Via our join-us page, we frequently receive submissions from creative people all over the world. All talented in their own way, from writers to photographers and artists. Our most recent submission? The talented artist who took a whole new approach to street art with her very own style, creating works that are somewhere in between street art, pottery, painting, sculpture, and jewelry. Her name is NeSpoon.
NeSpoon’s lace-art on walls and buildings creates a whole new level of dimension. Her work is outstanding in the street whilst at the same time a compliment to the surroundings.
Hi NeSpoon! Thank you for your time. Your work consists of many mediums – from spray paint to lace installations, earthenware and I even saw a work made in the bark of a tree. With what medium did you start first?
I have been painting since I can remember, since kindergarten. I wanted to be a ‘real artist’ at the age of 6 when other girls dreamed of being princesses or fairies. However, I only started to do art on the streets in 2009. Before that, I painted dark, sad oil paintings. At one point I found it to be a dead end. I had a two-year break and then I started learning about ceramics. It was ceramic objects that were the first works I placed on the street.
How did it lead to using the other mediums?
It was completely natural. Once you are on the street, you see this incredible variety of techniques used by urban artists and ideas come to your mind one after the other. I am easily bored and need constant change. I started to make stencils, murals, in-situ installations, screen printing posters, and stickers. I’m still learning something new every day.
Do you feel the different kinds of mediums you’re using, send out a different message?
I don’t think so, it’s not about the medium. The technique I work in is just like a tool selected from a toolbox. It depends on where I am, sometimes on my mood, sometimes on a budget, but not on the message.
How do you choose the kind of medium for the message?
There is no special key. When I get a wall, it is obvious I need to paint. When I’m in a park, between the trees, this is the place for an installation. Sometimes I just want to play with clay and I make ceramics. When I work in a gallery, it is possible to do a sculpture or video installations or just canvases.
Because of the many mediums, including fabric, inspired by lace, I unknowingly think you have a background in fashion. What made you start including lace patterns in your work?
I’ve never worked in fashion. Lace patterns began to interest me when I started working in ceramics. This is one of the most popular ways to decorate dishes all over the world. You push the lace onto fresh clay and this is how the pattern is created. One day I thought that these motifs are beautiful on their own. They don’t need an excuse such as a plate or a mug to exist. I started to make such no-purpose lace objects and glue them somewhere on the streets. Then these patterns began to appear in my head on buildings, so I started to really paint them.
What is your first memory about discovering lace?
Before I started working with them, I thought that lace was something old-fashioned. I associated it with a grandmother’s apartment, with dust, with something from the past. Now I see them as a universal expression of harmony and beauty.
What inspired you to take your work to the streets?
Honestly, I was really angry at illegal outdoor advertising spreading across my country. Once I thought that if corporations can overtake and destroy the visual landscape for commercial purposes, my art will not hurt anyone, even if I do not ask for permission.
On your website, I read that “In laces, there is an aesthetic code, which is deeply embedded in every culture.” What does that mean to you?
Very similar symmetrical patterns are present in many cultures around the world. When I add colors to my ceramics, people say that I am inspired by Tibetan Mandalas, or Moroccan Ceramic, or even native pre-Columbian art. Lace patterns contain some very basic code of beauty, common for most people on Earth. I think it’s because these motifs come from nature. They are present all around us, in goblets of flowers, in snowflakes, in frost on the window, in the skeletons of sea creatures. They are older than humanity.
Because your website reads you were born in 2009 and the lace patterns I associate with nostalgia, I have the feeling you’re someone that doesn’t let time lead you (that might sound strange). Is that true?
You are right, I don’t pay much attention to the passage of time. I think that age is just a number in your head. Look at wonderful Martha Cooper, she is still running with writers on the lines and yards as if the 1970s were still going on. She is one of the most vivid women I have met. My most important project which started 5 years ago, ‘Thoughts’, will have its final exhibition in 2042.
You also made work and installations in places that carry a lot of history like in the amusement park of the abandoned town of Pripyat in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, but also in the town of Le Locle, Switzerland where you met with the last lacemakers to commemorate their heritage. What do the stories and backgrounds mean to you?
These stories are most important. My art is always in situ made, set in a local context. I always use local lace patterns, if they exist. I respect and commemorate the emotional bound between individual patterns and particular cities or even particular groups of lacemakers. Maybe this is not obvious when you look at my works, so it is good to read the descriptions at my Behance page.
How do they inspire you to make your artworks?
I will give you an example. In March I worked in Delhi. I designed a mural in brown colors. When I arrived, it turned out that the streets were vibrating with colors, and the mural did not match at all. I repainted over 100m2 of the wall, this time I used strong, expressive colors. The inspiration was traditional Indian women’s costumes.
Where does the name NeSpoon come from?
‘There is no spoon’. Matrix, the movie. The borders are just in your head. When you realize this, you can jump from one skyscraper to another.
What is your dearest memory when it comes to the works you’ve had made?
Nothing specific. I like it when people from the neighborhood gather at my mural and watch me work. It happened many times in different countries. When I get off the lift, they come to talk with me smiling, sometimes they bring me sweets and souvenirs. I’m always glad to leave them something nice that they like.
Do you have a dream you would love to achieve?
Since I live my dream, I only have plans. My aim is to do large scale multimedia installations in public spaces. The first one in Berlin, in front of Reichstag, in a year.
Thank you for your time, NeSpoon. For more of NeSpoon’s art, check her Instagram and website.
