Dumbo risked life and limb becoming Italy's most famous graffiti artist. Will a new life in Brooklyn cramp his wild style?
Today, on the streets of Milan and Rome, the walls are alive with graffiti. Even though vandalism now carries up to a two-and-a-half-year jail term, Italian graffiti artists such as Panda, Shampo and Dumbo continue stamping Italian cities with their graphics--and have become international stars.
Dumbo, who perhaps is Italy's most famous graffiti artist, released a book this October: Dumbo: Acts of Vandalism and Stories of Love, documenting fifteen years of his work and his love affair with Kyre Chenven, his American wife. Thirty-one-year-old Dumbo, whose real name is Ivano, recently moved to Brooklyn with Kyre and one-year-old son. Bene caught up with the self-proclaimed "rascal" at a New York City playground to discuss the book--and the trials of being an Italian graffiti artist.
Bene: When did you first write graffiti?
Ivano: When I was twelve. I saw photos of New York street signs in a magazine. The letters were so different from the ones I saw in Milan, which were all old, square and European. It was exciting to see those dancing letters--like ballerinas. So, with graffiti, I felt like, Jesus, you can give life to letters!
Does vandalism give you an adrenaline rush?
Ivano: Sometimes. I need that rush. But now that I live in New York, I don't care to do tags anymore.
Why not?
Ivano: I don't have the same relationship with the city; in Milan, I knew every single building, every single street.
Kyre: When you used to visit me in New York, you did tags, so maybe living here has changed you.
Ivano: New York is depressing me. No, I'm kidding. But I'm serious. I'm kidding. Serious. Kidding. Serious. Kidding. (Laughs)
Do you ever get the urge?
Ivano: A few weeks ago, we went out for a drink and the baby fell asleep, and suddenly, I wanted to do it. I was so mad at myself for not bringing a pen. I searched in the garbage for something to write with! Sometimes the monkey comes back.
Do you think Italian graffiti differs from American graffiti?
Ivano: It's a global art. Everybody bites everyone else's style. If you fly from Milan to Sweden, you see the same graffiti. The "K" that everyone is doing now, or the "S."
Why is there more graffiti in Italian cities than there is in New York?
Ivano: In New York, graffiti started in the 1970s, so the energy has already gone. In Italy, the peak was about 1992 or 1993, so it's still fresh there. Secondly, when Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York, he hired one policeman for every four people, so it was a lot harder to vandalize.
I'm impressed you know New York politics.
Ivano: Yes, I'm informed! Also, in Italy, kids are angrier at the government and society. Here, kids walk around with shirts that say, "I heart NY." It's impossible to imagine that in Milan.
How do you feel about graffiti writers who tag historical monuments such as the Duomo?
Ivano: It bothers me; I won't do that. But I'm not surprised. Human beings have always built on the past.
Much of Italian culture seems based on honoring the old.
Ivano: Yes, that's why young people move. But youth is tired. We need new blood soon, or it's going to be a problem.
Kyre: You definitely feel that frustration in the young people. I mean, it's nice that Italy has strong traditions--
Ivano: Sometimes it's beautiful! You can find families who have been making cheese the same way for two hundred years.
Major American companies, such as Nike, are now paying graffiti artists to consult on what's "cool." Why do you think they're so interested in graffiti?
Ivano: I have been approached for this before. They're not interested in graffiti, they are interested in money. And graffiti is money. Graffiti sells to young people.
Do you think it's exploitative?
Well, banks and companies sponsor museums and arts foundations. So, if you want to make a living doing what you love, and someone wants to give you money to do that, just do it.
Kyre: Just do it!
Ivano: Ha! You must work for Nike.
What artists inspire you?
Ivano: My friend and graffiti artist Panda.
He's in your book.
Ivano: He writes graffiti on every surface; he's obsessed. But during the day, he's a social worker who takes care of kids with mental problems. I'm really interested in that double life.
What about non-graffiti artists?
Ivano: I like Andy Goldsworthy in Scotland. His relationship with the country is amazing; he works only with natural materials: leaves, sticks, stones, even sheep hair. Also, the cover of my book is a takeoff of Magritte's The Lovers, where sheets are covering the couple's faces. On my book, Kyre and I wear masks. Magritte and I had something in common. I loved Kyre and vandalism, so I had to hide. He loved a woman who was with another man, so they are hidden.
Do you miss Italy?
Ivano: Every day.
Do you think about going back?
Ivano: I don't want to go back, but I think about going back. That's why I'm living in this stato confusionale--how do you say?
State of confusion.
Ivano: The hardest thing for me was leaving behind everything important, so I could come here for something more important [points to Kyre and their son Leroy].
What do you miss most about Italy?
Ivano: La mama!
What do you like about New York?
Ivano: When you're riding the elevated train into Chinatown, you can see all the tags on the buildings. I like the plastic bags waving in the wind and the bad smell of Canal Street. I'm interested in how New Yorkers are obsessed with their careers. And I like the Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn sky. And Americans' passion for cycling and how much they like Italian bicycles.
Why did you choose the tag "Dumbo"?
Ivano: Have you seen the movie Dumbo? At the end, he is reunited with his mother and becomes super famous. I also chose it because it's international--everyone can read it.
Why did you do the book?
Ivano: I'm closing that period of my life--doing graffiti and being a rascal. I'm ready for something new.
So you're looking for a new artistic path in New York?
Ivano: Yes. It's not easy; a lot of young people are trying to do the same thing.
But they don't have a book!
Ivano: That's true.
Graffiti Glossary
BITE
To copy another writer's style. This is frowned upon, even though writers often borrow imagery from cartoons and comics.
TAG
Basic form of graffiti. It is a stylized personal signature in marker or spray paint.
WILD STYLE
A form of graffiti composed of complicated interlocking letters, arrows and embellishments.
WRITER
A graffiti artist.
Definitions courtesy of www.graffiti.org.
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