Myne
Myne’s abstract style makes his pieces standout in the Irish graff scene.
We chatted with him about how he got involved in the Irish scene, transforming perceptions of graffiti and his views on Dublin’s approach to public spaces.
9 min. read
Myne is a Dublin-based graff artist boasting a sharp, abstract style and a deep appreciation for the true value of graffiti. His initial interest in lettering came from a unique source: music. Myne spotted that band logos tended to map to their genre, and so began exploring this whole dimension of art, drawing out his own name in different styles and starting to think in terms of pieces and tags.
"I’ve been a music obsessive my whole life, but studying my parents record sleeves was my initial introduction to art. A particular standout in my memory was the gatefold War Of The Worlds soundtrack LP, and that aesthetic has remained very close to my heart ever since. Curiosity about all kinds of music exposed me to different typographic styles that captured my attention more than the music a lot of the time. I always found it curious that punk bands would have a generalised logo style, metal and its subgenres another, and hip-hop another again. In my early/mid-teens started experimenting with just writing my real name in the style of the Jeru Tha Damaja or Nas font or whatever, I didn’t see that much graff until after I’d started painting, and most of what I did see was on album artwork as opposed to real life.
Phats and I started painting in 1997 without any clue that there was a scene in Ireland, it seems so strange to say that now but this was long before I knew of or had access to the internet. We quickly became aware of tags that we’d see around our area but it was still a long time before we knew that there was actually a lot going on at that time, we were just toy teens (or at least I was, Phats’ development was a lot quicker), painting spots that our mates and people who we went to school with would see.
We discovered the seminal and vital book Subway Art which really ignited our passion and would scour magazines in Tower Records looking for pictures of graffiti, finding some in Hip Hop Connection and While You Were Sleeping, and then getting our minds blown by Graphotism magazine. In 1999 we met a dude who wrote Dizme, he was our age but way better than I was and way more knowledgeable. He had a crew with a guy who wrote Sky, the crew was called MSO. Through these guys, we learned a lot more about spots, learned about other writers, learned some of the history of graffiti in Ireland, but I didn’t take it that seriously for a long time. I just loved spending nights wandering and painting. It was far more about the nights and hanging with my mates, the painting was more a by-product for me.
In 2002 Dizme took his own life, and since then Phats, Sky, later Scie (James Earley), and I have remained a tight trio who still love to paint together whenever we can, though as we get older that’s a bit more difficult to coordinate."
Myne’s pieces are quality, somehow simultaneously soothing with their balance of shape and colour but also challenging you to make sense of the structure. The artwork evokes sci-fi imagery like spaceships, galaxies or highly advanced mega-cities, even though the pieces are ambiguous enough to leave it up to you to make your own connections.
"It’s tough to say what exactly influences my pieces. A lifetime of subconscious influence maybe, I still love the vast majority of graffiti, but I'm most drawn to artists who operate outside of established norms, whether that’s fine art, music, graffiti, whatever. The straight stuff can be great but it’s the weird stuff that excites me the most.
I’ve had a life-long interest in sci-fi imagery, usually drawn more towards the dystopian than utopian. In my late-teens/early 20’s I got big into abstract painters like Ruscha, Motherwell, Rothko, and I still far prefer non-representational painting; graffiti-wise Jor was a massive influence, and to then end up sharing so many great painting experiences with him was really cool. Other writers who blew my mind were Dondi, Skeme, Delta, Revok, Zeser, Saber, in fact a lot of the MSK crew, Kem, Ges, Shok One, SheOne, O-Two, Twist, Roids... man, that list could go on for quite some time, I’ll stop there.
It’s important for me not to paint the same piece twice. I’m constantly trying to find new ways of twisting a letter, trying to find new texture or colour ideas, and I suppose influence can come from whatever I’m digging at any given time, whether it’s a novel I’m reading or an obsession with Deborah Remington paintings. If it’s an exploration that I find interesting then it doesn’t much matter to me how something turns out, but the enjoyment of losing myself in the experimentation involved along the way."
It’s evident that Myne has developed a sophisticated approach to his art. This won’t stop some people who walk past his pieces thinking they’re low-minded vandalism, though. We wondered what he thought about this contradiction: where on the spectrum from high art to destructive scribbling does he put graffiti?
"I love almost all of it, even the shit stuff. I don’t consider it all high art, in fact that runs the gamut across all the expressions of graffiti, to my taste some tags are high art and some murals are “vandalism”. I mean that as an aesthetic preference, just because something is illegal and only took a few seconds or a few minutes to complete doesn’t mean it can’t be incredibly powerful, equally just because someone spends days or weeks on a mural doesn’t mean that it will inspire any emotional response in me.
Most of all I think that a city without graffiti would be a very sinister thing. A lot of what motivated my early interest in graffiti came from an anti-authoritarian impulse. Counter-cultures and subcultures have always offered the greatest riches, the impact of these then gets diminished by, for example, corporate bastardisation of punk aesthetics in a McDonald’s ad, or countless examples of shameless theft of graffiti writer’s work used in fashion shoots.
Not to sound overly fatalist, but I think society is incredibly fucked up, I think that questioning power structures is vital, I think any act that exists outside of the prescribed norm is to be celebrated. I can understand why someone might not love having some toys tag on their front wall, but all manner of far more egregious crimes are happening in plain sight - governments mismanaging public funds, corporate and political nepotism, social media companies mining our data, racism, sexism, homophobia, gender inequality, horrific systems such as Direct Provision, the housing crisis, the list goes on- if graffiti is something that really bothers you given the state of the world in 2020 you need your head checked."
Well said. It seems obvious to us at FAC that graffiti isn’t just a legitimate form of art, it’s a basis for reforming our approach to public spaces. Graffiti is, at its fundamental level, both democratic and meritocratic. Anyone can have their say, provided they have access to a marker or a can of paint. Ultimately, the better the work, the better spots you can go and paint in. We need this for public spaces too: everyone citizen should be able to have their say, but only the best ideas should be put in action in the biggest spaces.
"I’d definitely love to see more space for public art, and for different types of public art- I'd love to see some stuff that doesn't just fulfil the acceptable face of street art. However, Dublin has felt more like a building site than a city these last few years. I know that as a city continues to grow it will always be a work-in-progress, but some things I personally would like to see- a stop to more hotels being built, better support for independent business, the use of public space for the public’s benefit, certainly more pedestrianisation, more cyclist-friendly roads, more green space... Having said that I think that there are systemic issues that are of more importance, better supports for drug users, people with mental health issues and homeless people being the prime areas that spring to mind. A city needs to value its inhabitants above all else."
The Irish graff scene has grown and grown recently, but social media has infiltrated this culture, like it has all others. Myne offers his views on what writers could work on to keep things fresh.
"Projection is not my strong suit, so I have no idea what direction things will go. There is some interesting work being done on walls, some amazing work on panels, good bombing, some really great studio work being done by writers… I’d like to see people discard the rulebook a bit more no matter their practice, but I’m sure as long as people continue to paint there’ll be all manner of masterpieces and eyesores for the public to enjoy or complain about.
I think Instagram is a cool thing in many ways - being able to see so much incredible work from around the globe, being able to directly contact people so easily, however, chasing likes shouldn’t become any aspect of your motivation when painting, do what interests you and what feels right to you, try not to act tough or be an asshole."
Finally, we asked Myne: any writers who need a shout out?
"My crew-mates Phats and Scie. Some of the best times of my life have been spent travelling and painting with these guys. Shout out to Jor for always being mad supportive when I was totally wack; to all the sound heads I’ve shared good times with and anyone else who’s doing their thing with honesty and integrity."
Check out a gallery of Myne’s pieces below and give him a follow over on Insta.
Conall Heussaff
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