Kaos - Vandals in Motion
by Torkel Sjöstrand25 years of Swedish graffiti through the eyes of the Swedish writer Kaos!
Just as Stockholm graffiti is hotly debated, Dokument Press is releasing a new book about one of Sweden’s most famous graffiti writers. Regardless of zero tolerance or legal walls, Kaos has been active on the Swedish graffiti scene for more than 25 years.
“Writing graffiti is like an obstacle course, where you constantly have to think about how to get through. Circumstances change constantly, and you have to adapt to the prevailing ones,” says Kaos in the foreword.
In the book Kaos – Vandals In Motion, we follow Kaos from the mid-80s in Uppsala, to the much larger Stockholm.
Here is the story of the huge police descent on the Uppsala graffiti festival in 1992, on Transit Authority ticket controllers who took it on themselves to arrest graffiti writers, on almost getting killed while traveling through the tunnels of Stockholm on the roof of a subway car, on the specially-trained Falck Security guards and local police pinpointing writers. The aesthetics of graffiti are also discussed, exhibiting in galleries, the battle to get your name up more and better than anyone on the train cars of Stockholm, and his love for a derided art form. Kaos – Vandals In Motion is a book full of well-kept graffiti secrets.
Through tales of Kaos and other famous graffiti writers, Swedish history is depicted, accompanied by an impressive collection of pictures, articles and fliers. The book is a unique, warts-and-all depiction of the inside of the Stockholm graffiti scene. “I want to write. The cost to society is their choice. It’s when they clean it up that the costs arise,” says Kaos. “My time and paint are free and I don’t want them to remove the graffiti. For me, writing is not a crime, but colour and shape that you add to your environment.”
Kaos has lived with graffiti and been important for the development of Swedish graffiti in general and Stockholm’s in particular. As a part of international graffiti groups like VIM, MOA, ALL and MSN, he is also a bridge to the European graffiti world, and has participated in several international collaborations.
Today, Kaos is an established artist. HIs painting spans illicitly painted walls and trains to gallery exhibitions, commissioned artwork, fashion design and murals for large companies.
Kaos – Vandals In Motion is one of the most comprehensive books on a Swedish graffiti writer so far, and is written by Torkel Sjöstrand.
Title: Kaos - Vandals In Motion
Author: Torkel Sjöstrand
ISBN: 978-91-85639-44-1
Language: English
Pages: 176
Format: 24x25 cm
Binding: Hard cover
Illustrations: 200
Publication date: March, 2011
Price: 39,90 EUR, 29,99 GBP, 49,95 USD
