TOZE ONE: STRIPING UP CONVERSATION
The work of Folkestone street artist Toze One has
become recognisable because of its dazzling colour
and addictive linear design.
Take a walk into Folkestone’s Creative Quarter and, apart from the beautiful array of short trousers and beanie hats on display, you cannot help but be inspired by some of the outstanding outdoor artworks scattered around the various public sitting (and on the sunny days, drinking) areas.
One piece that you will certainly not miss is what can only be described as a huge, high energy, powerful colour barcode that sets light to Payers Park.
Created by the artist and musician known as Toze One, and part of the Plinth Project which saw Banksy’s ‘Art Buff’ returned to the town, the permanent installation is hard to miss. You know if you've seen a Toze One piece and as fans, Team ‘cene caught up with the artist to find out more.
Q: How would you describe your style to people?
TO: I would probably describe my style as neon sci-fi with broken linear tracking, it’s something that I started playing with back in the 80s and I did a few canvases and pieces for people, exhibitions etc and paintings around my own house and I kind of based it on a barcode and that obsession with 80s consumerism.
Q: When we first saw it, I thought it was like a trippy Paul Smith piece, and it is safe to say it is very different to the majority of street art/graffiti, how did you get into this style?
TO: The style had influences from people like Mondrian and that kind of linear minimalist style. The stripey stuff that I do I tried to incorporate a lot of colour into that because the origin of the style came about by me painting a piece on the Southbank in London , and I remember painting away and some tourists came over and spoke to me and said “what does that say? We really love it, we really love the colours but we don’t understand it”.
And I thought well, if people like it because of the colours let’s take out any kind of misunderstanding or difficulty of interpretation and just give people the colours, because that’s what they like so I minimised the style down, I took the letter forms out, added a neutral background, either black or grey, or even white and replaced the letters with stripes and geometric shapes, and people tend to they like it because they gravitate towards the colour and as I’ve taken out the traditional graffiti elements of of the letters, the “wild style” so there’s nothing for people to misunderstand, it literally is just the relationship between the viewer and the colour, or the lack of colour depending on the style of the piece.
Q: Can you remember the first time you went out and created a piece in a public space?
TO: The first piece I ever did in a public space was actually in Hythe in 1984, on what were the toilets up on the seafront opposite the swimming pool. A whole load of us went up there when we were kids and painted pieces around the whole of the outside of that building. Unfortunately we all got caught and all got done for that one!
Q: Do you still “bomb” or is it all commissioned pieces these days?
TO: We do still bomb, if you want to call it that, because a lot of the spaces that we paint aren’t actually 100% legal. We do do legal commission pieces and we paint legal spaces whenever we can but we do still paint where we shouldn’t, there is sometimes a grey area as to what is actually “legal” and what isn’t in terms of public space sometimes but without giving too much away, yes, we do still go out and bomb because it is still part of what we do, part of the culture.
Q: We know you do both, but do you prefer using paint on brick or mouse on screen?
TO: Paint on brick is always preferable to doing stuff in the digital realm, most of what I do digitally is a sketch so that I can gauge whether something will look good or not in the real world, whether it be on canvas or on a wall or in any kind of external location.
I can take a photograph of an area that we are going to paint, create a digital render and then photoshop that onto the space to see if it will actually look good or not, and then obviously adapt the image to that space to make it fit in or alter it to look better. The digital stuff I do, I do commercially for commissions and things like that, video games, graphic design, etc. I tend to use it mainly as a tool to sketch out ideas which gives me a realistic, real world sketch of how something will finally look once it has been painted.
Q: Where did your name come from?
TO: Originally, in the early 1980s, my name was Doze and I had that name all the way through school up until the advent of the Rock Steady Crew entering the charts with their first single, the cover for that single was designed and drawn by a guy called Doze Green from the Rock Steady Crew. So seeing that, I knew I had to change my name because people would think that I’d stolen the name from him, when in fact I’d had the name for many, many years before that.
My girlfriend at the time was called Tina, and her dad used to call me “twinkle toes” because I had big feet for my age and I always wore big bulky Doc Martens boots to school, so, I thought that name sounded quite good! So basically all I did was took the name Doze and change it to Toze, just took away the D put in a T because I thought it looked quite good for graffiti and I just liked the sound of it. I threw the “One” on the end, just in case there were any other people named Toze after me!
Q: Do you have any major influences on your work?
TO: I do have major influences on my work... the obvious influences through graffiti from the early 80s like Seen, Revolt, Zephyr, Lee, et al. All of the original New York graffiti artists, but prior to that I was always into art as a kid, I studied art at school, went on to study art for an A-level and I would say that the modern art movement had a big influence on what I do, artists like Piet Mondrian and Rothko etc. as well as the “De Style” and “Bauhaus” movements.
I’m still being influenced by people like Jeff Koons, Erosie, Jano, Reser and local street artists such as Aups etc. You name it! There are so many influences, graphic designers like John Carver, pop artists like Warhol, Basquiat, Haring, Lichtenstein, all of those were influences on me in the early days and still are to this day.
Q: What is your favourite ever piece?
TO: I would say that the favourite piece that I have ever done is the first of the series of the barcode canvases which I ever did and that I exhibited in Folkestone at an exhibition that I held there, I sold it to Roger DeHaan. His then wife came to the exhibition and selected quite a few works that she wanted to have in their house.
She bought quite a few of them, which is a shame because I actually wish I'd kept some of them now!
But my favourite one was a barcode design based on various shades of pink fading from dark to light on a neutral grey background, I don’t even have a picture of it, I didn’t take one I was just so excited at selling work to a fan!
My favourite recent piece is the first of the Sci-Fi series of rusty, weathered graffiti pieces, I just wanted to do something different, something no one else was doing, and I’m quite pleased with how it is turning out, it’s still a work in progress and needs refining, but it’s getting there!
Q: What is your proudest moment so far as an artist?
TO: My proudest moment as an artist would have to be with regard to my music, I was asked by a Hip-Hop legend, Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quinones, to collaborate with him on some music, and to feature in his instructional dance DVDs.
I worked with him on a few tracks and he selected the ones that he liked and they featured on his album entitled “Funk Shway”, they also featured in his DVD and we were planning to work on some other projects before his untimely passing recently.
To get to work with him and produce music for him is my proudest moment, it’s not every day you get to work with a legend and someone who was hugely influential to me over the years.
Q: What/who would be your dream collaboration for a piece?
TO: Unfortunately a lot of the people who I would have loved to work with on a piece have passed away, as I’ve mentioned before I would love to have worked with the likes of Warhol, Basquiat, Keith Haring etc, those kind of guys. But, locally, Leigh Mulley would be someone that I would love to work with as her artwork is incredible and she’s doing fantastic stuff in public spaces as well as her work on canvas.
Obviously I would have to say doing a collaboration piece with Banksy, whether you love him, or whether you hate him would be a massive coup, but obviously that’s not going to happen in the near future but one can dream!
Q: And what do you love most about Folkestone/Kent?
TO: What I like about Folkestone and about Kent in general is it’s a fantastic place to live, we have everything available to us here, we have the seaside, the countryside, open spaces, we have artist spaces where we can express ourselves, we have a wide variety of shopping opportunities, independent stores, major shopping outlets all that kind of stuff, great transport links, friendly people, and with the development of the Creative Quarter in Folkestone we’ve now got a recognised area for artists to work and showcase their work.
Creative Folkestone are doing a fantastic job in promoting the arts locally and nationally and it’s just a great time to be in this area, there are so many opportunities going forward for the arts and performance. Obviously now with the whole Covid situation a lot of things have been put on hold but we’ve got a bright future ahead of us in this area, and I think it’s the best time it has ever been here for the arts, for music and lots of opportunities, hopefully going forward people will be able to maximise their potential and for Folkestone to become a world renowned creative hub.
Q: Where can people go to find your work? (Social media, website, etc).
TO: People can find me on social media through Facebook and Instagram, Facebook as Toze One, Insta as @toze_one and my new project Edge Gallery on insta @edge_gallery. Or just Google Toze One, it all comes up on there, including links to my music etc. As well as the art stuff!
