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Huge thanks to Mark Hunt for directing, producing and everything around making this footage happen 0h___hi___mark
On the 1st of November D!VE travelled to London to paint the next image in the Destruction, deconstructed series on the 6.3 x 2.8m wall on the rooftop of the Jealous gallery as part of their on going rooftop mural project. Destruction, deconstructed a commentary on fractured people in a fractured world. Statues of great Roman & Greek philosophers, warriors and Gods frozen in time emphasise the power of humanity and societies at their peak achievements. Spray painting and fracturing these statues aims to represent today’s fractured society. These images are realised as stencils, created using a plethora of artistic disciplines to achieve highly detailed conclusions. D!VE’s love for the stencil medium comes from the notion of ‘Doing the best with what you have’. The limitation of just paper and a craft knife inspired the artist to push the medium as far as possible, by using images of shattering statues covered in graffiti. The particular statue chosen for the Jealous gallery was the statue of David, and there was a good reason why.
The argument of Art vs Vandalism is regularly contemplated in the street art world. Though there is something of a line drawn between the two, you can find beautiful shapes in shattered glass if you look hard enough. This dispute is contemplated here by artist both applauded and apprehended for doing the same thing in different spaces. This painting is a reflection on that notion, but more than that, this painting is a tribute to Piero Cannata, an artist mistook for a vandal. In 1991 Piero Cannata took a hammer to the statue of David. He was unemployed at the time. No job, no hope, no future. He was found to be of unsound mind and sent to a mental hospital. When he was released he was, incredibly, employed as a museum guide giving tours of masterpieces, including David. He went on to deface a fresco by a Renaissance master, took a knife to "The Adoration of the Shepherds Before Baby Jesus" and spray painted a black "x" on a plaque commemorating the burning to death of a 15th-century preacher amongst other acts of vandalism. When he was asked to explain his crimes he expressed a sentiment shared by most artists, "a force inside me urged me to do it." I think about that story a lot, let’s applaud Piero Cannata.