Orkhan Hajili SpY – Madrid based street artist. Started his career in 1980’s as a graffiti artist. He has been present on Madrid street art scene as the mid-eighties. Very soon he started to explore a different kind of artistic communication in the street, so he started to utilize different kinds of large posters, modified billboards and ultimately, his renowned interventions.
His interventions take the form of a word play with the high impact capacity and are always closely archived through photography, which helps to keep tabs on the — voluntarily unanimous artist. Self-taught artist, SpY was one of the leaders of this Spanish graffiti scene of the nineties, and today he’s sometimes even called Spanish Banksy by the press and urban art fans. SpY can turn a half pipe into a soccer pitch, train a CCTV camera onto a heap of bricks and replace a public telephone with a banana. To put it differently, he is a very refined prankster.
Even though his art expression evolved into courageous contemporary conceptual art, he gave up his origins — graffiti, as it had been for him a college of incalculable worth, both artistically and in life. And, above all — notably intensive and protracted exercise in the monitoring of the urban environment training. His artistic idea and motive would be best described as the goal to carry simple ideas in the form of irony. As most of his colleagues, SpY criticizes the society, and at the same time, he is sending the message of how to enhance ourselves, sometimes even only through words written on the buildings. Words like READ, LOVE and THINK…
Most of his creation comes from the simple observation of this city and an appreciation of its own components. Where he’s a real master is as it pertains to exploit the possibilities via a constructive mindset and intervention. His bits are similar to pinches of intention, hidden in a corner for whoever wants to let himself be amazed. Filled with equal pieces of irony and positive comedy, they appear to raise a smile, incite reflection, and to prefer an educated conscience.
The irony and comedy make an open dialogue and suggest the job communicates something which each passerby can sense identified with. Each intervention requires new processes; there’s no defined method. All parts are presented as a fresh challenge, by the thought of the place, development, creation of the documentation and work.
Today, he lives and works in his native Madrid.
