Above (artist)

ABOVE
"Give a wall street Banker enough rope." A city block long word play painting + hanging banker installation addressing the global issues of the Occupy Wall st. protests Miami, U.S.A. 2011
Birth name	( Unknown )
Born	1981 (age 30–31) California
Nationality	American
Field	Stenciling Public art Social commentary Graffiti Philanthropy Street art Installation art Printmaking Photographer Perpetual traveler word play
Training	self taught

ABOVE (born circa 1981) has been creating public art since 1995. Above is an international street artist who chooses to deliberately keep his identity concealed. Above is known for his multitude of different mediums he paints. Above is best known for his multi layer and full color social and political stencils, spinning wooden 'arrow mobile' installations, and large "word play" text based mural paintings. Above started traditional graffiti by tagging freight trains in California in 1995. At the age of 19, Above moved to Paris, France where he started painting his trademark arrow icon pointing 'above.' Since 2001 Above has self financed annual tours around the world, with each tour exploring a new part of the world and often a new medium or style of artwork. During the past 10 years Above has been successful in painting artworks in the streets of 90 cities in 60 different countries around the world.

Career

Early career (1995–2003)

Above's arrow icon painted on a wall. Paris, France 2002

Above was born and raised in California by 'hippie' parents. He states that art and music were practiced and encouraged by both parents at an early age. At fifteen year old Above started spray painting the letters A-B-O-V-E on freight trains in California. Three years later Above transitioned from painting traditional letter graffiti to an arrow symbol that pointed 'above.' In an interview he stated that he thought it was useless to paint the side of a fast moving train with letters if nobody could read it. Above said he wanted something that could be seen and understood in a fraction of a second regardless of how fast it was moving.

In 2001 at the age of 19 years old Above moved from California to Paris, France. At that time in Europe and in particular Paris, France there was a new movement called 'street art.' Paris was home to early pioneering street artists like Zevs (artist), Invader (artist), Stak, Honet, and Andre as well as Above. Above as well as the other Parisian artists were making new styles of street art that were heavily based on a character or artist logo instead of the former or traditional ways of letter based graffiti. In 2003 Above moved from Paris to California where he started his hanging wooden arrow mobiles which seemed to be the start of Above very frequent traveling and art tours.

An early stencil from Above on the side of a freight train, 2003

A chronological list of Above's travels and artworks

(2004)

A site specific wooden arrow mobile that reads "shoe/tree" hung from a tree full of shoes

With the previous years success and innovation of Above's arrow mobile project, the artist went ever farther and more impressive with his works and self titled "U.S.A. Tour" in 2004. He drove over 5,500 miles (8,900 km) across the United states hanging over 300 plus arrow mobiles in 14 major cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, and Detroit. It was in during Above's "U.S.A. tour" that he introduced his word play of using a word on each side of the spinning arrows to make a dialog. ""The emotions a person could feel from seeing these words used together can range greatly," Above generated many newspaper interviews from the cities he visited and hung his arrow mobiles. Maybe the most popular question was how Above was able to hang his arrow mobiles so high up, ""I value and respect that we all have imaginations and for me to interfere with what your imagination is creating, or thinking, would be wrong," Above also added ""Each person has their own ideas, and each idea holds its validity. No answer is wrong or absurd. This mentality corresponds and relates directly with the arrows as a whole. The arrows' subtle presence high 'above' a city has much potential to evoke a curiosity as to What? Why? Who?

(2005)

Having finished the very prolific "U.S.A. tour" Above now focused taking his artworks back to Europe for his self titled "European tour." Above was asked in an interview why he did not hang his arrow mobiles in Europe in 2005 after the successful U.S.A. tour? his is quoted saying "In the United States there are an almost infinite amount of overhead telephone wires and street cables. However I was unsure of how the different European countries "overhead" wires and supports were so I decided to evolve the wooden arrow's I made in Paris in 2002 and focus on putting these on elevated walls around Europe while at the same time observing and researching more about the overhead wires in all the countries I visit." Above traveled to 15 countries during his 4-month long European tour and put his now larger wooden fabric arrows in the capital city streets. "I counted over 500+ wooden arrows I brought with me from California to London to start off the European tour. By the end, 4-months later in Reykjavik, Iceland I had only 20 or so wooden arrow left with me." Above says in a later interview about his 2006 "Sign language tour" that "The 2005 European tour was very helpful for me to see first hand how many of the 15 countries I went to had overhead supports for the future "sign language tour." After the completion of Above's European tour he flew back to the United States to eagerly start working on his future tour, the "sign language tour."

(2006)

A stack of Above's wordplay arrow mobiles. Each wooden arrow has a word on each side of the arrow. These arrows were hung during his 26-country sign language tour around Europe.

Above returned to California from traveling Europe for 4-months. Above said in a magazine interview "As soon as I returned home to California I was already cutting wood and gathering supplies for the most challenging and enduring tour I envisioned." Above was planning his 'sign language tour' a 6-month long tour around 26 countries in Europe. Above and fellow traveler Ripo counterfeited Eurail train tickets to allow them such long travels around Europe. "I noticed the year before with the 2005 European tour when I bought my Eurail train ticket that the train conductors never paid much attention to it or the expiration date. I would show them my American passport and they would sometimes not ever bother with looking at my valid train pass." On Above's website in the F.A.Q. section he talks about and shows you how to counterfeit the Eurail pass as he did for the sign language tour. Above and friend Ripo were travel partners while each was focused on their own respective artworks during the 6-months of travels. Above credits much of his success to his friends and "street art" community who took invited him to their country, and homes.

Above's said his sign language tour was his longest and most prolific tour to date traveling Europe for 6-months long visiting 26 countries. The sign language arrows were made from wood, fabric glued onto the wood, then stenciled with a 4-letter word on each side of the wooden arrow mobile. Above's sign language tour focused almost exclusively on his wordplay sign language arrows that were to communicate with the viewer below "literally speaking, sign language is a form of communication using movements instead of sound. I found a lot of charm and power knowing that the arrow mobiles when hung are constantly moving around, most of all spinning around and around. It made logical sense to paint 1-word on each face of the arrow so conceptually speaking when the wind would spin the arrow mobile there would be a small word play dialog to anyone who looked at it." Above captured a lot of attention around Europe with his site specific arrow mobiles. "When I was stenciling the word/play on the arrow mobiles I would brainstorm to where I was going and try and think of words that would relate to each city, or country. I made some arrow mobiles in French (J'ai/faim, chez/vous), Spanish (Hace/sol, como/esta) German (uber/alle) and Italian (ciao/ciao) knowing that I was going to those countries where the viewer could relate even more to the arrow."

(2007)

A word play painting "By the time you read this I'll already be gone." Guatemala City, Guatemala 2007

In 2007 Above's artworks expanded from his smaller word play's he was using on his wooden arrow mobiles during his then sign language tour into larger painted wordplays. During Above's sign language tour he was working specifically with smaller words in conjunction with each other. Above said that after his sign language tour the previous year he wanted to keep making word play statements but with more elaborated words and in a sentence form. He continued to say in the interview that he wanted to return to painting letters as he used to when he was younger doing traditional graffiti but instead of painting his name he said he wanted to paint word plays that were site specific and the viewer could easily read and connect with. Above, like many of his past self financed tours was preparing his tour and to travel a long distance for upwards of 5 months long. "I returned to California from Europe in November of 2006 from the sign language tour. I had already known at that point that I still was very interested in using witty and site specific word plays as the body of my work. I just wanted to make them longer with 4-9 words painted in somewhat of a punchline format." Above prepared for his soon self titled "south central tour" in South and Central America's. Above worked in a restaurant in Alaska as a waiter for 4-months in 2007 to save enough money for his future 5-month long south central tour. Above invited Rodrigo Lopez and fellow artist "Ripo" to join him along the south central tour. While the 2 artists were making their own artworks along this tour Mr Lopez was to focus on the blog and documentation of the journey. Travel documenter Rodrigo Lopez said that Above, Ripo, and himself were to begin their travels in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and move down and over to Argentina, followed by Chile and navigate the groups way up through South and Central America ending 5-months later in Mexico City. A total of 18 countries are planned for this trip. No one is quite sure what will happen but we will certainly be able to read it on the walls of the cities and the pages of this blog." SOUTHCENTRAL TOUR" Although Above did not attain the original goal of 18 countries along his southcentral tour, he was able to travel and paint in 13 countries within a 5000+ mile distance from start to finish.

(2008)

Above's "south central tour" started in October, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and ended six months later in April, 2008 in Mexico City, Mexico. While in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2008 Above started to expand his word play paintings into larger sentences instead of his previous 2 word, wordplays. He said that his street works have been an evolution from the previous years works and was excited to paint larger word plays with more meaning and a site specific feeling behind them." Spanish artist El Tono and Above were robbed at gunpoint while both were painting in Buenos Aires. Above seemed to bounce back from this negative start to 2008 as he continued to travel and paint larger wordplays in Santiago, Chile, Lima, Peru, Bogota, Colombia, Panama City, Panama, San Jose, Costa Rica, Guatemala City, Guatemala, and the final destination of Mexico City, Mexico.

"Left handers are never rite...yeah right" painting in Santiago, Chile 2008

After the completion of the south central tour Above was invited to go Europe to participate in the first annual Fame Festival in southern Italy. In May, Above composed a 10 minute video called South Central tour showcasing many of the paintings and experiences he did along his south central tour featured on New york city based website Wooster Collective

"Giving to the poor" stencil in Lisbon, Portugal addressing the issue of homelessness

During the summer of 2008 Above was invited to the 1st annual Fame Festival in the south of Italy. While painting along side other artists such as Blu, Ethos, and Connor Harrington. It was in Lisbon, Portugal later that summer that Above painted his "Giving to the poor" stencil commenting on social issues of homelessness. Above is quoted on his website "Every day I walked by this bank atm machine and this particular homeless woman was sitting in the same place every day begging for money. I found it sadly ironic that just six feet away from here there were people lining up to withdraw money. The obvious social and economic clash inspired me to make this piece." Later in December 2008 Above decided to make a giclee non-profit art print where 100% of all the profits were to be donated to 2 homeless shelters. In October 2008, Above returned to his home in California, USA and continued to evolve with his stencils. During the month of October, 2008 the New york stock exchange took a drastic crash, making many businesses go bankrupt. One U.S. bank in particular, Washington Mutual especially was effected so hard the bank had to file bankruptcy. Above stenciled on the exterior of a Washington Mutual bank a replication of the NYSE bar graph with a downward sloping red line that went all the way down into the street gutter, mimicking the same results that occurred just a few days prior on the New York Stock Exchange. Above's word play artworks from 2008 and stencil works appeared to address and comment on more social, political, and time sensitive current affairs.

(2009)

"Easter A.I.G. hunt." California, 2009

"First love" painted on Valentine's Day, California, 2009.

On Valentine's Day Above stenciled "First love." This situation depicts a young girl blowing hearts to what can be assumed as her "first love" who is jumping in the air trying to grab a hold of the young girl's floating heart(s). "First love" video In April Above addressed the issue and then current scandal of the US company A.I.G. and how they took millions of American tax payers money to reward themselves. Above created a stencil situation with 4 different children searching for "Easter AIG's""Easter A.I.G. hunt" video

"The naked truth" a site specific stencil, installation, and word-play in Copenhagen, Denmark. 2009

In May 2009 Above started another tour around Europe for 4-months. That tour does not seem to have a title as with most of Above's previous self titled tours, but judging by his artworks he was focused on his political and social stencil works. Above painted and installed a piece in Copenhagen, Denmark titled "The naked truth" "The naked truth" video where he incorporated an unused cage in the street to create a shower scene. One month later Above painted a social and political stencil piece directly on the Berlin Wall. Above created a multiple layer, and color site specific stencil that is a distinct visual style from other popular stencil artists like Banksy,Dolk,and Logan Hicks. In August 2009 Above starts a benevolent project involving the homeless population of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. "What I noticed upon my arrival to Portland less than 3-months ago was the abnormally large amount of homeless people sleeping on sidewalks and under the many bridges here in Portland. I wanted to address and draw more attention to the homeless crisis here in Portland. I wanted to learn more about this homeless epidemic by listening directly to the homeless community on an individual person to person level. During the month of November, 2009 I rode my bike around Portland wanting to listen to homeless individuals that wanted to share their story and suggestion on what shelters really help out with services as well as where I should donate the money fund raised from this "Homeless not hopeless" print.

(2010)

In January 2010 Above went to La Havana, Cuba to make a site specific stencil commenting on the recent earthquakes in the neighboring country of Haiti

One week after the earthquakes in Haiti, Above painted this stencil 'Help thy neighbor' in the neighboring country of Cuba. January, 2010

Above is quoted saying in the text of his video he made about this piece " Cuba is less than 90 miles (140 km) away from Haiti making them very close neighbors. The young and courageous neighbor is embarking to Haiti to help out those who have fallen victim. The recent earthquakes in Haiti has taken over 230,000 innocent lives, wounded 300,000 and made 1,200,000 people homeless. " "Help thy neighbor" video

Persuaded by friend and fellow artist, Blek le Rat, Above and Blek le Rat did a duo indoor gallery show together at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco on May 1, 2010. This was the first and only time Above has ever worked inside a gallery space. White Walls wrote this about Above "Above has devoted the past 8 years to creating street art in 45 countries around the world, refusing to take his focus off the streets even for gallery exhibitions. It is only because of Blek le Rat’s strong desire to show alongside him that Above finally conceded to his premier indoor exhibition. Transitions is based on three themes from his outdoor works: sign language arrow mobiles, wordplay murals, and colorful figurative stencils. The overarching sentiment is one of optimism, honor, overcoming struggle, and a desire to rise above."

Above flew to Los Angeles in July and hung his celebrity arrow mobiles from overhead wires around the Hollywood district. The celebrity images seen on the arrow mobiles was a new addition to his works and transition from his previous word play to close up face shots of famous Hollywood celebrities. "Above: Hollywood" video After hanging arrows in Los Angeles Above was invited to New York City to start a new project called Gatescapes. Above was invited to paint a dozen roll down metal store front shutters in Manhattan. [1]

In August Above was invited to participate in Concrete Playground and flew to the west German city of Essen where he painted indoor and outdoor works.

Above appropriating a former Banksy stencil piece. Banksy stenciled several years prior "Because I'm worthless" and Above appropriated with a site specific art thief stealing the canvas from a frame that read "Because now I'm worth it." Paris, France September 2010

Above's stencil in Berlin next to a traffic stop light. The site specific hitchhiker has a sign reading "Have 2 paint, looking 4 ride, anywhere!! October, 2010

In September Above was in Paris, France and did a site specific stencil that was of an art thief stealing a Banksy canvas. Above did an appropriation of a former stencil done by the English stencil artist Banksy where as the rat was depicted painting the new phrase 'because now i'm worth it." The video is here where Above explains more about the piece and meaning behind it. "Because now I'm worth it" video

After his stencils in Paris, Above went to Berlin, Germany to paint what seems to be perceived as a self depiction of him (a hitchhiker) and his lifestyle of being addicted to painting and traveling. Above made a quick video showing the piece and is quoted saying "I have travel addition problems and can't stop painting or traveling for more than a few weeks before going crazy." "Looking 4 ride...anywhere!!" video

(2011)

in early January, 2011 Above flew to Australia for his self titled 'Down under' tour. That same month the northern city of Brisbane, Australia was flooded with intense summer rains. Above decided to fly from Sydney to Brisbane to make some site specific stencils around the situation of the Brisbane floods. "I tried my best not to make fun at this drastic and horrific situation but instead to empathize and portray just how serious and large the scale of these floods had been with the relative depiction of Noah's ark being sunk due to the floods. In February Above did his first Australian solo show in Sydney. The show's title was 'Here today gone tomorrow' and all the artworks were based around life, death and the fast paced world we live in. Above's older brother had died in an accidental car crash just 3 months prior and the solo show's works and theme dealt with the fragility of life, death and how impor­tant it is to live each day to the fullest.

Marilyn Monroe was 1 of the 15 large celebrity arrow's Above did for his solo show in Sydney.

"The state­ment ‘Here today gone tomor­row’ has been ring­ing in my head like a fuck­ing bro­ken record with no DJ to stop it. The skip­ping record keeps play­ing over and over get­ting louder and louder with each new rota­tion. Recently I’ve been hit with a lot to say the least. Less than 3 months ago my older brother was killed in an acci­den­tal car crash at the young age of 32. Life can be beau­ti­fully frag­ile and amaz­ingly raw. You never know when your num­ber is going to be called. You’ re here today, then gone tomor­row. I’ve been con­sis­tently trav­el­ing the world and the theme “ here today gone tomor­row” applies to how I have been liv­ing my lifestyle for the past 10 years. It’ s hard to say good­bye when trav­el­ing and even harder when you don’ t even get the chance. I was deeply moved by the loss of my brother to make the new body of art­works that dealt with the fragility of life, death and how impor­tant it is to live each day to the fullest." Above translated this theme into his artworks via large wooden arrows with a collage element and screen printed image of a celebrity that had died at an early age. Above choose celebrities who had died no older than 36 years old to represent in his body of work. Such celebrities were Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, and Princess Diana to name a few. Above's solo show in Sydney was very well received and the whole show sold out on the opening night. This video shows some of the process clips of the artworks for that show being made. "Here today gone tomorrow" video

Gallery

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  Above's arrow icon painted on 2 vans. Paris, 2002

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  'ABOVE' graffiti painting in Vienna, Austria. 2005.

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  An example of a site specific arrow mobile that reads "hard / boil " next to a large egg sculpture in Vilnius, Lithuania 2006

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  A word play painting from Above that reads "trying 2 put 2 and 2, 2gether." San Jose, Costa Rica 2008

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  Above's non-profit fundraiser poster titled "HOMELESS, NOT HOPELESS" where Above worked with the homeless population in Portland, Oregon. Above sold out every print and donated 100% of all the profits to a homeless shelter in Portland, U.S.A.

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  "The naked truth" site specific stencil, installation, and word-play in Copenhagen, Denmark. 2009

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  An example of the celebrity arrow mobiles hung in Hollywood, Los Angeles during his 'mash up tour' July, 2010

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  A painted store front gate with Above's arrows in New York City, 2010

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  A wooden arrow placed between 2 cameras and their blind spot. Paris, France, 2010

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  "Bridge the divide" a site specific stencil/installation on the Berlin Wall. Berlin, Germany. 2009

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  "It takes 2 to tango" Above incorporated the human form in place of the letter 't' for this wordplay. Miami, U.S.A. 2011

Bibliography

Above:Passport book

Above:Passport book

Above: Passport is a 156 page book made by ZERO+ publishing documenting the artworks and global travels of Above in over 60 countries and 90 cities spanning from 2004–2010

• ZERO+ Publishing, Above: Passport (2011) normal edition ISBN 978-1-937222-03-1

Boxed edition of Above:Passport (edition of 200) ISBN 978-1-9377222-04-8
Deluxe edition of Above:Passport (edition of 15) ISBN 978-1-9377222-05-5

Further reading

Books featuring interview/works from Above

• in English
• The Art Of Rebellion 3, Christian Hundertmark, Publikat Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-939566-29-8
• Without Reason, Ilovewr, Without Reason, 2006, ISBN 978-0-646-46066-6
• The Art Of Rebellion 1, Christian Hundertmark, Publikat Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-9807478-2-0
• Writing: Urban Calligraphy And Beyond, Markus Mai, Die Gestalten Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-89955-003-0

• UNTITLED. III, GARY SHOVE, CARPET BOMBING PUBLISHING, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9559121-53
• Colors Zoo, Maxime Courtin, Colorzoo publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-84-609-0285-0
• Graffiti World, Nicholas Ganz, Thames & Hudson, 2004 ISBN 978-0-500-51170-1
• Street Logos, Tristan Manco, Thames & Hudson, 2004, ISBN 978-0-500-28469-8

• Street Art: The Spray Files, Louis Bou, Harper Collins, 2005 ISBN 978-0-06-083338-1
• Izastickup, Bo130, Microbo, TheDon, Drago, 2005, ISBN 978-88-88493-33-6
• UNTITLED, II, GARY SHOVE, CARPET BOMBING PUBLISHING, 2010 ISBN 0-340-92059-9
• The Art Of Rebellion 2, Christian Hundertmark, Publikat Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-9809909-4-3
• NYC BCN: Street Art Revolution, Louis Bou, Collins Design, 2006, ISBN 978-0-06-121004-4
• UNTITLED, I, GARY SHOVE, CARPET BOMBING PUBLISHING, 2009 ISBN 0-955-91210-5
• Sticker City, Claudia Walde, Thames & Hudson, 2007, ISBN 978-0-500-28668-5
• Urban Interventions, R. Klanten, M. Huebner, Die Gestalten, 2010 ISBN 978-3-89955-291-1

• in French

• Kriss Montfort, Hip art the french touch, éditions Kitchen 93, 2004, (see p. 81) ISBN 2-85980-002-6
• Collectif, Une Nuit, éditions Kitchen 93, 2007, (see p. 72) ISBN 2-85980-007-7
• Fabienne Grevy, Paris Graffiti, Editions de la Martiniere, 2008, ISBN 978-2-7324-3731-6

External links

• ABOVE's website ABOVE's Website
• VIMEO movies Videos from Above's street artworks
• ABOVE Facebook Fan club page Facebook fan page
• Flikr ABOVE group Photos of Above's artworks photographed from people around the world.
• Youtube videos of ABOVE's "sign language tour" 2006 YouTube videos of Above's artworks
• travelogues via Woostercollective website A travelogue diary from Above sponsored by the Woostercollective.com website