Tags on Tees

HOME-GROWN TALENT: Suck On Tees organizers (L-R)
Lee Schneider, Louis Coupal and Zachary Tietolman

by CHRISTINE REDFERN

In 2006, graffiti writers and street artists from Puerto Rico, Paris, New York, Boston, Toronto and our own fair city assembled off Bleury, just north of Ste-Catherine. Sixty-five hundred folk turned up for this event, called the Meeting of Styles. MOS is an international festival celebrating graffiti and hip hop culture that started in Wiesbaden, Germany and has since spread to 14 other cities across 13 countries.

On September 1st and 2nd, Montreal’s second edition of MOS hits town, and we’ll see the artists back again near the intersection of Bleury and Ste-Catherine. No need to wait until then though, the indoor events kick off this weekend with Suck on Tees at the Academy Club (4445 St-Laurent). Suck on Tees features some of the best of Montreal’s home-grown talent, plying their trade on T-shirts instead of walls. Monk-e, Sake, Omen, Snipe, Zeck, Noyse, Scan, Sage, Sober, Axe, Astro, alongside 22 other artists, will reveal very limited edition screen prints created for the occasion.

Suck on Tees is curated by 00G, a virtual gallery dedicated to showcasing “contemporary arts, urban arts, graffiti and post-graffiti.” Louis from 00G explains that the gallery was started because “we felt that a lot of credible art is being overlooked because of its origins and roots.” The event is free to all from 7–11 p.m., but as the flyer says, “It’s gonna cost ya” from 11 p.m.–3 a.m., when House of Breaks hits the stage with special guest Andrew Spence playing saxophone and mixing it up with internationally acclaimed DJ Somsay.

On August 4th, the Globe and Mail published an article about the burgeoning graffiti scene, particularly in Montreal, and its increasing movement into the commercial world. The headline read, “Graffiti goes six-figure legit.” But don’t worry, the six-figure price tag alluded to was fetched for a work by British artist Banksy at Sothebys—you can pick up a Tee this Saturday for much less—$20, in fact. Get one and help our local artists eat.

If you’re a graffiti neophyte (like me), check out the 1983 documentary Style Wars (lots of it on YouTube) about NYC’s ’70s and ’80s scene. Or, look into L.A.’s world famous Seventh Letter crew and the direction they’re taking street art culture in these days (www.laweekly.com/general/features/the-rise-of-the-seventh-letter/16771/). Norm1, frontman of Seventh Letter, will be here as part of another upcoming pre-MOS event. 415 to 514 will take place at an undisclosed location on August 31 at 8 p.m. To be part of it, RSVP at www.00Ggallery.com.

Now, take a look around you at the visual culture we’ve created and start asking yourself: Why do we let lame corporate billboards dominate our landscape, while sending the police after the urban artists? Aren’t there more ways to integrate this creativity into our environment? And how come it’s just the guys? All you women out there, time to write your name large too…