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One of our absolute favorite artists currently
working in New York is "http://www.wearechangeagent.com/swoon/">Swoon.  Coming upon Swoon’s
lifesize paper cutouts in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn can literally make your
jaw drop. So when Swoon sent us the A’s to our Q’s, we couldn’t have been
happier. 

There’s one thing we want to highlight in the interview
below.  In Swoon’s response, she mentions a Berlin based artist named Spair. 
When we got the email from Swoon, we hadn’t yet heard of Spair so we surfed
around the web to check out his stuff.  Not since Haring and Basquiat have we
seen anything else quite like it. I can’t remember when we’ve been this excited
about a new artist.  When we told this to Swoon, here’s what she had to say:
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“So glad you guys get it so instantly. i was just in germany
setting up my exhibition when a kid comes in looking about 14 and hands me the
image for his flier to give to juergen (Juergen Grosse of Urban-Art.info).
Turns out this kid is spair, who makes these insanely sensitive, totally natural
off the cuff drawings, has been doing it since he was about 13 and is now
educating his 7 year old brother in the art. really a natural, during our action
in the gallery on opening night where people made and put up tons of work he
whipped out some spray can drawings that were so untrained and so completely
beautiful, and i can’t go on enough about what juergen does for these kids and
how he supports the scene there.”

Swoon - The A’s to Our Q’s

Wooster: How did you get started in creating art for the
street?

Swoon: i got started working out on the street from a
suffocating sense of boredom with the galleries that would end as soon as i
walked back outside. it took me a minute to realize that it was because i wasn’t
seeing anything more beautiful than the chaos and overlap of what was happening
everyday on city walls. from there it didn’t take me long to get started.
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Wooster:  What has been the inspiration for your characters?
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Swoon: my charachters are usually my freinds and family,
sometimes people i just see walking down the sidewalk, sometimes something i
make up, or recreate from other images. i want them to feel like people who
probably pass by those walls every day, like a frozen instant, or x-ray of the
walls themselves, showing it’s inhbitants and the things they see in a day
written all over their bodies.

"http://www.woostercollective.com/images/spoonmetro.jpg"> "http://www.woostercollective.com/images/spoonmetro.jpg" align= "left" WIDTH=
"200" hspace="10" border="0">Wooster: What other street artists do
you most admire and why?

Swoon:   the street artists that i
most admire start with "http://www.postmedia.net/02/mattaclark.htm">gordon matta-clark who worked
more with abandoned buildings and though not traditionally considered a street
artist, had a more profound effect on my development than any other, i love href=
"http://www.whileyouweresleeping.com/wPicture.asp?cnt=2&name=REVS">revs for
his tireless innovations and brutal work ethic. "http://www.kastsystem.com/graffiti/images/(get-
organized)downey_darius.jpg">darius and downey are my favorite team working
in new york right now, and in berlin i just found two new favorites, a man by
the name of number 6
and a young kid called "http://160zeichensms.de/juergen/spair/spair04.jpg">spair who makes
traditional grafitti as well as really beautiful chalk drawings all over the
city and is teaching his 7 year old brother to do the same.

/>Wooster: What’s your favorite city, neighborhood, or block, to post
and/or to see street art?

"http://www.woostercollective.com/images/spoonhello.gif" align= "right"
hspace="10">Swoon:   favorite neighborhoods in new york tend to be large
industrial warehouse type areas for their big expansive spaces to play with. my
favorite block right now is probably water street in dumbo because it is growing
into a virtual outdoor gallery, one of my favorite things about street art is
how one piece attracts another.

Wooster: What inspires you
now?

Swoon: new york city is a constant source of inspration.
sometimes i can feel myself literally drawing energy from the place.

/>Wooster: What are you currently working on?  Can you give us a sneak
peek?

Swoon:   i just got back two days ago from setting up my
first exhibition in berlin at a space called urban-art.info, run by juergen grosse who seems to be the patron
saint of the street art scene in berlin.  i was a little divided about working
indoors again, but decided not to close myself off. i am also putting together a
book with my freinds at changeagent that should be coming out in april, and am
working on a street event with my "http://www.glowlab.com/projects/Swoon/swoon.html ">collective toyshop. as
for the street stuff i think you may just have to run across it…

To
learn more about Swoon, check out her "http://www.wearechangeagent.com/swoon/">website.