Conversational Street Art Edit
Dave the Chimp's Unusually Sociable Graffiti Ethos

The amazingly talented UK-based graffiti/street artist ‘Dave the Chimp’ doesn’t like to be called a street artist; in fact, his ethos of making art in the streets is to engage in a conversation with the street. He asks it questions and listens to its responses before formulating answers of his own.

Dave the Chimp paints graffiti without using his name. He also makes fan zines and runs the 243rd Skateboarding Support Battalion. He is head designer at Hessen Metal Skateboard Hardware and works with design and advertising through the agency Fold7. Look at his lovely one-line drawings in the video above. They make me smile.

I really like the way Dave the Chimp’s passion for the streets is manifested in his work; he has a brilliant view of the codex which should apply to everyone making street art. He wants other street artists to consider what they say to the street and the people that live there. He believes that the same principles of a conversation should be applied to the street art scene.

He has made a list of points about how street artists should engage with the street and its people, which I think everyone should read, as these points are so true.

Among Dave the Chimp’s pet peeves are people who put up the same image over and over, a move that he says is not a conversation and is instead more “akin to the crazy man, standing on the corner repeating the same things over and over to himself,” as stated on Fotolog.