Action and Reaction: Life Imitates Art

Seven months down the line Children Of The Can author Felix ‘FLX’ Braun reflects on the impact
the book has had so far...

The urge to write a history of Bristol graffiti was initially sparked off by another book on the subject,
a slim volume entitled Off the Wall: A Book of Bristol Graffiti by a guy called Stephen Morris, who I
have never met. I spoke quite unfairly about it on my blog at the time, accusing it of being opportunist
and insubstantial; and yet it did exactly what it said on the cover, it was merely a book about Bristol
graffiti and never claimed to be the book on the subject. And the point is this: without Morris’ book
I may well have never written mine. Action and reaction.



Public reaction to my book has largely been extremely positive, and I get lots of people coming
up to me out of the blue to tell me how much they like it, which is extremely flattering. Kids
especially seem to be fascinated by it, and if I’m helping to fan the flames of passion for graffiti in
a new generation of Bristolians then the long-term plan is working.



To my mind, however, by far the most intriguing –and unexpected– reaction so far has been
among the retired graffiti writers that I interviewed for the book, who seem to be coming out
of the woodwork and hitting walls everywhere I look at the moment. I’m not suggesting for a
minute that I am solely responsible for a revival of interest in painting amongst the 30-somethings
who used to paint Barton Hill Youth Club and the city’s railway lines back in the day, but there has
been a tangible increase in activity since last Christmas that has built on a groundswell that was
already underway. Soker, Lokey and Kato had already been out of retirement for some time, as
had Cheo and various others, but in the wake of the book being published everyone from Jody
to Sorse, Tes, and Teao have been getting up again, which I think is brilliant. Souls On Fire have
been making increasingly regular visits to Bristol to paint as well. I even got a phone call from
the legendary Bandito the other day. I nearly fell off my chair.



For me the passion never went away, life just got in the way until I found a way to make graffiti
my life again, and to make it pay for itself, basically. And what better time to be getting back
out there? Whilst some of the old guard are happy hooking up with mates on the weekend to
paint sites such as Bedminster Skate Park, others are re-immersing themselves entirely in the
graffiti subculture and capitalising on opportunities to sell their work or paint commissioned
pieces in a way that simply did not exist first time round. There are more books on the horizon,
first-time solo exhibitions in the offing, and perhaps even the chance to revive the old Barton
Hill Youth Club as a Hall Of Fame for a limited run. Just don’t tell anyone, mind, or they will all
want to paint there.

FLX 09

Children of the Can is available to buy at the Weapon of Choice gallery for £20 or all good local
bookshops at the RRP £25. Further info here

photography copyright to Tangent books