Sketch by Sofles
Yeah you know it...
For the C.E.O - In the front offices. Close to the demolition..
The boys got their nice piece of real estate right there in the office
In danger but safely tucked down the back garage...
In action, after crawling around to find the safest place to paint
away from the demolition crew
Another freestyle in the main courtyard - the studios were up a level
and to the far right
This building was extremely dark inside - workshop
Didn't venture too high above the workshops it was far too dark and we
were never prepared with torches to explore deeper.
The back gate and a sense of relief to be outta there..
This place was like home for 6 months, every weekend, solo or
accompanied with a partner or an interesting theme park for
crew visits. We kept it on the mega down low and crept around
the demolition workers week in week out taking up every nice
piece of real estate..
I watched this place from a distance for 12 months before
heading in.. think it must of housed some huge underground
raves and shit like that, there was empty alcohol bottles and
cans everywhere.. Not much of the graffiti, but the place was
smashed up. Some huge mirrors in the main studios were
unfortunately shattered, they would of been so nice to paint..
A lot of doors, walls and windows were intact as it wasn't all
that old i guess. Like sound proofing in the recording room
and other things interesting to people salvaging copper and
light fittings etc. I only ever had run ins with labourers doing that
or demolition workers and spooked paranoid illusions..
No one seemed to live there...
Getting spooked by the wind or asbestos poisoning,
the workers or random police visits i was hearing about wasn't
enough to keep me away from this 3 level 6 building
playground complex..
First time i went i did the for the C.E.O piece for Brsky.
Feste wanted to go to the pub and was rushing me.
He said a piece of ceiling tile just flew across the room,
i joked and said it could be a ghost.
Then he went to peek around a corner, i just sussed out like 2
minutes before and this massive guy jumped out like
Raaaarrrgh!!! Good old Festo shat and sprung about 6 feet
in the air, his knees didn't even bend like a cat.
It was so funny but tense for about a minute till we realised they
were cool and they were in there salvaging shit.
We nicknamed him "Mountain" he said
"If you's see the coppas hey fellas you'll let us know hey?"
We said
"No sweat, likewise"
A couple of weeks later we witnessed him pulling a massive
copper pipe from a 30 foot high ceiling with his bare hands..
I did the Sofles ghostwriters piece there solo over 3 weekends
after getting spooked out too much..
Who did i take here... Umm.. Brsky, Area, Mekso, Festo,
Video & Cispeo..
Once i went with a girlfriend who wandered off alone when i was
piecing. She came running back screaming being chased by some
big boy Islanders.. I only saw them emerge from a darkened garage
with a nasty look in their eye on their approach.
When they saw me they come straight up, between them they were
like 10 times my size. And i wasn't feeling too good about the
situation. she was behind me, I had a tight grip of my ext. baton
but felt i did some talking to get outta that one...
It was all good.. One seemed to like the graff, he did all the talking
but i think the other was more interested in the girl.
Until one day myself and 2 photographers were spotted doing a
shoot in one of the old studios that were pretty much pitch black.
I was posing in hoodies up against what looked like a police line up,
with height levels.. We heard voices and i darted to the other room
to pack the cans i was holding back into my green bag of paint and
walked back in, only to be rushed by 10 neanderthal like silhouettes
of demolition workers with steel poles ready to start swinging
shit down, one had a 6 year old kid that looked like he could draw
enough blood to put you in critical condition.
They fully surrounded us in no time and our only defence is that we're
photographers, despite my Ironlak hoody.. They assured us if we
were "Stealing shit or vandalising the place" they would of given
us a touch up and held us until the cops to come.. Then they
explained the dangers of being in condemned building that was
being torn down.. etc etc..
Thankfully the police weren't called and we were set free unharmed..
That was my last visit.
Next i heard heaps of young kids were going there and were
getting raided by cops, a few got busted in there, but we had
already pimped it out and moved on..
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