Broken Fingaz Crew is coming to London

Israeli street-art troupe Broken Fingaz Crew began working in 2001 in the port of Haifa, and in a few months, the crew will be descending on London for a show at east London’s shop 13 at the Old Truman Brewery.

Tant sketchbook 2010
Tant sketchbook 2010

Inspired by ‘comic book covers, old school skateboard graphics, tattoos and neo-psychdelia’, the crew says it started out as a writing collective, but quickly formed an artist collective that turn their many hands to illustrating flyers, posters, album covers and logos for Tel Aviv’s underground club scene and fashion brands.

Unga, Isreal 2010
Unga, Isreal 2010

Recently, they tell us, their work has taken on themes including ‘possessed animals, acid creatures, fat people, atomic explosions, end of the world, space and time travel.’

Swiss 2011
Swiss 2011

In 2007, they opened their FingaPrints gallery in Haifa and their work has taken them from the streets to world-wide gallery exhibitions including the Inside Job installation at Helena Rubinstein pavilion of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv Museum, a group show at Art Beijing and projects in Russian, Istanbul, San Francisco and the UK as part of Canimation Festival in Bristol and London’s Short Film Showcase Suitcase last year.

However, whether the venue is a museum or a disused building, BFC will always stay true to their roots. ‘I guess most of all it’s another way of showing art. We don’t do this kind of separation – “that’s street art and that’s art for the museum”… we like both big colourful walls, poster arts and paintings, and we put as much creative effort in whichever project comes across’, says crew-member Kip.

 ‘In both museums [Haifa Museum of Art and the Tel Aviv Museum] we used new methods, worked a lot with timber and painted with acrylic. We also had the chance to play with light/shade and choosing a soundtrack to go along so it was fun.’

Vadi Niceness installation at Tel Aviv Museum 2011
Vadi Niceness installation at Tel Aviv Museum 2011

Broken Fingaz Crew is comprised of four core members, though they say they have a ‘big posse that travel with us, bomb with us, and help us make big projects.’

Kip explains, ‘Unga is the flying man, Tant is uber strong and can wrestle a bear down, Kip is a dolphin and a calculator and Deso can talk to birds.’ Obviously.

Swiss 2011
Swiss 2011

BFC has not launched their offshoot, Ghostown Crew – named because ‘we live in a ghost town where most of the citizens are old and people our age are students that don’t get out of the house or do anything creative and fun’ – which sees them collaborating with other artists and branching out into new disciplines.

China 2010
China 2010

Kip explains, ‘We recently got into classic animation, I think if it would be possible – we would’ve done that a lot more. It takes lots of time and patience but in the end when you see it go its always magical in a way, even if the movement is a bit retarded.’

Already busy with a commission in Cambodia, the crew seems excited about the upcoming UK show, which is being put on by No Way creative agency and  events consultant Rudi Khalastchi.

So how do BFC feel about their upcoming UK show? ‘Hopefully good, we know its one of the biggest art and graff centres, so we’ll need to deliver some next level shit!’

Potsdam, Germany 2011
Potsdam, Germany 2011

The exhibition will be at Shop 13 at the Old Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane, London E1 from 20 – 30 April

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