3Fala - 3f (third wave)
THE ART OF THE STREET
© copyright 2003 3fala
The team 3Fala was born in 1998 in Bielsko-Biala in the southern part of
Poland. But we began our adventure with graffiti much earlier. In the second
half of the 1980s stencils appeared with political, ecological and antimilitary
messages.
In that time some of us already ran on the streets painting our pictures on
walls.
The time passed and streets, districts, wagons and pieces of concrete have
been flooded by the second wave of graffiti. Tags, silvers and murals - made
it like real America. It was colorful but generally without paying attention
to social issues - although there were some exceptions.
We create the current, that is the third wave in Polish graffiti (this is
where the name of our group comes from) which responds to political and
social issues. We try to reach people with our message to let them notice
important issues and to have good fun from this.
From time to time we help financially some of humanitarian activities. What is more, we don't only use one kind of technique. We cut down stencils. We paint directly from a paint can. We make stickers and posters. We create our techniques like: gluing of ceramic masks, mirrors with scratched text, and stones with hammered symbols. We also use the fastening of "Kramelka", which is a wooden "peg" with a flag which is moved by wind and brings positive energy to city space. All the time we develop creatively and we invite other people to cooperation.
We have got our code: we avoid newly built walls, antique and sacred objects. Wind twists us, not drugs. We search for places in the streets in which our stencils will survive as long as possible. We do our job without orthodoxy and selling ass. We do it only when we feel like it and when we've got free time and if there is creative inspiration. The season of a year, a time of a day or a night are not important.
In general graffiti is a tool to teleport thoughts, ideas of our own posture. We do our job looking for a place in a city. We create reality filling the space with positive messages. In our space of freedom, you will not find drugs, violence and all that shit which is offered by McWorld.
We are the creators of the new wave in graffiti art. It looks like it's a renaissance of the thing well known in the history of graffiti, which is STENCIL. The message of stencil is quite simple but gives a lot of possibilities. Although it shoots it doesn't kill. It just shows values, prompts, fascinates by graphics, it's funny and at the same time it holds ambiguities back. Maybe it's okay that it shoots only the attentive. Those who can see, or might think it's important for them.
Above all for me working on the 3 WAVE team, it's committing myself to social living and interference to the coming McWorld. For me personally it's developing creativity, expression, the art of observing, and finally it's fantastic fun. Everything that comes under my small knife has got a positive message. Generally what I do is a kind of watching individual exposures of the movie which is called LIFE. Ideas of my graffiti are personal and expressive reactions to everything that is important and valuable for me in this moment.
We are a group of friends. We are a team composed of units. We are the tribe of Third Wave. We are not members of any subculture. 3 Wave is tribal culture.
We are different ages from seven to 30 years old. We have got men, women, boys, girls and children.
Third Wave group has started for creative expression and to tell people what is important for us. We also want to influence people who see our art. Finally we work to develop ourselves.
We give a piece of ourselves to this work - it's clear that it's art. But on the other hand it's not that important whether it's art or not! We want to create reality and defend some values. And we do it by art. Graffiti of 3 Wave is socially involved art.
Existence is our favorite subject. There are a lot of pictures. In some of them the meaning is the most important - the idea. The others were made because of the brilliant form.
A place, facture of a wall and color of paint (ozone friendly) mostly depend on the subject of stencil.
For example:
A comic story about pickpockets has been painted on bus stops.
The stencil "12 monkeys" always red like on the movie.
The stencil "Adrenalina rush" has been mostly painted on walls with thick
invoice - it's an easy and big graphic.
The long and narrow one about anorexia has been specially made to paint on gutters.
Generally we look for places where we do not destroy somebody's property. Then our pictures aren't repainted so fast. However we sometimes choose "hard" places, where there is risk to lose a picture very fast, but meanwhile plenty of people can see it.
Very often we bring to the streets our fascination of "traditional / official" and folk art. The inspirations are movies, music, theatre, paintings and everything that is art for us. Through graffiti, we want our recipients to take interest on art of artists who gre important to us. It's also our thanks to artists who gave us enormous experiences.
We want to create reality by creating culture. All kind of social activities more or less influence not only culture but also social living. Moreover sometimes we send some money to organizations which work with particular problems.
The art of the street is an excellent way of reaching young people. Illegally and creatively, but with a positive message. What is more is that it's relaxing and joyful to us. Besides stencils, we also make stickers, posters, mirrors and Kramelkas "peg". We always look for new kinds of techniques. We use official media but we do not come into the open. We stay in the underground.
We believe that by making street art we can help, support, teach and even more, inspire people. We have made projects against drugs, war in Kosovo and in Chechnya and occupation in Tibet. There were also pictures against violence, racism and McWorld way of living.
DESIGN NECK/CNS 4.97
