Montana LOOKBOOK #08 / 2023

An ongoing project by Pablo Allison
In one of his projects called “The Words of the
Beast“, the artist focuses on three elements that
have at some point all entered a crossroads and
merged into one communal direction. Those three
elements are graffiti, migration, and photography.
Based on the experience had by migrants traveling from
Central America, through Mexico, and into the USA and
Canada as their final destination, Allison’s creative
journey started in 2018 with his own personal experiences
of freight train hopping. Experiences that soon
brought him into the thick of the migrant trail which
leads most migrants to the USA where they all expected
to find peace, safety, and a better standard of living.
→ Migrantes Valientes
(Brave Migrants).
Allison's nod of solidarity
to his immigrant
colleagues.
↙ “RESIST” just one
example of using
empowering words in
his artwork.
The clock hands have turned around countless
times since his preoccupation with migration
began. As too has his use of the spray can as a tool to
write the words that express the feelings lived by illegal
immigrants on a daily basis. Strong words that impregnate
his pictorial space like Migrantes Valientes (Brave
Migrants), Compassion, Fear, Exile, Guilty, Power,
Difference, and Unite to name a few. Words that with the
support of Montana GOLD and BLACK cans have
brought graffiti style writing to a new compassionate
home. Due to the multifaceted levels of Pablo Allison’s
work, we figured it was only right to speak to the artist
himself regarding his own experiences and how he
transforms them into the artwork he makes. Focusing
on Graffiti on one hand, and Photography on the other,
this is what Allison had to say.
An interview with Pablo Allison
By documenting this experience Allison has
been at the coal face of the migrant journey. The
common thread for all was escaping extreme violence
and poverty. The glue holding this experience together
for Allison was the camera and carefully chosen words
that he painted in the universal language of Graffiti.
The glue holding this experience
together for Allison was the camera
and carefully chosen words that he
painted in the universal language of
Graffiti.
Allison’s choices to ride these freight trains that transport
goods from Mexico to USA and Canada, also
known as “The Beast”, put him in some extremely
dubious situations. Situations that he realized were
faced by these nomadic passengers every day. Situations
like being robbed at gunpoint, being intercepted
by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers
(ICE), and being detained for over a month. Experiences
that enabled him to further his documentation of the
obstacles and hardships faced by migrants as they
attempted to make their way to so-called freedom.
Montana Cans
Your work today has such a strong connection to
migration that we know little about you as a graffiti
artist. What came first, graffiti or photography?
Pablo Allison
Both came at the same time though before I started to
paint graffiti, I was documenting whatever graffiti-wise
existed in the streets of Mexico City around 1995/1996.
Making a parallel of how important photography has
been to graffiti, I think we are more than aware of the
significance of a camera in the graffiti culture. Without
photography we would not have any documentation of
this art form. Books like Subway Art and Spray Can Art
play a quintessential role to this worldwide art form.
Graffiti and photography have been my passports into
worlds I perhaps would have found difficult to penetrate
otherwise.
MC
Where and how did you start your graffiti practice?
PA
I started to notice graffiti in Mexico City around 1995-
1996. I did my first tag in 1996 without knowing that this
was a culture that started in New York City. I had no idea
that it was illegal to paint with spray-paint on the
streets. A friend told me one day that I could get arrested
Artist in focus/Interview Pablo Allison
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