For a while now, ego trip founder/Complex big homie Sacha Jenkins and Dave “CHINO BYI” Villorente have been holding it down for graffiti by compiling writers’ sketches; Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers and Piecebook Reloaded function both as dope art books and historical archives of graf legends’ hand styles. So of course we had to bring the crew around to join forces with us at Complex HQ. Sacha, Dave, and five all-city writers (DOC TC5, KAVES, STEM, CES and KEO) dropped by to lend their visual talents to a photo shoot with an insanely hot model. Read on to check out the visually arresting result, plus our behind-the-scenes video complete with interviews with the writers themselves…
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Kev TM7 “Art of Noize” (1985)
Long before graffiti became the marketable commodity it is today, the lifeblood of the culture was found in its piecebooks, the hardbound artists’ sketchbooks passed from writer to writer that served as a sort of social networking apparatus for the community. Repositories for autographs and places to work out new styles, piecebooks cross-pollinated graffiti and furthered the combination of community and competition that made the culture thrive.
Last month, Prestel/SHR Airlines published “Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers,” a collection of piecebook drawings from graf legends ranging from the famous to the infamous to the obscure. Recently Complex sat with the book’s editors, Sacha Jenkins and David Villorente (acclaimed graf writers and documentarians themselves), to discuss the project.
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