Читать книгу Street Knowledge - King ADZ - Страница 17

www.brokenfingaz.com

I drive 90 km north of Tel Aviv to the city of Haifa. On the way I pass gas stations with giant dragons sat on the roof breathing neon fire onto the peeps filling up their cars and state-of-the-art shopping malls and entertainment complexes. There is nothing backwards about Israel, even out of the cities. I’m in Haifa to hang out with the Broken Fingaz, a multi-faceted, multi-talented, young and restless art and music crew who virtually run the street scene in Haifa single handedly. And after I marvel at their fucking cool shop in the mixed Massada area, they take me downtown to the Arab part of town for some killer hummus.

‘We attempt to recreate our personal twisted world into our art. Most of the time what comes out is a lot of colors, organs, fat people and animals on acid. We started as part of the first generation of graffiti writers in Israel at the beginning of the decade. Five years ago we started a line of underground parties, and designed all the posters and flyers for the events. That was our first serious experience with graphic design, and slowly we started to design most of the flyers and posters for parties and shows in Tel Aviv. From there we evolved to other media such as T-shirts and plush dolls, screen prints, fine art and eventually opening our own gallery and shop, keeping it DIY at all times.’

Not only do they design the posters, they host the events in Haifa and then promote the shit outta whatever, as they believe in what they do. It’s been a while since I’ve met such an enthusiastic and energized bunch of kids, and this is a breath of fresh air for street culture.

‘Street culture means having an edge, style, being a part of your local community. It’s about putting your shit outside, not only through the media and the web. The fact that street art gets so hyped these days just makes it possible for us to actually make a living from stuff we like doing anyhow.

‘We grew up in Haifa City, a true old school town. It’s like San Francisco of the Middle East, only without the hipsters and the gays, just the homeless and the old hippies. On one hand growing up in this gypsy town made it hard to be exposed to many things we liked in this culture; on the other hand, being a pioneer and playing on fresh ground made the game much more self motivating and gave us the opportunity to see the scene growing from zero to really cool and artistic.

‘Our influences are, hash, music, weird people, growing up in a fucked-up militant country, hummus, skateboarding, porn, Haifa….’