Barry McGee (Twist) Interview
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
picture taken from graffiti.org
Below is an interview I did (via email) with Barry Mcgee aka Twist aka Ray Fong in early 2000 for Pound magazine and I thought it would be good to share. I am a huge fan of his and I’m thankful he was kind enough to do the interview. I plan to bring more art interviews to the site in the future (hopefully once a week) so keep checking back.
If you aren’t familiar with his work obviously you don’t follow graffiti or lowbrow art. He is a big name in both and has been for quite a few years. Although he is skilled doing letters he is known for his characters, typically sad men faces.
What attracted you to graffiti?
How it would magically appear overnight, similar to a billboard. There was also this kid that would tag, “CUBA” at every punk rock show I would go to. I was attracted to this lo-fi form of communication
What year did you start bombing?
Reagan/Bush era, 1985
When you first started who are some artists you looked up to?
Plato, Dream from Oakland. Dug TMF, UB40 from S.F. They all had a strong bombing ethic.
Why did you choose the name Twist?
At the same time i started graffiti I was hanging out with skinheads and mods riding Lambrettas and Vespas and acting stupid. I believe I lifted it from a “mod-zine” of that era, and you can rest assure, I still hate the name Twist.
Is that why you paint so many characters instead of Twist?
I dislike the name Twist as opposed to great names such as Mark Surface, OD64, Total Fake, Shaheed. I hate characters also.
A lot of the characters you paint have a depressing feel to them. Is that a reflection of how you feel when you paint?
Sometimes I cry so hard when I paint, I can hardly finish.
What are some other names you used before Twist?
Slam, Disarm, Kingpin, MDMA, all terrible names, reflecting the mid-80’s.
I have read that when you went to the San Francisco Art Institute that you didn’t want to bring your graf with you. You wanted to learn more about art as a whole, but did going to art school improve your graffiti?
Art school improved my understanding of art. Graffiti, which is not art, to me, it can only be improved by doing tons of it, with out permission, outdoors, not in some dumb art school.
You don’t consider graffiti art?
I think that graffiti has some ‘art-like’ qualities, but I think it is something far greater than this petty term “art’. When I hear the word ‘art’, I think of safe, middle aged, has-beens, such as myself, painting 2′x 2′ canvases in the quiet safety of their well lit Soho studio. In contrast, that damn kid out racking paint, catching tags on the way to his ’spot’, cutting holes in fences, stepping in human poop, painting in complete darkness, and then coming back the next day to get a photo to find the piece has been buffed, sounds more like hell than art.
When you were first approached by galleries you weren’t interested, why did you change your mind?
I’ve have always been interested in the non-profit galleries. They are like the independent record labels. They,in idea, are alternatives to the commercial galleries. I was raised by non-profits. My first commercial art gallery show was in 1998.
Do people in the art world embrace graffiti or just enjoy individual artists?
If they can make a buck on it, they embrace it, if not it remains a threat, which I like.
When you work in a gallery do you try to do something different from what you do on the streets because you have more time to paint and create?
Yes. I also try to keep both worlds separate.
Why do you paint on other objects such as bottles?
They always seem to be laying in front of my studio. The condoms and needles are too gnarly to paint on.
Why do you think society as a whole doesn’t view graffiti as art?
The society as a whole, has it’s head so far up it’s ass, I could care less what society thinks. This is the same society that praises such mediocre acts as Brittney Spears and Limp Bisquick, or whatever the fuck their name is. Fuck society, this isnt for them anyway. They’ll just turn us into some stupid commercial selling Pepsi.
Who are some current graf artists that you enjoy?
MQ, Espo, Grey, Amaze, Reas, Revs, Revok, and that guy who paints those whales everywhere (note this turned out ot be David Choe).
Finally, what are your future plans as an artist?
Overdose.
The bottle pic used in this post was taken from TheArtCollectors.com and the second pic was taken from Flickr user sketchypad
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