, others scratched back out. He alludes to much, but successfully gives little away. He’s a performer himself, one who has successfully punched himself in the eye to see if it was possible, and in the name of art.
All up, Twenty Eleven ticks all the boxes of who and how a street artist should be, but he somehow manages to snugly fall outside the realm of the typical. And that’s the way he likes it.
What’s your earliest street art memory?
The late ’80s in Brisbane, every now and then we would go in from the country and just be losing it over the graf’. As a kid that was awesome. Then someone gave me a copy of Aerosol Art.
Where does your name come from?
My name was given to me by a gang of hill billy outlaw bikers.
Are you affiliated with any specific crew or are you a free agent?
Just me. I do like hanging out in the studio with people though.
What materials do you use and what would you say are some of your favourite techniques?
Everything I find. At the moment it is oil pastel, 7B pencils, codine and vodka. I just put all that on any surface that lands in my lap.
What part does language play in your work?
A massive part. If it were not for words I would not have paintings. Text is a huge part of what I do.
What would you say is your overall aesthetic?
Eclectic.
Twenty Eleven exhibits regularly and can be found on MySpace and also has a fan page on Facebook. His work can also be found adorning the walls and fixtures of such shops as One Teaspoon in Claremont.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
