At 24 years of age Jonas "Pike" Dahlström is already an
veteran in his area.
During a visit in London as a 12 year old he first saw
graffiti on subway cars.
When he came back home to Malmö, "Pike" started spreading
his tags and pieces arround the city.
- Graffiti were a good way of combining art with puberty.
You could be down with the gang and at the same time
work with pictures.
And you were not to be judged by any art critics, that you
would have been if you were doing traditional art.
Back then their were nobody that knew more about graffiti
than yourself, he tells us during our visit in his studio
in an suburb to Stockholm.
Nowdays "Pike" doesn´t like being called an writer.
Last year he finished an 10 year long period of graffiti art work
in Sweden and in Holland, and for a short while he even
tought the art of graffiti at a school in Uppsala.
But nowdays "Pike" concentrate more in being an artist
for the ninetees: with inspiration from computer games,
comics and commercials he wants to create art for a new generation.
- My paintings are not in particular inspired by traditional art.
It´s more the commercial pictures I compete with.
That he has reached were he´s at is an logical step in his procession.
Already as a child "Pike" were playing with "Lego" showing
that he were thinking in an creative way.
- When I was getting into graffiti it became like an Ninja Mission.
You would steal spraypaint, create an sketch, picked a place
and sneaked out at night to create an picture.
Then you would photograf it to build an cataloge out of pictures.
You took care of yourself and that were an deam good experience.
The graffiti has made me realise that nothing is impossible.
The Ninja is an character that "Pike" seems to recall alot to.
In his studio he has an small boy doll that he has repainted
to an mini ninja.
One of his freshest paintings shows an Ninja that has jumped out
of the comic squares and has become an third dimenthial cyber hero
armed with Kalles Kaviar tubes as nunchakus and with
"throwing stars" in knäcke bread.
Chip Chop Don´t Stop by Pike.
I want to show how important movies, video, commercials
and computer technology are to people in my age.
It use to be the movies that copied the reality
but nowdays it´s the other way arround.
The media dictatetes our lives, "Pike" explains.
When "Pike" doesn´t make art he enjoys throwing frisbee,
"feels a bit more motivated than pumping iron in a gym or
collecting old Spiderman comics, I have just stop doing that."
Now it´s Bugs Bunny, I feel like him sometimes.
When I wondered if he had any weird memories from the days
as an outlaw graffiti writer he told me this bizarre story:
It has to be that time when I tagged an policecar in Gothenburg.
I were in an bar at Avenyn and spotted an police car parked outside
I grabbed my cans and started painting the car.
Behind me were an ordinary car with two males in it.
I waved happily to them and I were quite surprised
when they grabbed me: As it showed they were police officers
that gone under cover for the night, they took me to the station
made me pay 3000 swedish kronor for the colourwork.
Om du vill anlita Pike så går det bra att ringa
honom på telefon nummer: 08- 17 77 71.
Text: Mikael Funke.
Bilder: Max Fredriksson.
Källa: Edge nr 7- 8, 1996
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