A Meeting of Minds - Addict/Brooklyn Machine Works/SheOne
Posted on March 23, 2007 @ 9:20 AM
This is a story of a collaboration, a story of three people… a bike importer, a clothing label owner and an artist… Brooklyn Machine Works, Addict and a graffiti artist called SheOne. It came about like most things do, a conversation, an idea, a meeting of minds.
David Jefferies has had links with graffiti artists since way back and has involved them in his work with clothing company Addict. SheOne is an artist that started spraying and painting illegally way back in the 80’s in the back streets of London. He now has his work in art galleries around the world, and also uses his unique abstract urban style on clothing, skateboards, snowboards (plus loads of other stuff) and now bikes.
We have always been fans of the guys at Brooklyn Machine Works, it is not just their ballsy ‘take no shit’ products but their attitude and approach, they are unlike almost any other mountain bike company I know. Being based in the heart of New York City they come at this mountainbike thing from a completely different angle than most, a strange brew of urban and rural, town and country, tarmac and gravel. The company has been documented many times but they are still as interesting and intriguing to us as the day we first heard about them. The guys in New York have already worked together with artists and clothing companies, most noticeably on Park bikes for main man Nigo at Bathing Ape, cruisers for Supreme and Park bikes again for Recon, a clothing company set up by graffiti artists Stash and Futura, all legends in the contemporary graffiti and hip hop worlds. There are of course their numerous links with artists and bands, one of the Beastie Boys was involved financially in the setting up of Brooklyn, and now they are working with non other than music producer and phenomenon Pharrell Williams from N.E.R.D.
Brooklyn’s UK importer and urban myth is Ged the Head, Manchester based window cleaner, bike lover and top man. He always has something on the go, some little idea or deal, he is one of those characters that makes the mountain bike world in the UK so rich and diverse. Anyway, Ged and Addict got talking, SheOne had already worked on a range of clothing and fabric designs for Addict. I don’t want to offend anyone here by trying to describe the designs, ‘industrial urban abstract camo’ is a mouthful and sounds like pretentious bollox but that is how I can best describe it, it’s damn good stuff. Whilst most graff artists use a wide palette of garish colours SheOne refines and limits his choice, using a subtle colour selection, and uses shape and pattern. Here’s how Addict describe his work: “His approach to image making is a constant re-rendering of now. Hip, data injected splats, overspray and accurate spills reveal a deliberate and complex story.” As well as clothing and custom boxes for Addict SheOne has works on canvas shown in galleries all over the world, including London, Paris, Sydney, New York and Los Angeles, as well as creating installations and site specific murals in Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Anyway the calls went down and the deal was hooked up. SheOne was lined up to spray up a one-off ‘SheOne’ Brooklyn frame for Addict in his black on black style.
So the frame was sprayed, then lacquered, built up with as many ‘bling’ products as possible and then the all important Addict stickers and Addict Stencil bar end caps were added. All in all it’s a sweet bike with a great story. Hook ups like this are cool.
www.brooklynmachineworks.co.uk
www.addictclothing.com
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