Disheartened by the glut of street art in NYC, Faile, one of Brooklyn’s most notorious street art crews, recently moved away from their usual canvas of the street to focus on new ways to expose their art to the general public. The boys just wrapped up Temple in Lisbon, an installation piece two years in the making, which paid homage to sacred items as works of art. We had a chat with the boys about their latest adventures including their soon-to-be released self-titled book of work.

Your work is a melting pot of pop culture, drawing inspiration from and referencing things such as anime and manga, the graphic novel and pulp. What five words do you think best describe your work?

Never – Share – Secrets – of – Faile.

Some of Australia’s most prolific urban artists did a lot of work on the street before turning to fine art, their reason being that the city’s street art scene had become oversaturated. Has the same thing happened in New York?

That point definitely was hit. For us it was a time of backing away from the street for awhile. There was just so much going up and so much bad work. For whatever reason, it was like the gold rush in street art and everyone was slapping whatever they could on walls and calling it art. It seems to have gotten better though, in some ways the recession has helped cool things down a bit. The people that are still doing it seem more serious about the work and I think the ones that have been doing for a long time are coming back and having fun with it again.

What was the turning point that made you shift your focus from the street to the studio?

There wasn’t a turning point that was so definite. The saturation was one thing. The street started to loss that sacred quality, which was compounded by people taking the work off the street and trying to sell it. But in the background the studio was always a focus of ours. Street art often gets confused as the art but it’s really just a vehicle for the work. There are things learned on the street that inform the studio practice and the opposite is true too. It’s a great place to let mistakes happen and embrace that in a new way. More than anything I think it ebbs and flows. You need the quiet spaces. We also started to think about new ways to define street art / public art. For us it came in the way of the Deluxx Fluxx shows and The Temple. It engages the public in a more comprehensive way but still has all the sudden and captivating qualities of stumbling upon a piece on the street.

What do you think defines NY street art? What makes it unique to other cities?

I don’t even know anymore. Everything is so global nowadays. I think it’s akin to the canvas you’re working on. It’s about surfaces and the surrounding context the work is in. New York is so alive and intense visually and graphically but you also have a real industrial side in Brooklyn and Queens. There’s also a grit to the city that adds a special quality.

Street art has quite a different approach to gallery work. What draws you to get your work out on the street?

The spontaneity. The unexpected things that occur. You have to be quick on the street and that keeps you from over thinking – at least when you’re working without permission. There’s also the direct interaction with the public. The work is viewed when people have their guard down. They’re not thinking about art, they’re in their own world and if you can enter that and stop them for a moment there’s something magical about that.

Can you tell us a bit about your recent installation, Temple, in Lisbon? What was behind it all?

That’s a big question to condense. It was a project that began 2 years ago. We had the opportunity to make something “next level” and we ran with it. Inspired by Della Robbia, a 15th c. Italian sculptor, we initially set out to translate our works into large ceramic reliefs. We did a lot of research traveling to castles, temples, and monasteries in Portugal. As the ideas and sketches kept evolving, so did the materials and the various ways of exploring and interpreting our work. Most of this was based on the idea of reinterpreting sacred objects as art, which in some way was an extension of the Prayer Wheels. There was so much work on so many levels that’s it’s hard to write in a few paragraphs.

I guess simply, after spending so many years placing our work on buildings, doors and walls – it seemed time to create our own building, doors and walls.

You mention a couple of bouts of food poisoning do you know what the offending meals were?

Two of them were from Pig’s Ear (we both got hit)… I know… we thought they were artichokes. The other was a suspicious shrimp pizza while working on-site.

What would be worshipped in Temple?

The imagination.

We understand the Temple was a few years in progress. How long was the process from concept to inception for your other well known spaces project with Bast, Deluxx Fluxx Arcade? And how did this project come together? Who approached who?

The Deluxx Fluxx show came together in 3 months, start to finish. It was insane looking back on it given how much work went into it. Fortunately, it was collaborative and several minds came together to create the experience.

Laz had an unexpected opening in the gallery and asked if we were interested in doing a small show. It was supposed to be just that, something simple. But it’s hard for us to just roll in like that. We hadn’t done a show with Bäst in 4 years and it’s always a good time working together so we asked him to join us. The idea just sort of flowed from sitting in Bäst’s studio together talking about making some assemblage furniture to the inclusion of a foosball to a full blown arcade.

As children of the ’80s it was close to our heart and just seemed fun.

It proved to be very technical but we had some great help. We asked some friends from college at Adapted and TSIFM to get involved, they brought Seth Jabour from Les Savy Fav on board and we found ourselves two months later in London with a bunch of old arcade machines and a vision.

Faile, your new book, is about to launch in Australia and worldwide what can we expect to see in it?

The book is solely devoted to works on paper. Prints and Originals from the last 10 years. It really is the base of all we do. It’s the place that many ideas are born and fleshed out so it seemed natural to make this our first comprehensive book.

Compiling and publishing a book isn’t always easy. How did you find the process? Did you have a complete archive already or did you need to go back and collate your work? How difficult was this process?

Honestly, it was pretty involved. After making this book we just realized we should start a new book now so in 2 years it comes together. We had an area on our website that we called the “sold out section.” It was a great archive of the work and had the feel of a collectors catalog. People always enjoyed it as it gave them a broad view of the prints. It was something we thought about making a small book of. Then over time and throwing around the idea we knew we had plenty of material to make a more substantial book. We talked to a friend Jeffrey Lai about designing the book for us and he got involved. We reached out to Gestalten whom we have a good relationship with after making a few artist books and it really went from there. Organizing, editing, writing, editing, searching etc…

The important thing to us was to show a trajectory and to make the book very approachable for all those that have collected and supported Faile over the years.

What’s next from Faile? Can we expect more installation work? How can you top Temple and DFA?

Right now, we are further exploring the wooden block paintings that we began playing with a year ago. It’s nice to get back to painting after doing several installation based shows.

I think we will focus on painting for awhile. It’s always the thing we come back to that intrigues and mystifies us. It’s an exploration and a journey that is at the core of Faile.

I don’t know about topping the Temple or the Deluxx Fluxx show at the moment. A year ago, I would have never thought that the Deluxx Fluxx show would’ve happened and / or that the Temple would’ve come together as well as it did. We just have to trust that I suppose, that given the opportunity we will rise to the occasion.

See more of Faile’s work at faile.net.

Faile appeared in #23 the New York issue. You can purchase it here.