Can you tell us a bit about how Graphic Surgery was established and how you create your style?
We met when studying at the Art & Design school, and quickly found that we were very much inspired by the same things. Street art, graffiti, music and modern art brought us together. Because we met so young, our style has developed a lot over our years of working together. We like to combine shapes that you’ll find in urban landscapes, stuff like building sites, cranes and modern architecture. It’s all about how you combine the shapes and keep clean lines. Sometimes this results in a complex pattern and other times it can turn out very minimalistic, just like the tables and ceiling in Canvas.
Yes, let’s talk about that! What was the idea behind the design of the tables in Canvas?
It all started with the ceiling in Canvas, which we designed a while back. At the time we wanted to make something that didn’t catch too much attention, but still added an extra dimension to the space. When asked if we wanted to design new tables for you guys as well, we decided to try and make it into one unit. So we designed the tables in the same style, but in a way, that it almost looks like the ceiling casts a shadow over them, making up their pattern. Hence the light and dark tones.
You guys do a lot of work abroad, that must make for some fun stories!
Yes, haha.. we have a lot of funny, working anecdotes. We can tell you about this one time we were doing a really big mural painting in Dresden, Germany. We were on our fourth day of painting, standing on a scaffold, when a guy comes up to us and asks if we can come down. Turns out that he’d parked his very expensive sports car right around the corner. The wind had carried droplets of our paint and gradually covered his car in thousands, no millions of miniscule white spots. This guy wasn’t happy with us. Luckily the project’s organisation took over from there, so actually we don’t know how it ended. Maybe we should get back to them and ask.
Experience it
Come by Canvas and see the impressive designs of Graphic Surgery in our spaces for your self, or check them out at one of the following events:
// Live murial painting at ACTA Amsterdam
07.01.16
// Solo exhibiton, ‘Increment’
21.01.16 – 20.02.16
Galerie Celal
45 Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris
// Solo exhibition ACEC
27.02.16
ACEC gebouw
Roggestraat 44, Apeldoorn