Flying Förtress - Allcity

Part of Rebellion Series # 1
Flying Förtress
by C100

03 Hello Troops – sticker design – 2003
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Previous page
14 top: RESS – Fribourg/CH – 2007
15 bottom: RESS – Basel/CH – 2008
16 top: RESS – Saint Brieuc/FR – 2007
17 bottom: RESS – NewYork/US – 2007
18 Hands At Work – Barcelona/ES – 2004
19 Lonesome Trooper – Hamburg/DE – 2008
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20 Aufkleber Über Alles – sticker designs
feat. Cpt.Rouget / Dave The Chimp / Stefan Marx
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01
Graphic illustraton for a clothing brand,
Client: Fenchurch, 2007
02
RoofTop Graffiti, Spraycan & latex paint
Melbourne (Australia), 2007
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Flying 24 Hessenmob Förtress Booth – with Dave The Chimp – ISPO fair Munich/DE – 2004
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39 RESS The Band Prototype – vinyl toys – 2004
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Flying 54 Kleine Förtress Werkschau – exhibition @ OLYMPIA store ¬– Stuttgart/DE – 2004
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67 Tattoo Bears – with Dave The Chimp – acrylic on canvas – 2004
68 Broken Decks – acrylic on wood – 2006
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Interview
Your History - When did you first get in contact with Graffiti/Streetart?
Please tell us a bit your first steps?
Around 1988 my father took me to a big flea market at an old
warehouse area. The halls there had been painted all over, as
it was the biggest Hall Of Fame at that time. Local heroes like
Loomit, Won, Cemnoz and Neon made the first and biggest
impression on me as a growing teenager. I couldn’t s
asking my father to take photos of each and every one of the
graffiti. At home I started to draw my first sketches just by copying
the letters from the photos and setting it in some new
combinations. I think that’s everybody’s first steps on the road.
One day I went back to the halls with my very first bag of cans
and dropped my first piece. Loomit stopped by and asked me if
he could see my sketchbook. When he looked at my drawings
that were bitten obviously from his work I wanted to drop dead
immediately. But he took it easy and just gave me a positive
feedback on my first efforts to step into graffiti. Then he wanted
to ride my skateboard – but because of wearing cowboy boots
he slammed badly the next second. Oops!
How do you usually start working on an artwork?
I open the book „Art Of Rebellion“ and start copying.
Did you ever get into trouble as an artist working on the
streets?
So far I always had good luck. I keep my fingers crossed. Only in
Paris I had been caught twice by the police for pasting up posters
but the officers were too lazy or just couldn’t speak English
so they chased me away. Also I had some problems with my first
KISS tribute stickers by remixing their classic logo. Germany is
the only country in the world where the band has a modified
logo not using the two S letters in the old rune style because this
symbol is banned since the end of WWII. A lawyer had to prove
to the state security that this is art and at the end they didn’t
bring up a charge against me.
Is there an overall message in your works, especially in
the Teddy Troops?
The essential message is still the classic graffiti idea: scream out
your name and let the people know you walk planet earth. But
to fill in more space in interviews i came along with this great
story. Like the real WWII war plane „Flying Fortress“
hit german cities again by bombing them - but this time
with stickers, posters and graffiti. The Teddy Troops
got send out to invade and occupy public space in
the name of a great leader (who is me, by the
way). Every trooper is becoming
part of a big army out in the
streets. Nicely.
You travel a lot. Do you think this also affects the way you
work?
Sure it does. Running through life in general is like putting goods
into your shopping cart while going through the shelves in a supermarket.
Back home you only have those ingredients for cooking
your cake that you had picked up before. So as an artist you
should keep your eyes open all the time. Daily walk through your
quarter is only one side. To see different cultures while traveling
gives you even more new views on those lifestyles but also on
your own. All this creates a new matrix for your work.
Is there any artwork you did which has a very special meaning
to you?
I think it is still the whole Teddy Troops project. The main aspect
is to force myself to hang on a theme longer than it is just fun.
It is very easy to draw anything minor like the everyday’s new
funny looking creature. It is about to keep on working on an idea
that maybe first feels like you are limiting yourself into narrow
boarders. But by pushing it further and further you develop yourself
in a different way because you face your inner laziness. Instead
of turning your interest into another artwork when getting
bored of the theme you have to will learn to break your very own
boarders and be consequent. At the end your work will become
stronger and get a visible depth.
Dave the Chimp and you started the Visual Rock Stars
band. Please tell us a bit about it?
Quiet soon after i met Dave The Chimp first we founded the Visual
Rock Stars after he came up with this name idea. First we
had a show in Barcelona together with almost all our artwork
containing the theme of Rock’n Roll characters. When we had
this bigger exhibition in London at D*Face’s Outside Institute
Gallery we wanted to do something special there for our friends
and fans. So instead of having an opening night and then our
work hung in a room for four weeks we decided to work in the
gallery like a studio opened to the public. People could pass by
the gallery and see us work and set up our huge stage design
with massive speaker boxes and backdrop piece for our upcoming
live concert at the end of the 4 weeks. Every week we had
a special little event like a tattoo studio where people could get
a free marker tattoo on their flesh or the wet t-shirt contest. For
the concert we also built up a whole band’s instruments set out
of cardboard. At the closing night we had this live playback concert
on classic rock tunes. Our friends Ichi The Bunny, Mysterious
Al and PMH joined the band and the crowd and us had
so much fun that it all ended in destroying the whole stage and
instruments. It was mental. Whenever i watch the whole thing
again on the Backstage Pass documentary DVD, released by our
fiends at Hessenmob, i just think: what a bunch of undignified
monkeys we had been. Oh man!
What are your future plans?
Keep on taking any chance to get me to more countries all over
the world where i haven’t been yet and where i get another nice
stamp in my passport.
Do you see yourself more as an illustrator or an artist or
both? How do you think this change from being a bit of both
affect your daily life?
Right now i can’t make my living by just working as an artist
selling my very own stuff. I try to increase it and work as less
as possible as an Illustrator for commission jobs. I got more
and more stressed out to see how your work got modified while
agencies and clients adding their ideas and changes to it.
Sometimes it is easier to handle this instead of getting my own
artwork judged by the hardest critic of all on planet: myself. So
i still enjoy working as a freelance illustrator from time to time
because it doesn’t challenge myself as hard as my artwork does
and it brings good money, too. I think i could be better in each of
them if i stopped doing the other one. But i just like both (Rock
and Roll, haha).
Have you ever thought about stopping all this and find a
„proper“ job?
No. This is all in me and it is screaming inside every single second
to make me go on doing it. But maybe my parents thought
about it when i had been broke again?
Tell us a bit about the collaborations you already did with
other artists?
There have been a lot of different collaborations with other artists
so far. Beside the continual Visual Rock Stars projects with
Dave The Chimp i have been on tour with my friends The London
Police from Amsterdam and Pez from Barcelona. We went
together on the K-Spray tour in 2007 and travelled all over Asia,
Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 we continued to do shows
in Los Angeles, Barcelona, Hamburg and New York. And for sure
there are all the Teddy Troops vinyl toy releases featuring some
of my artist friends like Chimp, D*Face, 123Klan, Alexone, TLP
and Pez. Also i made some collab stickers with Captain Rouget,
Stefan Marx, Kabe and 56K. Together with Captain Rouget i
started the „Stick Fighter II – The World Warriors“ sticker movement.
Almost a hundred other artists joined us so far with their
own fighters battling on street lamps and traffic signs all over the
world. And not to forget all the other artist i met while traveling
and hanging out a nice day in the sun just painting graffiti on a
wall together.
86 87

87 Ice Cream – t-shirt design – 2008
88 Golden Rider – t-shirt/skateboard design – 2008
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102 Reunion BBQ – t-shirt design for 667 ¬– 2008
103 top: Bling Bling ¬– t-shirt design for 667 ¬– 2007
104 bottom: Wings – t-shirt design for 667 ¬– 2007
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105 left: Battle Board Mafia – with Dave The Chimp – skateboard design for Hessenmob Skateboards – 2005
106 middle: Battle Board Punx – with Dave The Chimp – skateboard design for Hessenmob Skateboards – 2005
107 right: Battle Board Pirates – with Dave The Chimp – skateboard design for Hessenmob Skateboards – 2006
108 top: Natas Remix – t-shirt design for Hessenmob Skateboards – 2004
109 bottom left: Mob – logo design for Hessenmob Skateboards – 2007
110 bottom middle: Hessenmob – logo design for Hessenmob Skateboards – 2006
111 bottom right: Mobcity Alleycats – t-shirt design for Hessenmob Skateboards – 2006
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123 Stallions – t-shirt design for Stussy – 2007
124 Cursed Teenager Bones – t-shirt design for Stussy – 2005
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Shout outs:
Mom & Dad, my bother Aze Aloner, Rockaway Pamela & Hubi, all my friends & geezers & ladies & wingmen & supporters, Ben & Boris & Eric & Marc & Markus & Thomy & Peter & Uli
@ Die Artillerie, 56K, Alexis, AlexOne, Ambos, Andi Arbeit, Anus, Arne Chromeboy, Askew & Oche & Rize, Baptist, Base 23, Bfree, Blu, Buffmonster, Burns 124, C100, C215, Cario, Cento,
Chanoir, Chaz TLP & Tina, Chen, Christoph & Dani & Ben & Fatmo @ Vicious, Chu, Cone, Coskun, Cpt. Rouget, Cracker & Michael @ Hessenmob, Daisy & Jimmy & Al, Dalek, Dare, Dave The
Chimp, Days, D*Face & Eve, Dj Germany , East Eric, Eddi @ AdFunture, Einz, Einsa, Eko @ Ekosystem.org, Emka, Eule, Finsta, Font, Form, Freaklub, Galo, Gorb, Hausalarm, Hells, Hem,
Hemo, Honet, Hot, HuskMitNavn, Ichi The Bunny, Jeremy Fish, Jerome @ Spacejunk, Johnny Fu, Julien & Nathalie @ GT29, Jury, Kabe 243 & Tomoko, Keats, Kent, Ket, King Ryan & Bendit,
Koa, KRSN, Kube, Lake & Trixi, Laroid Boys, Laser, Lionel @ Sixpack, Loomit, Lozza, Ludwig Matt, Lunar, Marc & Sara @ Woostercollective, Markus Witthaut, Markus & Flo & Zoltan@Juice,
Michael @ Artoyz, Microbo & Bo 130, Milk, Miss Van, Mist, Mitja, Mona @ Modart, Mone, Moon, Mr.Jago, My Dog Is Polite, Mysterious Al, Nano 4814, NeasdenControlCentre, Nomad,
Omo, Os Gemeos, Pablo & Javier @ Belio, Parskid, Paul Mittleman @ Stussy, Pennyboys & Adelskrone, Pez & Dania, Pisa73, Pitt @ Cleptomanicx, PMH & Sam, Poch & Joséphine, Popay,
Pure Evil, Rast, Reach, Robots Will Kill, Romuald @ LazyDog, RuediOne, Sam @ Persquaremetre, Scien & Klor @ 123Klan, Scout, Seen, Selim, Shawn, Shio, Shore, Sirum, Smash137, Sonic,
Stak, Stefan Marx, Stohead, Socey, Sonny @ Aphrodisio, Supakitch & Koralie, Supe, Sweet, T.C.C.A., Tim & Chicken @ 667, Tofu, Tom Trasher, Tumor, TvBoy, Vitché, Wane, Wany One, Wayne
Horse, Will Barras, Wink, Wow 123, Yok, Zahl, Zbiok, Osterhase & Weihnachtsmann, all those i forgot, everyone else and You!
126144 Photo by RudiOne.com - 2008
Part of Rebellion Series #1
145 Flying New Fortress Zealand 2007
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