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Hera: “Hi.”
Audience: “Hi.”
Hera: “Sorry. Is it dark enough for this? Or should we -- is that okay?”
Audience: “Yes.”
Hera: “Okay. So I was thinking we'll just show you how two of us create a piece of art together by showing this little video first.
And then we'll go more into detail of our work.
But just real quick, this video that you'll be seeing now is one mural, one on canvas we painted in San Francisco last year, end of last year.
Maybe you do the rest of the talking. So let's just go ahead.”
Akut: “There was a little picture with it. Yeah, this is a better pictures what I'm looking for.
So this video shows pretty good how our process works. So as you see it's not 50-50. It's more like 30-70.
And it's actually an unusual surface because actually we come from graffiti and walls are where we came from. We painted walls.
Yeah, but this is the way we show our work inside of a gallery. We made it on canvas.”
Hera: “Yeah. And so one thing -- I don't know how much you know about us. But we use spray paint as the number one material. And when we started, we started as graffiti kids.
So our parents didn't really like what we're doing, and there was no career for what we did. So it was really just us being a little rebellious.
And now we make a living of this. And it's quite a surprise for us. But it's really one thing, we'll show you now a couple of things that all started from a hobby.
“So I don't know how many of you already, you know, are artistic or paint or, I don't know, you know, express yourself creatively.
But I can just tell you it was one of our favorite things in our spare time. So it was a favorite hobby. Now it became a full-time occupation.
And it's a really nice life. And we travel all over the world doing this.
“And I'm going to -- I'd like to show you one thing that we're actually now doing on the wall. Show the Toronto video.”
Akut: “Okay.”
Hera: “So this is the video we're now showing, it's the same process that you witnessed before.
We do outlines. I do the rough stuff, and he adds the details that look like photos. But we now will do it, in that video we're showing, we'll do it on a wall.
“So this wall is part of the book we're working on. It's a children's book. And it was done in, a mural done in Toronto last year. It was really cool.”
“I don't know. I just think we should have a live band playing here because it's so much nicer with a little bit of sound. And I don't like my voice.
Maybe you should talk a little bit about -- I really don't know what you guys do. Just here in the front row, what do you study?”
Student: “Creative design.”
Hera: “Well, so it's design. Okay. So you all do something artistic?”
Audience: “Yes.”
Hera: “Okay, okay. Then we're all okay, all friends. We're all colleagues. So that's okay. That's really good.
“So I don't know about how -- can we put mine in now?”
Akut: “No problem.”
Hera: “So I don't know if you've ever tried to work with another person. It's really something everyone should try.
And for that you should choose someone who uses a very different technique than the other one does so that you do not do the same stuff,
but you just add on to the other one's qualities.
“So this is my messy -- this is what I prepared for you. And I'm just going to go through a couple of things now.
“So I think the best way to explain how our work can be done is you've seen the process of actually painting, but usually it starts with sketches.
And I'm picking sketches now from the story book we're working on. Can you see this? Sketches. You've all done that before, right? Just really simple.
“And it's really, it's studies. So you think of someone or something and you find the best proportions for that person and try painting that person from every angle.
When it comes to that work, I do that. When it comes to colors, he comes in.
“So what I do next is I sketch out something I do on canvas. And everything here that's realistic,
you know, the eyes and the lips, everything that looks like it has light falling onto it, that's -- “
Akut: “I do light and shadows -
Why do we stop for a second. Why is the mike there?”
Hera: “Oh, okay.”
Akut: “Sorry, It is such a waste.”
Hera: “Right, sorry.”
Akut: “I want to have the mike now.”
Hera: “Sorry.”
Akut: “So but I don't want to say something at the moment so I give it back and wait for my mike.”
Hera: “Okay, okay.”
Hera: “So when you work with someone, be aware of being interrupted, you know, more and more, because they don't know what to do.
“So maybe this is -- “
Akut: “But now I can say something.”
Hera: “Okay. So this is a symbol for us, our work process that's going to be here in 30.”
Akut: “Oh, you mean I'm on your arm now.”
Hera: “Yeah, you're the chameleon.”
Akut: “I'm a little ugly, am I?”
Hera: “Yes, no. But this is -- I want to introduce this character or the both of them. She is a symbol for creativity.
We came up with her after working for nine years in a dialogue. And we tried to create something that is as wild as the stuff that's going on in our mind.
And we took her through different cities and painted different walls.
“I'll show you something. It started all in Berlin really. This was the sketch for the situation.
So it's basically this little girl. She's not really in touch with reality. So everyone here in the room probably knows how that feels. You're so much inside your head.
“Hey, stop it.”
Akut: “Go on.”
Hera: “So you're so much inside your head that sometimes you just make up reality.
So she builds the things that she wants around herself. So this thing that I just showed you was the start of -- ooh, okay -- an installation.
“Installation means you install something in a room. The end of it looked like this. So we painted her on cardboard and put her in the middle of the room, right?”
Akut: “That's right. And this is a good sample for actually how we work. We as a duo, as a team, we are already a collage.
And it was the way how we work together. So and that's the -- we, like all the - already tell a story. And once we -
cardboard, and we'll - to come. It fits to what I was telling.”
Hera: “Yeah, so the big room, it looked like this. It's super messy. And just to give you an idea of how tall this was, this is us standing in front of it.
So it's really tall. We like tall and big things because, you know, when you grow up, you have the small room.
Everything you do is always in little pieces of paper, but it's so nice to paint big with the full body because it's really like dancing.
You dance with your brush in your hand and the paint.
And it's something that is so exhausting that you really feel good after it. It's like going to the club just with an outcome, not just the headache.”
Hera: “So every one of you should try that, please?
At some point in your life, take a brush and color and go to a wall no one cares about or just get cardboard from a store
and just try it because most of the things don't look really good that you do in the beginning.
But it's just such a great feeling. So yeah, that was one thing.
“So and then we carried on taking our character -- we named her Lily like the flower.
“Oh, wait. This is how the installation starts. So we have a big piece of cardboard.
It was a box where I think a screen was in so those are really good. If you want to find big boxes, go to where they sell TVs.”
Hera: “And then I did the sketches. And he did, again, the realistic stuff. It's really good to team up with someone who knows things that you don't.
I mean who can do things that you can't.”
Akut: “That you're lazy for.”
Hera: “Yeah. Right. So oh, yeah. So we took Lily to Lexington, Kentucky. Why Lexington, Kentucky?
Well the thing is we've been spray painting since 2004, spray painting, group graffiti. So we have been beautifying cities, and -- “
Akut: “So we spray together since 2004. We both was working on when -
Hera: “Yeah, he wants to say that he already was a famous graffiti artist -- ”
Akut: “Oh, no, no, no, no. I don't want to say that.”
Hera: “-- in 2004.”
Akut: “Because we started with -
Hera: “Yes, yes, yes. Okay.”
Hera: “Yeah, he's right. So we painted as Herakut in 2000 -- for nine years now, really long time. And -- “
Akut: “First eight years at home.”
Hera: “Okay. So a lot of different communities, artist communities all over the world, NGOs,
I mean, like non-profit organizations, dealing with beautifying a city, they know about our work.
And they know that we will support them and make their cities a little bit more colorful when they can pay for our flight. So basically -- “
Hera: “-- when they approach us and say, 'We have a nice wall in a very ugly spot. So many kids pass by it when they go to school.
Can you just please come and inspire our youth to not only keep the talent to themselves but actually go and share their talent?' we'll be there.
“So this was the spot. And we painted our little Lily. And then we had this entire story with monkey friends and a little chameleon in there.
So you know how I happen to start at one point and it just runs wild. And what happened was we really liked the story so much. And the entire city were with us on this.
“So kids would come by and say, 'Hey, what's in that tree?'
“And we're like, 'What tree?'
“'Well, the brown thing.'
“'Oh yeah, that's a tree.' So you know, you just start picking up stuff when you work outdoors. And people come by and say, 'Is that a fly? Or -- '
“And I was like, 'Well, it's a horse fly' like, so I'll show you the horsefly. It's a horse with fly wings.”
Hera: “And we worked on this more. So we actually took it home to us and put it in the computer and you know, you know how to do it. You're colleagues.
Then it becomes -- it was a wall that now it becomes a graphic for our future book.
. It's not going to be out this year, but you know, Giant Storybook Project will be out next year. So this was one thing.
“And also, here's another character that we created. She's called the 'moon goddess.' When we took this one into modification, it became this.”
Audience: “Ooh.”
Hera: “I like that. Ooh.”
Hera: “So this was one thing of how you can work from the wall to illustration. There's also another way to make your, you know, ideas live longer which is go from wall to canvas.
I'll show you some samples for that. Then you can say something about that. So.
“Oh, no, wait. I have to brag. Okay? I have to brag because we painted a really nice wall last year in Miami. I just have to show you this.
“This was the process of that one. Well, these are the lifts. We use lifts because it's just really high up. You know scaffolding right?
You can have a scaffold in front of a wall. It's so annoying to walk up and down the scaffolding.”
Akut: “But it's good exercise. No, but for our kind of work, it doesn't go through the scaffolding.
We need to – actually the lift machine is like an extension of our arms somebody just said.”
Hera: “Arms. Yeah.
“So we actually do paint with rollers. And we do not paint with projections. So we go and freestyle everything. You go there, you bring enough paint, and you start.
“You can see how tiny we are in those machines.”
Akut: “Yes, so tiny.”
Hera: “Yeah, how big the wall is, let's put it this way.”
Akut: “Yeah.”
Hera: “Okay. So we were working, working. This was the sketch, by the way, for the painting.
And actually sometimes, when you work for a city -- or not for the city -- but when we work in the city -- “
Akut: “You need to show them something before.”
Hera: “Yeah, you could say they want to make sure they will not hate what you do.
“So this was the final outcome. Can you see? Yeah, it was really, really, really big. Remember how small we were.”
“So I really like this one. And I have to brag because it's a dream of a wall. I mean this is such a nice thing.
When you think about it we came from painting on paper, small size, then you have a wall like this, it's just so much fun and so much muscle ache.
“In the modified version, with the one's that's going to be in the book was this. So we actually added another character in there.
And it's the goddess, the moon goddess.
“We always use symbols. So obviously the moon goddess only appears when it's night.
That's when people sleep. So she is the one giving, putting dreams into people's minds. So that's another character that we're working on.
“But I wanted to show you the canvas stuff now. And you can talk about that. So wait.
“Canvases. Should I open all of them?”
Akut: “Yeah.
“So the first few canvases that you will see now, are part of our last exhibition, solo exhibition, in Melbourne, Australia.
And yeah, if you go closer to the rest of our artwork then you will see that we -- that there's every time something like a connection to the place where we paint.
“Our work is actually a dialogue. But as we go to a place and work there, then we go -
to the place, the location where we are. And we appreciate it much more here if we have an exhibition in any city to go a couple of weeks earlier and work there,
especially this situation was in the German winter so it was a fun tour to get the Australian summer there.
“Yeah, this is a -- “
Hera: “Aboriginal.”
Akut: “Aboriginal, yeah. And also some funny elements which we found there.”
Hera: “Yeah, like that one, that's the wombat.”
Hera: “It's so cute. It's so -- we love animals because I think we really love watching things move. And you can just look at animals and watch them.
So all you should go to the zoo because they won't say, 'Wait a minute. Why is the person watching me.'
Like we watch people, they usually don't like that so much. But animals don't care.
“And that's actually where we started our work because we would always draw as children, but we would draw a lot of animals.
And this one, maybe you've noticed that a lot of our, in a lot of our pieces we have writing. So the writing -- oh, that's the other set.
“So the writing that's for example say, with here, can sometimes be really big, sometimes small.
But we use the symbols, we use the people, colors, everything we paint, communicate, and the writing is always another added level of communication.
If we could add one more, we'd probably put a soundtrack to the canvas. So when you stand in front of it, you can listen to the music we thought of.
“So some of th messages in here, for example, this one, they come from songs that we really love.
I don't know if you know this band, Atmosphere. It's a hip hop thing from the States. They're not that good anymore, but they used to be really good.”
Hera: “And there is this song. It's a rap song. In that rap song, it says, 'Hush, little lady, don't say a word or the rest of the village is going to know you're disturbed.'
So it's a little bit like don't talk about your crazy thoughts or everyone will be like, 'Aw. You know, don't talk to her. She's weird.'
“So we symbol, you know, we always take, we like to take children because they're so pure and plain, and then add little symbols for -- I mean symbols,
animal symbols that everyone in the world can understand because everyone really knows the personality of an animal.
“And we recently started to work -- not recently, really. We just started again to rediscover working with different fabrics on canvas.
So we showed you the installation. So it's working with different fabrics and materials in one big room. But now we're working with this on -- oh, there it is -- on one canvas.
“So for example, in my free time, I cut out hundreds of stars out of canvas.
And I glue them all together and sew them together so we would have this canvass in the end. It's a little insane because there were hundreds of stars. But -- “
Akut: “The thing is we started to using different materials for characters is that my part of the work, the realistic part, takes so long that if we paint outside the walls --
it's different if you spend a whole half-day on the ladder and paint it three meters up.
So that's the reason why we start painting on some, any surface which is mobile and which we can install later on though.
It seemed the logical next step was to use all those technique on canvases.”
Hera: “Yeah.”
Akut: “Actually, the first one which we made, this kind of collage artwork was something like a recycling show where we chose -- “
Hera: “Yeah.”
Akut: “-- old canvases, which we still had at home. And yeah, we stitched them together and played with it for this purpose.”
Hera: “I mean stitching together is really good work. So see this canvas,
it has so many layers all of those things are one old canvas on top of the other on top of the other than taking a needle and thread.
And this for example, the writing, I actually the -- I do the writing. So I cut it out.
The white is cardboard, and I stitched it to the canvas. So it's really time consuming, but it has something like meditation because you have to control the needle.
“And in this example, all the butterflies on there were cutout butterflies. So all of them were put on top.
So when you walk around it there's this 3-d effect. It's really -- you should all try it. It's so much fun.”
Akut: “Yeah, it's a nice fix. It's not only a painting. It's more of -- it's a bridge between a painting -- “
Hera: “Right.”
Akut: “-- an installation or a sculpture -
Hera: “So this one right here now, we put in a store in Shanghai two weeks ago. Actually, I can show you some images from there because that's another thing.
So when you work like we do, pretty much we work with recycling, work with whatever, you can design or do the store design or interior design in so many different places.
So I think is it here? No. Where did the thing go? Did you put it here? Where was it?
Akut: “That's it. No, no, no. It's still on a stick.”
Hera: “Okay, we're very organized.”
Hera: “There. Oh, wait. No. I think I have it here. It's right here. But this is too big now. Does this work? But it's too big.”
Akut: “Yeah, why you open it this way?”
Hera: “I don't know. This is so big. This is not good. Okay, wait. Okay, I'm not the technical expert.”
Akut: “Okay, then let's do it another way.”
Hera: “This isn't big.”
Akut: “Okay.”
Hera: “Yeah, yeah. That's photos from Hong Kong and the last job. Uhm, where is it? Oh, yeah, so we went to buy fabric -- not that fabric.”
Hera: “We took a whole bunch of photos from everything we went to because that always goes into our work. We love cats. I told you already.
“So when we started, yeah, this is how we started in that store. We built an architecture out of paper. He did. Actually, he built it.
And then here you see one of the prints from the canvas I showed you earlier.
Then yeah, cutout stars. You can see here. This is how out installation work can function in a big space. You remember her? Now she is --
“Oh, yeah. I like this.”
Hera: “So yeah. See it really takes over. It starts from paper and then it just takes over the whole room.
You can, you guys, you can with out of really the cheapest material, you can build a whole nice world.”
Akut: “Uh-oh. It's gone.”
Hera: “Okay. You know what? I want to go to something else.
I'll show you something that's sort of fun because what you can also do with this, then take everything together and put it in a little film thingy like a little --
can we turn on my sound?”
Akut: “Oh. Do you want to play Herakut?”
Hera: “I'm sure you all know how to do animation, right?”
Hera: “Well, you will because you go to school and you still have time to learn so.”
Hera: “But we're not experts in any of this, which is so important because it's nice to be an amateur.
You can always surprise people in a good way. Let's watch this and hope the sound works.”
Hera: “There should always be music, always everywhere. I hope you all listen for music when you paint. It's so good. It's so important.
“So we're almost done with the first part of talking because I think you're really bored right now, right? Already like -- it's already -- yay! I'm loud.”
Hera: “Sorry. So yeah, it's -- we don't want to bore you too much, but should I show one last thing maybe?
Class: “Yes.”
Hera: “Okay. No, but -- “
Akut: “But just one.”
Hera: “So now you saw we play around with different mediums and go 3-d, well, three dimensional as far as we can with installations.
But last year, we did something with a dance group, a performance of a dance company in Los Angeles.
So we made costume, costumes for dancers. And they actually danced with those. Oh, it's right here.
“So this is -- I don't have the video file, but I'll just show you the way our vision looked on dancers.
And you can just imagine really nice music and, actually, some fire on stage. We were working with flames.
“We were working on stage with them at the same time spraying with aerosol paint while they're working with fire. So it was really a very risky thing.”
Akut: “Yeah, yeah.”
Hera: “Yeah. Don't try that at home.
“So this was a chicken mom. This was a unicorn. We built everything there.
So the whole big thing that you see, it's something inspired from a painting we did. And I built that myself out of tape.”
Akut: “Only tape.”
Hera: “Masking tape, ha ha. Masking, mask, tape.”
Hera: “But you can really do it. It's easy. It's easy and it's so light.
“So all of those guys, everything you see, we created the costumes within three weeks -- no, within two weeks.
And we had a seamstress working on the designs because we would draw the outfits.
And we would also do the make up when it was time for stage.
“Just one little hint. She's a frog. And you know how the Grimm story, the fairytale the princess that kisses the frog and all?
So we made her a frog princess, so the mix between a frog and princess because we were thinking, “So okay, what happens if the frog and the princess have a child?”
Hera: “So how does that go? So that's her.
“Oh, yeah. That's me actually on stage painting. I'm also wearing a costume. That's not my usual outfit. But yeah, I made a rat.
You'll see -- we have our books out there. One of the things that we love is to use the symbol the rat for the two of us because the rats are always there in the city.
No one really -- you'd rather look away. You don't really pay attention. But we pay a lot of attention to everything that happens. So we're underground. Oh, yeah.”
Akut: “Actually, a rat is a symbol for street art.”
Hera: “Yup.”
Akut: “A lot of artists of street art people use it also. And actually, I think that's got also something to do with the letters of art design, rat, art.”
Hera: “Interesting.”
Akut: “Is it oxymoron? What is it? No?”
Hera: “I don't know.
“Really here, you need to work on collaboration partners. You have to find collaboration partners.
If you want to progress with your work, always look for collaboration partners in other genres also, you know. If someone does the same thing like you, no good.
But a dancer, musician, I don't know, someone making fashion. Just all of these stuff is always so good because then you can bridge and you can just do bigger things.
“They were pretty good dancers.”
Akut: “But the nice thing was also that at the same time as we were working on this show and these costumes and a lot of stuff,
we were working also on our exhibition in Los Angeles, which was one week later. So and we had all of them in costumes -- “
Hera: “-- come to our show.”
Akut: “-- come to our show because it was -- “
Hera: “It was so fun.”
Akut: “-- where we had a press show for us.”
Hera: “Right. Should I show you? Okay, no. We'll talk now. The one thing maybe is I have some sculptures I could share with you.
So remember, oh yeah, the costumes here. They also work in sculptures.
“Very simple again, all that I use for making the sculptures is trash. That started out when I was moving into a new place.
And I had a lot of nails and screws and wires lying around and a lot of tape again.
So I just took all the stuff, you know, taped around it and made it stand up.
And I did a sketch before. Or sometimes freestyle. So I don't know. Can you see this? Hello.
“Sorry. Or here. It's a little skinny thing and you can spray paint it gold and it looks so valuable.”
Hera: “Oh, yeah. Or you make something like this. That's me dressing up as a deer, but I have a gun so I'm like, 'Yeah, you come you hunter. I'll kill you.'
“And then you can make this stuff, you can carry it around and take photos. Or wait for your guests.”
Hera: “Well, actually, that's another fun part. Yeah, there's the skinny guy again.
There's another one hiding in the closet, and it has a bad habit of smoking. That's from him.
“But about the guests, I mean, it's really true. Sometimes we combine all this, everything we do, and we just have a nice party.
So that's another very important thing about art. Don't forget to party.”
Hera: “People expect it from artists.
But no, it's just really the great thing is when you work with different collaboration partners, like musicians for example, you just invite them to your opening.
Next thing is so Dave will get some air play. I mean they, people will hear them play.
Next thing is you paint their -- what's it called -- LP cover or CD cover or something. And you just help each other out.
“So this is one thing we always did is not work for money but work for connections and just work for just having fun with other creatives, really.
“The last really big thing that took us, this took us to Kathmandu. It's not a place for family holiday,
but it's actually one of those places that really, really need some art.
Because at Kathmandu, for example, there was a lot of stuff painted on the walls, but it's all political. It's always slogans.
So when I went there with this character, what did they say? They were asking about this was a new party.”
Akut: “Yeah.”
Hera: “If I was from some party, like art party.”
Hera: “Falk took those photos so that's why he's never on them. Sorry. Oh, you're here in this one.
So this is us painting in Kathmandu. And the dressing up like the locals.”
Akut: “To blend in.”
Hera: “Yeah, he didn't blend in at all. Everyone was staring at him because men don't carry stuff on their heads, especially white men. But he did it with pride.”
Hera: “And another thing. It's what we do. I told you that we use writing.
What's so important is that you actually write in the language of the country you want to communicate with.
So we have learned many different languages. We can't talk but we can write. But we can't speak them, we can write.
“But so here for example, this is one thing that we painted while there was a strike going on and it says in Nepali, 'Love your brother'
because it's an easy message, but it gets -- people forget it.
“This is another one. 'Can you please build something stable for me because I'm your future.' That's what the kid says.
“And actually, maybe that's a good time to what we're doing here in the store, Fully Booked store, on the Fort, right?
You should all come and check it out because we went around Manila, and we're looking for inspiration, and we're looking for what is it that we can, as outsiders,
name as the one really inspiring, interesting thing about this country and this city, and introduce to the rest of our international fans.
So you should all come and see what we did there because it's definitely something that we found that is absolutely Filipino. So I'm not telling you what it is. Yeah.”
Hera: “I think that should be it right now, huh?
“I'm sure you don't have any questions, but please pretend -- “
Hera: “-- so we don't feel stupid. Come up with something and direct it to him.”
Questioner: “... individually?”
Akut: “Yeah, definitely we paint walls. But since we paint together, it's our main project to be Herakut.
I came from -- okay. I came from a very traditional graffiti background, and I started with a crew named Ma'Claim, and yeah, it's still our family.
But we all turned a little older so we need to, it needs to fit in our schedule. And the moment only Jasmine fits my schedule.”
Hera: “Yeah, so my boyfriend is also a graffiti writer, also from his crew, from Ma'Claim.
And he's one of those guys who actually still do trains. So we are still very close to the ones who work not for fame,
I mean, not for international fame, not for money, not for commercial things, just for the adrenaline.
“But I do worry a little bit about him. So I know. It's just. No, but for us right now, it's, I have to say, too easy to find really nice walls. So why bother? You know what I mean?
So when you do something like this, for example, this is a wall we did in Mexico City -
So many people saw this wall. So it's just kind of like when you get the chance to do a huge wall, everything else that you can just do,
just like graffiti kids do with on the ladder, it's not fun anymore.”
Akut: “No, the thing is actually, we don't need to go out at nights. And our next wall will be in Frankfurt.
And you have to get a wall. We can use other sources. Or actually, the mayor is on our side so something gets done. And -- “
Hera: “Yeah. It's actually so strange. Think about it the mayor, I mean, the mayor of a city. So that's so cool now.
So we're really super happy because they would, back then, they would hate us or chase us or, you know, I don't know.”
Akut: “Especially the city like Frankfurt was. Frankfurt graffiti wise got zero tolerance politics -
And we will be the first ones to paint a huge mural in the middle of the, in the center of the city.”
Hera: “Right. And here for example, this is one that is in Tel Aviv, Israel. We would -- I mean, when you go to a country like this, you can't just bomb.
You can't just paint a wall. You will never come back.”
Hera: “You won't. Okay answer?
“Anyone? You can ask him.”
Akut: - I don't need we need the microphone in the middle of the class. So go ahead.”
Akut: “Actually, the most are based, mostly are based on Jasmine's aesthetic sense and her drawing lines.
And if we add the photorealistic part in it, we mostly use us as photo references of.
A lot of these characters have got the nose or the mouth from Jasmine and my eyes so this is all our kids.”
Moderator: “You want to say something, Jasmine?”
Hera: “Yeah, the thing that's not really about us wanting to put ourselves out there.”
Akut: “But we don't have real money for real models.”
Hera: “Yeah.”
Hera: “But any volunteer, you know, just come and send your photos.
“This one. Anyone, anyone?”
Hera: “I always spend.”
Hera: “No, it's okay, actually he's really -- he reads a lot. So when we have coffee in the mornings, because when we work in the studio,
we'll always work there for a couple of days until we go back into our normal lives.
And then he will tell me something crazy that he read. And then we're talking about it.
And that's when we say, 'Maybe other people will find this interesting.' So it's we have a dialogue. And then we go to a wall, and we open up our thoughts.
“And you know when you paint outside on a wall, sometimes people add something. So they take the spray paint and they add something.
“So back in the days when I was just painting by myself, guys really didn't appreciate when I painted really tall women.
So graffiti guys would just add something with their spray cans on my huge girls. And it was always, it would always be a ***.”
Hera: “So I was thinking I guess they just can't handle women in their scene. But yeah. But it's fun.
I mean whatever you get back from the outside world it just opens your mind and makes you think around the corner.”
Akut: “Yeah, and our start before we teamed up was not the smoothest ones. It was very edgy because we both came from not really pure, original graffiti backgrounds.
And I started with picture graffiti in a time where picture graffiti was only some, picture graffiti was only something by on the side,
which was a little decoration for the letterings things.
“And we had -- for Jasmine also, she's not macho but it's needs in the scene, no one made it -
Hera: “I'm not a guy.”
Akut: “Not a guy. And so we had our hard times until somebody started to appreciate what we made.”
Hera: “Oh, yeah, right. First, when we did graffiti graffiti, and it looked like this, they would be, 'You guys, you know, this is a graffiti event. What you do is art.'”
Hera: “And we would really be thinking, 'Oh, sorry. Where should we go now?'”
Hera: “But that's -- here's one thing I want to share with you. This is actually, these are two canvases.
I think this was more important one. I'll show you both, but the one with the -- that's more important.
“This is what it sometimes feels like when you have to much information I think.
And then the spray paint is with all that pressure is actually really, I have to tell you,
it's such an outlet because when you paint with the spray paint, it forces you to say something really fast.
So it forces you to be super honest. And you cannot take the eraser. So it's really good.
“So all our work is based on experiences like being treated unfair or being just, you know, like hated because we don't do graffiti or I don't know, just.
So would always use the energy as a, you know, the next idea.
“And there's one thing, I just thought of it right now.
It really fits with this topic of a canvas that we painted after we felt like one of the gallery owners who worked with us didn't treat us right.
“So you might know this. You've seen this before. So here's a sketch on one side and then there's the canvas on the other side.
And I'll make this a little bigger because this was a story of when we started to actually sell our work because when you work with graffiti, you're not going to sell a wall.
“But this was one of the canvases we did. And we felt like those two guys who were not riding. So we felt like the horse.
So we felt like someone is on our backs and then is taking control over our art work.
And it was a very negative feeling we had. But we turned it around and made this nice canvas.
“So whatever you, whatever you have in reaction with stupid teacher who doesn't get it or parents or girlfriend, boyfriend, you go through it,
you don't cry, or okay, you cry but not too long. And then you make a painting. And those are the strongest ones.
“So that's so much better than thinking, 'Oh, what can I paint today. Oh, maybe something from the news.' But no.
Just paint what really affected you because that is super honest.
“Question?”
Questioner: “What is your greatest fear as a duo?”
Hera: “That's a good question. Thank you.”
Hera: “We really have to think about this. We weren't prepared for an audience that's really awake because we thought we were going to school.”
Hera: “No, because it's a really good question.
“Maybe it's this thing that we all do this based on friendship. And you know how it is when friends sometimes, they can get really annoying.
But the good thing is we have a very good system of detecting when the other one is not really in a good mood.
“So we need to -- although we have so much responsibility when we sign up for a show or when we promise we are going to go to Hawaii and we paint this huge wall,
but when one of us doesn't really feel it, we have to make sure to help out. We cannot be pushy and say, 'Hey, you know, this is a job. We have to be this.'
“So it's actually always friendship first. So that means we'll have to turn something down if we can't handle it while staying friends.
“So I think that's a good one.
I mean, it's not like -- you know, I don't think money's ever that important that you have to, you know, just be mean to the ones you love. So I think, yeah. All right.
“Next question.”
Akut: “But is it an answer to your question? Because I don't think that we -- “
Hera: “We're feared, I'm feared that in terms of Herakut that, yeah, I mean, the biggest fear would be to lose him in a way.”
Hera: “Cut it, cut it.
“Something. I saw a hand. Yeah.”
Questioner: “You've been in this industry long enough. What drives you?”
Akut: “Just what we meant is our hobby and yeah, the same. I think it's the same if you loved to play some kind of a sport.
It doesn't feel like a job and actually really -
background, we have to break out for other jobs. So we make this as long as we have fun with it.”
Hera: “Right. What drives us is the ability to play. Okay? Oh. So I wanted to show you this. So what drives us is one thought chasing the next.
So for example, on one side you see a canvas that we made. And I liked the shape so much that I was thinking, 'Hey, I'm just going to make a sculpture of this now.'
“And it's just this playfulness, you know. You have one thing and for example, that's why we like chopping up canvases.
So you paint something that you like, and then you just take scissors or a knife and you cut it out and you put it on the floor.
And then you have another piece, you put it on the floor, you mix it, you play with it, and then you have a stupid thought.
“So I don't know if you can even see. Can you read what it says on this canvas?”
Hera: “Get it? So this was actually funny because I thought so much about idolizing and then all that and the gold thing,
the gold calf, and the Bible, and all, you know, how it's so bad.
But I was really thinking, 'Damn, what does the calf think? Like you know, what does the whole cow family think?'
and like it comes home and then be like, 'Everyone hates me because I'm golden.'
And then the little kid is like, 'Oh, I don't want to go to school. They're so mean.'
“And then all of a sudden, the school bus, as you might notice, the one down there where it's playing with the little cows, it's actually one of those transports.
Okay, sorry. I'm explaining too much. You're so bright, you already get it.
Hera: “But this is us. This is just like one thing leading to the next. You know, we're playful.
So the question, what drives us is really that we're still kids who cannot stop commenting on the world in a stupid way.
“For example here. You know Damien Hirst? I mean, not personally, but you know his work?
Hera: “And you know Jeff Koons?”
Audience: “Yes.”
Hera: “So when those guys got, you know, so much attention five years ago or something, we, of course, we just had to comment.
. I mean, we just thought about this so much. It's so funny that how can you make so much money with those balloon blocks. So she was hollow but so sexy.
And so you see these guys -- we've always been painting dogs -- and you can see he's so admiring her, standing there with two cups like, you know, 'I brought you a drink.'”
Hera: “Like I say it's just playing, playing our stupid stuff. Right?”
Akut: “Yeah.”
Hera: “Yeah, sorry. One more question? Because we'll be here for ten more minutes.”
Questioner: “I'm sorry if you already answered this earlier or not. I guess since I saw your art, I'm curious how does the process go?
Do you like - who's going to go do this and who's going to do that? Just like the work?
Hera: “I think you can answer that.”
Akut: “We both have so different techniques that we don't need to talk about -- the outline is every time Jasmine, and the realistic part is every time mine.
And that is not really a fixed rhythm. Sometimes Jasmine starts. Sometimes me start, I start.
And it's a little back and forward until we think the canvas is maybe finished.”
Hera: “Or the wall.”
Akut: “The wall.”
Hera: “So I looked this one up. So this is the first lines that he talked about. And I'll do them.
And it's always nice to do them with spray cans because I told you, it has so much pressure that you really have to work hard and not think fast, not think too much.
“And then the next step would be him jumping in and adding those eye at the -- the natural looking stuff.
So while I'm still, you know, doing my little clever tattoos -- ”
Akut: “Everything.”
Hera: “-- he would add the layer that's like the skin. I'm the skeleton, and he's the skin always.
So I did the lines. Basically, the position, the whole gesture. And he will define how much does it need.
“So in this case, this is in Melbourne. It's in a very fancy area. And we painted this. The last thing that we would do is find a writing.
And that's something I write, but we both always agree on it. So in this case it was 'No reason to be scared.'
It was actually something we meant in many different ways because people would go shopping there, they don't have to be scared because there's this huge -- “
Akut: “But there's a -- maybe you should get the -- “
Hera: “-- graffiti.”
Akut: “-- a lot of meaning like the hall of fame. And the people started going over with the drawing.
But very interesting if you did a little research for Herakut in Melbourne, you will find us. And you will find a lot of stages where it's more and more color over the character girl.”
Hera: “And it was also for us.”
Akut: “Because we're chicken, really.”
Hera: “It was meant for us because it was the first day in Melbourne. So like we don't have to be scared because really it's so big.
And really, there's no reason to be scared of Melbourne.
There's a -- you should be worried that they fall asleep when they talk to you, but this is such a lazy place. It's crazy.
“This was another one we did there. And ah, you know, it's so funny. This was painted over by graffiti kids.
And then other graffiti kids came and sort of restored it, like fixed it.”
Hera: “It's so fun. It's one good thing about them. Okay.
“One more question? I saw someone. Oh, okay. Now, we got two. We'll do the girl first. Girl first. Always.”
Questioner: “What do you do when you lose inspiration? I mean like art block.”
Hera: “The last sentence was?”
Questioner: “I mean when you experience art block.”
Hera: “There is no such thing.”
Akut: “No, not really. It's -- “
Hera: “It's just something the pharmacy, I mean the pharma people come up with and they want to sell you pills and stuff.”
Akut: “I think our way to work is like language, so that will be writing. I just get to say any time something to write about.”
Hera: “He has always something to write about.
You know what, if you have art block or you think, it's just so funny, it's like -- no, I don't want to say it, like art with an F or something.”
Akut: “Like a -- “
Hera: “So you can just paint about that. Buy ten canvases and say, 'I have art block. I have art block. I ...” And then you, you know, sell it to someone.”
Hera: “Really, it's just don't, don't ever think that your brain is empty. It's, that's not true. Maybe you just need another medium.
Maybe you just need another brush or another hand. Try doing stuff with the left hand or something. I don't know.
“That's another thing. I think we're actually so spoiled that we assume that everything needs to be perfect. The studio needs to be perfect.
We need the paint. We need the right music. We need all of this. But when you go or you guys, when you have art block, you should go to Quiapo.
“We went there on Sunday. And then you should look at the creativity of those people with the pedibikes, no, pedicabs and how they look. It's so creative.
They just they tape and tape and whatever. And that's actually, those are so creative. So it's always, if you don't have enough material, get more.
“And don't buy expensive material. Like some of it, yes. But usually, don't, because that's, that, for me personally, there was always measuring because then I would think,
'Oh, damn. I invested so much money in this canvas, and it's so perfect and white, and I don't know what to do with it.'
“So what I did, I just go to a pizza, like pizza delivery service, I mean a pizza place,
and get the extra large box and would take wallpaper glue and newspaper and tape it, like around it, so it actually has the shape of a big canvas.
. It's very light and very cheap. And then you can just paint on it. And you have so many canvases that costs nothing.
So if you mess them up, who cares? But if you do something great, that's so cool.
“So I think it's better to have -- get from -
if you haven't put so much money on the, you know, into it. I don't know if you get it. Just try it.”
Akut: “The next one.”
Hera: “Oh, yeah. Sorry, there was one. Oh, yeah, blue shirt.”
Questioner: “Was Herakut like your initial career at the start, like your bread and butter, or did you have like several careers and then you just eventually?”
Akut: “At the time when we met, we were both in other graffiti projects involved. So I had my crew with three other guys. And Jasmine got also her crew. But -- “
Hera: “Yeah, but they sucked.”
Hera: “I had a crew with four guys who envied me, like they were jealous because I got more attention, because I was a girl.
And I think that's so bad. If you work with people who cannot be happy for you, yes, that's so bad. It's just the, I don't know, it felt really wrong.
“And I kind of have to go back to the art block thing again, art block thing here. We have experienced that so I was just -- yeah, yeah, yeah.
I just have to tell you just to be really honest with you.
I'm preaching now, but I have been there. It was all the pressure. And it was also wrong companions so it was false friends that I had who were just in the way.
“And this here is a symbol for the art block. The guy in the middle has an empty head. Okay?
So it's the emptiness you feel sometimes when you have to come up with something good and creative for an assignment.
And yeah, you just feel like you're dead. You're head is already dry and empty.
“But then I would say, make that your subject and pity yourself like the little dog.”
Hera: “Yeah. I really don't want to bore you. You know what I'd like to do. I would like for you to take all these stuff that you heard and go to work.
And create something beautiful and send us photos. So if you need inspiration, it's always kind of good to go to the old masters or artists.
Go to a bookshop. Go and check out the art work that has made it.
“So do you know that painting, 'This is not a pipe'?”
Audience: “Yeah.”
Hera: “Yeah, so this is not a piping in there. Okay, so this was the situation. So we were just thinking maybe this inspired -- who did the painting again? Magritte.
“So we were thinking of the situation that led to Magritte painting. This was probably those guys and then the guy here selling something that was not a pipe.”
Hera: “This was probably, probably how it was. And they were so stupid, you know. They didn't get it, the men.”
Hera: “And then Wharhol, okay, the whole Campbell thing. So we like watching stuff like Picturama and stuff.
So you know the crab guy, you know, he's like walk, yeah, like this? So what's his name again? I don't know. But -- “
Hera:So and then we also were thinking about, oh, you know, like all the waste that goes into the ocean, so the stupid Campbell soup and that.
And so this is our, this is a play that we had.This is the word play or just one of those mix ups. We took everything together and this is what came out.
'To some it's trash, to me it's home.' I think that's pretty much what we are. Yeah, we just make the trash our home mentally.
And there's so much trash so it's a big home.
“Anything?”
Akut: “No questions anymore? Yes.”
Questioner: “What I would like to say either one of you has any idea how you would translate it to your partner or the people you work with to make it like nicer here?
Akut: “We use our mouths.”
Akut: “Sometimes also email.”
Hera: “Yeah. It is true. I send him an email. It's very official.”
Akut: “We need to talk about something.”
Hera: “Yeah, we need to talk. But it's this talk, talk, talk.
And then don't think too much, discuss it too much because what happens when you have is one good idea, you can talk about it,
and then there's another good idea and another good idea.
And then you don't even know you already spent so much time talking that you already forgot what you wanted to do.
“So just, for this again, we paint on cardboard a lot because, as I said, it's cheap.
And this is what we did in New York. And here for example, 'I found your humor.' The guy says, 'Well, I didn't think I had lost it.'
“So this is not really an idea. It's just something that we would be talking about, then we do it right there.
We paint it right there. So sometimes it's really good not to be too philosophical, I guess.
This is how we think our humor looks inside of us, a little mean, super weird looking.
“Oh, and this is something that is a symbol for when you see too much, like when you have --
I assume most of you guys are really sensitive, emotionally open to everything, also to the bad side of things.
So when you sometimes see too much grief and pain and war, I mean, the news, it can be too much, and then you can just, then you feel overwhelmed.
And the guy here, the symbol, you might notice, he doesn't have arms. So it's another symbol for not being able to --
Akut: “-- react.”
Hera: “-- react. So he's totally -- he sees everything, but he cannot do anything about it.”
Akut: “HIs name is See More.”
Hera: “Yeah, his name is See More, right.”
Hera: “That's right. And we would always, when we do something, we always like to show the bad side of things.
Like this is the status quo. That's where we start it off. We start it from the dark spot in life.
But then we want to come to the point where we say, 'This might be the solution.'
“So in case of you feeling down and overwhelmed, you need a good friend that can be like,
'Hey, but I have hands, and I can at least stroke you. I cannot solve the problem of the world, but I can be there to pet you.'
“I don't know. You just have to -- this is always so serious, but we're actually having so much fun when we work.
“Oh, yeah. Here's one. I don't want to talk too much anymore. I have to say, there's some McDonald's bag sitting right here, and it's just screaming my name.”
Akut: “Jasmine Siddiqui.”
Hera: “It really does have my name.
“But here is -- okay, this is another fun one. I think it's so cute. No, it's just, I was really. We have the best job because we don't have to take ourselves too serious.
And I think we only have that job because we always wanted to be liked by people. And we were no athletes. So no one would be cheering if we throw the ball.
And we suck at singing. We cannot do anything really good, but be creative, painting and drawing.
“So I think that's really probably the truth that we do so much and we work so hard and through the great internet and globalization,
we finally found a family out there in the world who wants to work with us.
And I think that's, yeah, that's something, you know, money can't give you.
Akut: “Money can only make you wish.”
Hera: “Right.”
Hera: “So how about eating?”
Moderator: “Let's all give a round of applause.”
Hera: “Thank you.”