SIR-5 is in the first place a Illustrator/grafic designer that graduated as Illustrator at HONIM Brussels -where he had his first contact with street arts.- After some years working in the grafic industry he realized that this sector did everything but motivate nor improve his skills as an artist. So he left this sector behind in a pursuit for a situation where he could enjoy the freedom of spending as much time as possible making artworks. Today Sir-5 lives in Leuven and mainly works on canvas, cartboard, wood and textile. As he left the illigal graf scene some years now he can be found on Grafitti jams or at legal walls, althoug this doesn’t mean that he is totaly off the streets.
With his creative roots in classic comics & street arts, his style can best be described as abstract action painting, freehand marker illustrations and complex stencil structures all mixed into one image. These stencils became one of his favorite techniques in the last couple of years and can be found in most of his recent work. The most important aspect of his work is the underlying moral and social criticism that dominates every part of his work, from: locations, color combinations up to symbols, forms and letters. All are part of a picture that can be read like a big grafitti collage with a hidden message or just be enjoyed for its colors, action, ambiance n contrast
As an MC Sir-5 started out in 1995 with a small crew from Brussels named “Essence Seekers” Theire first show was at a street art event in his home village Landen. After a couple of years playing at small festivals n youth café’s they splitted because of creative indifferences and He ended up leaving the rap scene for a couple of years focusing only on his grafic skills and waiting on the right time to return. In those years his younger brother Ray aka DJ Raydius360° sharpened his beat producing & DJing skills and they started the band named “XYZ-CREW” an experimental underground Hip-Hop concept. In the end of 2008 they moved to Leuven city to liv togheter and built a small home studio to improve the productions
In the local Hip-Hop scene they goth in contact with a beat production duo named “I-SA” wich allready released a couple of tracks and did some live shows. Both bands quickly connected and in 2009 they created a artist collective named “Up High Collective” wich was linked with a local streetware shop (co-owned by one of the I-SA members) and built around the consept of an multimedia artist collective was born. More artist joined and the collective has now: Dj’s, producers, singers,Mc’s,graffiti writers, cameramen, animators, photographers etc After a couple of succesfull shows n expositions they goth known & respected in the scene. On the 27th of March 2010 the collective will open a new shop and release the first 7inch single vinyl, two instrumental EP’s
More and bigger shows are on the way. check em out!
