austr alia

Meggstext by lou pardi

42 43

featured one of Meggs’ ‘devil kids’, which were stencil pieces he was doing at the time. His first foray into commercial fashion was when Stüssy sponsored Meggs’ second solo show Own Worst Enemy at Dont Come gallery (formerly in Melbourne) in September 2008. Stüssy then offered him the opportunity to do an artists’ series of T-shirts (four designs, four tees, limited to 100 each). “I haven’t chased any commercial work so far, but when an opportunity is offered, I think about whether it’s a company I respect, has a strong work history and is a good fit for my artwork and direction,” he says.

He is now working on producing his own T-shirt design, based on a recent fine art piece. “It’s a guy getting held by the scruff of the neck and there’s Astro Boy coming out of his head,” he describes. It’s typical of Meggs’ work exploring human nature. “It is an underlying factor that I work with, the duality of personality,” he explains. “I’m a Libran. I struggle with the idea of the balance, because what defines the balance? What makes a decent person in life? What makes you a good person?

Everyone has a dark side. I read this book [The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell] and it was talking about the power

“About four years ago I stopped doing work as a full-time designer and went freelance. I just became a bit frustrated with commercial graphic design. I thought, ‘If I really want to make a living off art, I have to take a risk, take the massive pay cut and just focus on it’ and it’s been good – I’m glad I did it,” says Meggs.

With a strong background in street art as part of Melbourne’s Everfresh crew, plus a qualification in graphic design, Meggs was well placed to take the step, but it has been a rollercoaster. “It’s definitely been an uphill climb, there have been slow patches. People are really responsive to your art, but then you may not make any sales, then you have commissions out of the blue,” he says. Meggs’ street art can now be found in London, New York, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo, and he has also contributed to numerous group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. More notably, his work has sold through Artcurial Auction House (Paris) and is included in the National Gallery of Australia’s permanent ‘works on paper’ collection.

Apart from in streets and galleries, Meggs’ work also appears on another canvas – that of the T-shirt. His first foray into tees was in 2005, with Self Titled, a small boutique label run by friends of his (which appeared in T-world #01). The tee

Meggs’ street art has made its way to fine art and fashion. Exploring the duality of the human psyche, it provides Meggs with an artistic outlet, therapy, and a livelihood.

44 45

“What makes a decent

person in life? What makes you a good person? Everyone

has a dark side.” – meggs

Mike Dirnt. “Typography is one of my favourite things in graphic design because you can be quite unique in that process,” he says. It’s the meaning and history of phrases as well as the typographical challenge that attracts him. “I love those pop culture references. I also love the thought of how poignant you can be; a three-word phrase can mean so much, like ‘give or take’.” The works also allow Meggs to reflect on himself. “It helps me. It helps me purge a lot of inner energy and stuff,” he says. The next tee project for Meggs is an upcoming collaboration with Addict in the UK, to be released in September 2010. The artist series of four tees features works from Meggs’ Own Worst Enemy solo fine art show. LP

www.houseofmeggs.com

of context. It talked about this crazy experiment. They had a whole bunch of people who were all law-abiding citizens of society and were all fairly normal. They put them in a mock prison and said these people are the prisoners and these are the prison guards. They found that these people, who would normally be friendly, moral people, as prisoners would start to rebel a lot and at the same time those people who were guards would get carried away with their authoritarian roles. It’s the power of the conditions.”

Whilst the themes of heroes and villains and human duality remain, Meggs’ style progresses. “I’m definitely mixing it

up – you’re always evolving

I think,” he says, “I’m starting to get a bit more abstract in the work and using typography more and using personal photo references now. The graffiti stuff for me is now becoming quite different to the gallery work.”

Meggs grew up in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and is nicknamed after comic strip character Ginger Meggs (an Australian classic dating back to 1921) who shares his flame-red hair. The pair also share a propensity for mischief. “My parents are totally supportive of pretty much anything I do,” says Meggs, “as long as it’s not breaking the law, which some of it is. They question that.” Whilst Meggs’ fine art evolves, he still remains close to his street art roots. His home town of Melbourne is host to many Everfresh and Meggs pieces, some on commissioned walls and some in public. He is conflicted in his view on street art. “It’s an interesting thing. I can’t justify it all. Some of it could be validly considered

vandalism. For me, what I try to

do with my stuff is to make things visually interesting and create a really lively city. I think challenging boundaries is important too. Laws are there to protect people and help them, but they can be questioned. Graffiti can contribute so much positive that I think you may have to accept the negative aspects rather than get rid of the whole thing. Even doors that are covered in tags, I enjoy them. I just think that there’s a history to that, there’s stories there, it’s about people being involved in their space. I think if someone scratched their tag across the front of a restaurant, that’s not cool because you’re fucking with someone else’s thing. I know you can say, ‘What about the door next door? That’s someone’s door.’ But I believe there is that grey area of public space. There can be neutral territory.”

With urban density increasing around him, Meggs also considers the future. “Ultimately our city spaces are going to become so expensive, who will then control the public space? Realistically, who is going to own those buildings? It’s going to be such a small percentage of the people,” he suggests.

Many of Meggs’ gallery pieces include phrases, like the ‘Bend or Break’ piece which sold to Green Day bassist

2005 Self Titled Meggs’ Devil Kids stencil pieces

June 2006 Villain adapted Jack of Spades character

March 2008 Nice Produce stencil interpretation of He-man’s

sidekick Orko smoking a blunt

October 2008 Uniform Graffiti Demon character

April 2009 Stüssy Artists’ series tees, four designs featuring

illustrations of tweaked comic imagery (eyeball theme) limited to 100 T-shirts each

June 2009 vna magazine limited-edition promo tees featuring

a photo of a Meggs paste-up

September 2010 Meggs x Addict four-tee artist series featuring works from

Meggs’ Own Worst Enemy solo show.

WASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE TEE

MEGGS X ADDICT JUST JOKING TEE

MEGGS X ADDICT BUT TRULY TEE

MEGGS X STÜSSY HOLY

MOLY TEE

Meggs on cotton

MEGGS X STÜSSY

EYES ON THE PRIZE TEE