Faile (artist collective)

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Faile is an international artist collective formed in 1999 and based in Brooklyn, New York. They are recognised as some of the pioneers of global contemporary street art. The three founding members are Patrick McNeil (Canada), Patrick Miller (USA) and Aiko Nakagawa (Japan).

From initially wheatpasting screen printed posters on the streets of New York and major world cities, they progressed to the more permanent medium of stencil graffiti. Their instantly recognisable gritty pop culture images in posters and stencils have allowed Faile to diversify into other areas encompassing fine art, sculpture, design, fashion, music and housewares. Despite this, the core of their work remains printmaking, stencilling and painting.

Contents 1 Early Years 2 Fine Art and other Projects 3 Influences & Inspiration 4 Technique & Classic Images 5 Exhibitions 6 Publications 7 References 8 Further reading

[edit] Early Years

Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller met whilst at high school in Arizona, USA. Both keen artists, they began working together, exchanging ideas and talking of having a studio together. Despite this early collaboration, they would first be separated by going to Art School - McNeil to New York and Miller to Minneapolis.

Whilst exhibiting his paintings In a New York club, McNeil met Aiko Nakagawa, a graduate school student who was doing motion graphic work there. Together they would go to clubs, often in New York’s meatpacking district. Here, in the streets, they developed a passionate interest in the street art which was emerging – not only in the images themselves but also in the fact it changed so rapidly. They wanted to be part of it. And by early 2000 the three were now together as an art group and ready to get involved.

“We were always interested in the idea of an art group, similar to a band but as visual artists. Something where the work could really be made through the collaborative process, where it is a result of everyone's combined efforts. It gives us the ability to riff off each other and really be influenced by our work together. This is something Pat and I grew up with, and as that idea was really starting to come together, Aiko came into the picture and it just seemed to all make sense.” - McNeil^[1]

Miller and McNeil produced prints and original works In Minneapolis. These were then wheatpasted in New York, primarily by McNeil and Aiko - the first real organised project that would become Faile.

Initial prints bore their collective name – “A-life” - a line which they’d found in an old sketch book. Unfortunately they soon found there was already a store/gallery on the Lower East Side with the same name so a change was necessary. The opportunity came whilst spending a night in the cells, after being arrested for fly posting. Feeling low and contemplating their situation, they decided to build on what they’d already got and to use it to create something new. Rearranging the letters into FAILE gave the trio a new name that not only would reminded them of their current misfortune and the struggle they’d endured to display their art, but allowed them to create something new from it, something new for the future.

“Faile was about this growth process. About taking your fears and your challenges, your grief and misfortune, and creating something from that. Taking your failures and proceeding forward, becoming stronger from what you have learned…The name has a meaning that is dear to us, something that is born out of a place and time for us, and something that has a philosophical undercurrent that flows through the work we do."^[2]

Taking a lead from Obey, the trio began to wheat paste in as many cities as possible with the simple intention of getting their name out and to make their mark. Major cities of the world were also included in their campaign to get noticed - London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Tokyo. With only student loans to fund both the art and travelling, it became necessary for Faile to take on design work to help with costs.

Over the next few years, their motives and energies changed, becoming less about the quantity and the more about quality and feeling. By 2003, wheat pasting had given way to paint - usually first applied to the surface with a brush and then with stencilling done over it. Not only was this more permanent than posters but allowed greater freedom. Classic core stencil images were now able to be incorporated into one another, creating different images. In October 2004 all three of Faile had moved to New York making their ideal of collaboration a far easier task.

[edit] Fine Art and other Projects

In 2004, after 4 years of pasting and painting the streets of major cities, Faile began to get commissions for other projects including murals, fashion, music videos and photography.

In fashion, FAILE have created limited edition wearable art including men's apparel, a t-shirt collaboration with Paper Denim and Cloth, running shoes (plus FAILE shoe bag) with Onitsuka and women’s cashmere sweaters and scarves with Cashmika. They have even produced a limited edition Faile shower curtain in association with Izola.^[3]

2006 marked a turning point for Faile. Aiko branched out to focus more on her own projects and a new studio in Brooklyn but brought an increased focus on a variety of fine art related projects.

In August 2006 Faile produced a 108 feet long mural, comprising 18 x 6ft x 6ft canvases, for the Tiger Translate event held at the Shanghai Sculpture Space. The mural was largely composed of Faile imagery and ideas juxtaposed with the ephemera collected during trips to New York City’s Chinatown.

In October 2006 Faile took part in “Spank the Monkey” at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle/Gateshead, UK. Billed as the first major international exhibition of contemporary urban art, the exhibition covered 4 floors of the gallery with Faile heavily featured. With the involvement of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive Nexus, Faile were also invited to decorate an underground platform at Jesmond Metro station using both pastings and stencilling.

In March 2007 Faile collaborated with Swoon and David Ellis to completely cover the inside walls, doors and windows of the New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles, USA. The entire exhibition is due to transfer to the Museum Hetdomein in Sittard, Netherlands from 11 May 2007.

Faile maintain their own website which not only displays many of their images but serves to sell multiples of hand-finished screenprints and originals. The website is notable for having many intricately detailed pages in the style of the Yellow Pages.

[edit] Influences & Inspiration

On the surface, Faile’s work often appears to be images taken from comic books, pulp fiction novels and even Yellow Pages adverts. There are however a number of concepts which underlie Faile’s gritty pop culture graphics. Most notably these are dualism and collaboration. Furthermore the effect of the street itself on street art has gone on to become an inspiration in itself.

Dualism is commonest concept visible in much of Faile’s work.

“There has always been an attempt to embrace the idea of duality in our work. Love/Hate, Peace/War, Violence/Beauty. This has a distinct place in the world we live and can always be felt as a constant push and pull. That kind of duality has found its way into our work by juxtaposing certain visual, language and symbols which represent these ideas.” - Miller^[1]

Examples of dualism include pairing jesus with a gun-toting tiger, juxtaposing “perils” with “paradise”, “sinful” with “pleasures” and arguably a picture of Prince Charles with the slogan “PERFECT”. In some cases the word “Faile” itself is used to represent the positive experience.

Collaboration has continued to be at the heart of Faile since its conception. Not only are there three different artists involved but often images appear have varying styles complementing each other within the same picture. The opportunity to work with others in the various fields has also been cited as an inspiration.^[4] In Faile’s four books, the major emphasis has again been on collaboration - collecting original images from themselves and other artists and publishing them together.

"Our process of creating work involves synthesizing images to create visually visceral experiences, very similar to the way a DJ samples beats to create an audible experience." - McNeil^[5]

In recent years the Street, which originally served as the gallery, has become more of an inspiration. Recent works have the appearance of collages made up of numerous classic core images. Images are ripped, repeated and combined to echo the appearance of multiple flyposters placed on top of one another. The overall effect of the composite is to replicate of layers, textures and weathering of street art.

“The street is more organic, it informs and inspires a lot of the work we do in the studio for shows, but it is different, it’s more spontaneous and less controlled.”^[4]

“What’s interesting is the invisible communication between artists which isn’t made up of words. A community is created naturally as artists overlap tags, posters or stickers one after another,” - Aiko^[1]

Faile themselves have cited the artist Robert Rauschenberg (a pre pop-art artist who often used found objects and was a prolific screen printer), Stanley Kubrick (famed for his classic imagery), Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly and Roy Lichtenstein as influences.

[edit] Technique & Classic Images

Faile produces a variety of classic images as silk screenprints and stencils. Images are commonly intricate in detail, vibrant in subject matter and somewhat design-based. Often they differ from one another by having coloured ink or paint applied to the background (paper or wall) beforehand.

In more recent work, multiple classic core images are combined together as a composite on large canvases to give an appearance of layering and the wear and tear of the street. As well as this Faile are now producing varied-sized paintings on wood and glass and have experimented with laser etching on screen prints.

Posters, prints and originals are not only signed but have “1986” handwritten on them – a reminder of the year of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Classic Faile images include:

Faile Dog (an barking dog's head)
Faile Bunny girl (a girl holding a bunny to her face)
Faile Bunny boy (a boy holding a bunny to his face)
Mermaid
Butterfly girl (a naked woman with a large butterfly)
The words “vanity” “perfect” and “captivating”
Bret the Hitman
Surfer Horse
Faile Mary
Challenger space shuttle pointing downwards (usually with flames)
Michael Jackson’s head
“Forbidden Love” (wolf-man with two girls)
“Master of Love and Fate”
“Smoking Silence” (a pirate ship on fire sinks as a woman blows the smoke from a rifle)
Torment (a woman's face appears in distress)
Prince Charles (a 1970's portrait)
“Get Acquainted with a Faile Girl” (a wide eyed girl with a small buddha holding each of her breasts)
Shanghai (Chairman Mao potrait) (portrait)
Ganesha (Ganesh's head with a womans hands over face)
Macbeth (a woman wearing a basque but with a skull for a head)
“Sinful Pleasures” (topless woman with snake nearby about to touch a banana)
Monster (a hooded man rips his shirt open in front of the Empire State Building)
Faile Yellow Pages`
“It Happens Everyday” (a bikini clad woman escapes from the jaws of a serpent in front of the Chrysler Building)
Prospector
Poison Boy
Happy Home

[edit] Exhibitions

Solo shows

2007:

“From Brooklyn with Love” - Laz.Inc - London, UK

2006:

"Faile Prints" - Fifty24 - Portland, USA

2005:

Fifty24SF - San Francisco, USA

2003:

“Faile Presents...” - Dazed & Confused Gallery - London, UK
“Faile Fan Club” - GAS Shop - Tokyo, Japan

Group shows

2007:

“The Burning House” (Faile, Swoon & Dave Ellis) – New Image Art Gallery - Los Angeles, USA

2006:

"Spank the Monkey" - Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts - Newcastle, UK
"Tiger Translate" - Shanghai Sculpture Space - Shanghai, China
"Animalia" - Irvine Contemporary – Washington DC, USA
Mural Commision – Wieden+Kennedy - Portland, USA
"Wall Snatchers" - WPA\C - Washington DC, USA
"Swish" – Laz Inc. – London, UK

2005:

Fifty24SF – San Francisco, USA
“Ridiculousnessofitallshow” - New Image Art Gallery - Los Angeles, USA
Andenken Gallery – Denver, USA
The Pony Show – New York, USA
“ROJO Golden” - Stay Gold Gallery – Brooklyn, USA
“ROJO Golden” - Urbis Artium Gallery – San Francisco, USA
“The First LA Weekly Biennial” - Track 16 Gallery - Los Angeles, USA
“Design Edge” - IdN - Singapore, Singapore
Supreme Trading N8 Gallery – Brooklyn, USA

2004:

Weiden & Kennedy – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Espai Pupu – Barcelona, Spain
Lab 101 – Los Angeles, USA
Break Beat Science Showroom – Tokyo, Japan
X-Girl – New York, USA
Les Complices – Zurich, Switzerland
One Eye Space – Los Angeles, USA
Break Beat Science Showroom – Tokyo, Japan
“Lavender” - Transplant Gallery - New York, USA
Mural - Diesel Store - Austin, Texas
“Pictures On Walls” - Diesel Denim Gallery - New York, USA

2003:

“Battle Graphics” - McCaig-Welles - New York, USA
“Secret Party” - Bob’s - New York, USA
“Hasta Pronto” - Centre Cultural Es Jonquet - Mallorca, Spain
“Back Jumps Live Issue” - Bethanien Kreuzberg - Berlin, Germany
“Fancy Faile and Bast” - Neurotitan Haus Schwarzenberg - Berlin, Germany
“Jungle LP Show” - Rocket Gallery - Tokyo, Japan
“Broken Sunshine” - Firehouse 87 Lafayette St - New York, USA
“The Big Group Show” - M3Projects - New York, USA

2002:

V1 Gallery – Copenhagen, Denmark
Surface 2 Air – Paris, France
Dragon Bar – London, UK
Max Fish Gallery – New York,USA
Gas Experiment – Tokyo, Japan
Dragon Bar – London, UK

[edit] Publications

As well as having their work featured in many publications, Faile have published four books - Orange, Death, Boredom and Lavender. Orange and Death only exist as hand-built books with an edition of around 80 each. Boredom and Lavender have been published in limited edition as well as their hand-built counterpart. The books are each a collaboration of work by various artists (including Faile) and combine music, writing, fine art, street art, photography and design.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Faile Homepage
• Faile Interview 2004
• Complete Tiger Translate Mural, Shanghai, China 2006
• Street Logos, Tristan Manco, Thames & Hudson, 2004, ISBN 0-500-28469-5