March 2009: Kiev with Psia Krew

Last week, I received an interesting challenge. Thanks to my high school French teacher (Merci, Madame), I can puzzle out the gist of most Romance languages. The Cyrillic alphabet, however, is a whole other story. Google Translate proved to be quite valuable in this situation. I played with the syntax, polished everything up, and am proud to present our first Ukrainian post. Meet Psia Krew, a group of graff guys from Kiev, Ukraine. (The name means "dog's blood" in English). Crew member Jura Maraudeur writes:

"Psia Krew (Kiev Krew) dabbles in different forms of street graphics without committing to any particular genre. Emerging initially as a traditional crew, Psia Krew’s writers aimed to write their names and the crew’s name everywhere. They exposed Ukrainians to the world of graffiti, which made it possible to communicate with a wider audience. Flirting with so-called «street art», the crew took a fresh look at graffiti writing and the creation of murals."

"In our crew, we clearly distinguish between graffiti as street art, the broadest spontaneous artistic self-expression, and graffiti as writing, a graffiti-movement and subculture that originated in New York (or California, depending on who you ask). In the first case, there are no internal rules or restrictions. In the second case, we are dealing with a rigid hierarchy and value system along with stereotyped patterns, behaviors, and self-organization." 

"Crew members Lodek, Ura, Kiot, and Homer participate equally in both subculture writing and more popular «public» street art. Being a classical writer has its limitations. For example, you write your name or logo everywhere and do so with unwavering enthusiasm. Street art is interesting to others and is mainly popular due to its accessibility to readers."  

"Using their street experience, Kiev Krew’s members also experiment with a static version of communication: gallery exhibitions. Of course, it is impossible to submit true «street art» to a gallery. 

Therefore, depending on the context, the group tends to reformat its street projects. We feel it is an interesting opportunity to illustrate the connection between the things we love: outdoor graffiti, graphic design, fashion, lifestyle…"  

All photos courtesy of Psia Krew. To see more, find Jura Maraudeur or Homer on MySpace.

Thanks, Jura! And to all the members of Psia Krew and everyone using the Cyrillic alphabet, Спасибо вам, читатели! Я надеюсь услышать больше историй и Смотрите фотографии из стран Восточной Европы.  Finally, I got an e-mail yesterday from Remi/Rough in London. He's got a private viewing on Thursday, so check it out if you're in the area. Grab the details here. Tomorrow's post features another new country, so brace yourself for another globe-trotting report.