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Interview – Bode Klein – LOV3

Interview – Bode Klein – LOV3

Its a Saturday evening. The burning embers of a closing day are splayed across the sky in swaths of golden umber and blue, that point in the late afternoon where shadows stretch out between meek slivers of disappearing sunlight.

I’m in Woodend for Art of the  Mill, in front of me is a gorgeous country sunset lifting above the treeline, and to my left is a big mass of meticulously arranged wood – one of many piles at the old saw mill that the event is being held at. Stacked layer by layer, the tower of recycled beams stands several meters tall, and as the shadows deepen in the dying light, the letters LOV3 are formed from chunks of timber that have been slightly indented from the rest.

It was the work of Bode Klein, also known by those letters amongst the wood, and it was the first time I had really had a chance to be exposed to the full capacity of his work. I’d seen a few rollers and pieces around before, some that were extraordinarily eye catching, but I hadn’t really had a chance to meet the guy or watch him at work. Inside the big shed that week at Woodend, he’d also been quietly transforming a small section of space into a second installation piece, showcasing the way in which he utilises anything and everything that comes to hand in order to propagate his message.

I’d been pretty impressed by his work that weekend, and I was curious to find out a lot more. The time it had taken him to place each piece of wood, and then create the letters with those heavy, indented logs was the mark of a patient man, one who is willing to use whatever item or tool may lay at hand on order to inspire his work. With near spiritual focus, his public work espouses a message of universal love, with each piece contains a beautiful energy and message of hope and life. His studio work also is no exception, and with his background as a graffiti artist growing up in Colorado, all of it is interspersed with a street ethos that only comes from having spent a shitload of time painting walls and playing with letters.

We had a chance to catch up with Bode Klein, aka LOV3, just last week to ask him about his work, his visions of hope and love, his upcoming film project showing at St Kilda film festival and all the things in between … read on, and enjoy!

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Way back when to the origin story – when did you first realize that art was something that you wanted to seriously pursue in life?

For me it would have been university that’s when shit got serious and I really started learning about art and techniques.  I saw a significant increase in my abilities and I was introduced to a group of professors and peers that believed in and supported my potential.

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Also back in then beginning, can you tell us a bit about the time you spent in your younger days as a graffiti artist? How did you fall into it all – and how did this segue into your general love of art?

I started writing graffiti when I was 15 in Denver, Colorado during the early 90s. It was a time in my life when I started to find my own identity. I found it through the art form of graff, hip hop and a camaraderie of new friendships and crew. Before that I had lived in Scotland. The transformation to America was difficult at that age and I desperately wanted to fit in. I was often moving homes and schools and I had this accent that certainly labelled me as an outsider.

Graff wasn’t easy in Denver we were always getting sweated by the 5-0. In those times there weren’t any public walls and there was a curfew for youth and a graffiti task force. I would always come up with these ridiculous ways to go bombing, showing up at a crew house dressed up in a tuxedo, pockets full of spray cans, thinking I looked older, respectable and inconspicuous. Another time I dressed as a bush in military fatigues and a gas mask thinking nobody would see me.  I polished up my styles and techniques in an old storm sewer by the light of an old Coleman lantern that ran on unleaded gasoline.

Sitting around with the crew, drawing in our piece books, smoking blunts, drinking 40s, busting free styles over hip hop instrumentals as we waited for the depth of night so we could go paint some freight trains. Those were the best nights!

It’s interesting to look back on the evolution of my work and to see that I’m still so highly influenced by those days.

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Tell us a bit about the way you work – a lot of your pieces are very integrated with the specific site that you’re creating within. How does this help the creative freedom of the work you produce, and what are some of the hidden traps associated with tackling each site?

When I’m in the studio I work with more traditional methods and materials, but when I am outdoors I find my work surfaces on the street or more commonly in nature herself. I travel a lot and these methods give me an opportunity to create in less conventional ways when I’m away from home. My canvases become site-specific locations that have spoken to me. The materials I use to paint these canvases are most often found within these locations.

Let me give you an example of a recent piece I just did in the South Island of New Zealand. I’m taking a late afternoon stroll down a beach on the west coast. The sun is beginning to drop toward the horizon line. Sand flies are eating the shit out of my face. I’m heading back to my van when I’m drawn toward a giant piece of driftwood with a shape I desire to use in my earth art. To me it resembles a stylized letter found in graff writing. The sun hits it at a certain angle, creating an aura of light around its outer edge. I examine the shoreline and its picturesque beach that tapers off towards the ocean. This particular location, in this particular moment has had a conversation with me. It is where I will begin to manifest my work. The materials, the light and the location help me make this decision simultaneously. I begin to gather other driftwood considering size, colour, shape and weight; these will be my building blocks, the medium to paint my canvas.

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When working this way I am faced with a multitude of complications and challenges that I have little control over. Yet it keeps things interesting and I am always learning to work with a different array of materials. The biggest factor is time.  For this particular piece time played a huge part as it could have been washed away by the ocean tides. Time also impacts on the available light. There are other factors too, like the weather, temperature, those annoying sand flies, and in one instance, an unexpected bear… but that’s a whole other story of its own. Much of my work is ephemeral so capturing it is always done through photography.  Taking a photograph that captures its essence and strength as a piece is often the most challenging and critical part.

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How did the whole LOV3 project come about, and what did you intend to do with it all from the beginning? Do you feel like you’ve achieved some major milestone with it all over the last few years?

I was with my good friend Daniel Gibb, discussing our future goals and the direction of our lives. I was happy with the direction I was going in with my most recent body of work. I was creating big love sculptures out of found objects and the wasteful material that people had discarded. I had just finished a piece constructed out of old fence boards that I salvaged from a demolition job and I had chosen to erect it up on Loveland Pass. This location has a lot of significance for me, so it was perfect. Not only because its name was so fitting but also because it defines Colorado. Loveland Pass is a pinnacle point in the Rocky Mountains; an epic spot for skiing and snowboarding, but most importantly it is the location of the continental divide thus separating river systems that flow to opposite sides of the continent.  I believe art carries energy and my intention was for the frequency of love to radiate off the mountain and spill into the river systems to the edges of the continent.

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I told Dan that night I wanted to travel around the United States and continue creating similar sculptures of site-specific significance: manifesting love light and energy in highly spiritual conducting spaces like California’s Redwoods, the Mesas of the Hopi in Arizona or the Canyon lands of Utah. I asked Dan what he wanted to do.  He told me he also wanted to travel around the United States in an RV continuing his music production and creating a documentary. ‘Why don’t I just film a documentary about you and what you do’ he said and I think that’s really when The LOV3 Project began. We had planted a seed. Less than a year later Dan arrived in Melbourne and we began filming our short documentary FROM AUSTRALIA WITH LOV3.

The film has definitely been a milestone, as was an epic road trip I took last year through the heart of Mexico and Central America: painting murals and making earth art along the way. I  travelled with Jessica Demshar who is a key player in our project, maintaining a plethora of versatile abilities as translator, manager, film producer, yoga instructor, massage therapist, splinter extractor, square dancer but most importantly my very good friend.

FROM AUSTRALIA WITH LOV3 was also selected to play at the St Kilda Film Festival this year. The film looks takes a look into the process and perspective of my recent artwork and myself and was filmed predominantly here in Melbourne and Victoria. It carries a focus on beautiful cinematography and an impactful message.

The film is screening this Friday, 27 May at 7pm. Tickets are still available so come and check it out!

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You’ve spent a fair bit of time in Melbourne, what drew you to the city and what is it about Melbourne, and Australia, that inspires you?

Just the usual really, brothels, kangaroos and the coffee! [Laughs]

No, I actually didn’t mean to come here or at least not to stay here. My girlfriend at the time had chosen to attend Uni on the Sunshine coast but Melbourne intercepted us on our way.  As far as inspiration goes, the art scene is exciting and vibrant with a lot of great talent.  Over time I’ve met some really good life long friends in Melbourne and that always draw me back.

IMG_2223You’ve done a fair bit of travel, can you tell us a but about the highlights of some of your more memorable journeys?

In October 2005 I was living off Lake Atitlan in Guatemala when tropical storm Stan hit the area hard.  Unforgiving torrential rainfall caused devastating mudslides and flooding to the area. The village of Panabaj was completely devoured in mud. It is estimated that a 1000 people died in that village alone. I was there first hand digging in hopes of finding the living and bodies to identify. Entire communities came out to help that day. The only excavator or heavy piece of machinery lay damaged and worthless as 100s of volunteers dredged in the relentless mud for days in hope of finding life. There was none!

Ten years later, in 2015, I returned to that sight to pay tribute and create a love piece on the very same ground. A coffee plantation had grown in its place and other native bush. The mud was now dressed in a blanket of green. The only reminder that there had ever been a disaster there were the walls of a few brick buildings that remained half buried, as well as some shoes and boots that lay scattered amongst the foliage. The wounds of the scoured earth had been bandaged up by time and natures growth.

The love piece was small and humble for a disaster of such magnitude and I would have loved to create a monument that could have withstood time. Yet in its intention and from my very heart it was massive! It was made from two heaping sacks full of flower petals collected by school children and their families for the painting of beautiful alfombras (carpets made from flowers, feathers, sand and sawdust) to celebrate Semana Santa. Later these flowers would be collected and taken to the site of the disaster. I worked with the word ajbelriil, meaning love in Mayan. Made of sticks found on sight I placed the word upon a bed of flower petals in one of the ruins that lay imbedded in my memory from ten years earlier. Moments after completion some children came to play in the flower petals and rolled around in them. I found out there mother was one of the rare survivors from that village. My translator and new friend explained what I was creating; the woman and  held my hand and thanked me.  Cant explain how special this moment was for me.

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The next stage of the LOV3 project, it looks like you may be heading over to Ghana – not the typical destination, what made you choose to go there and travel to Africa as the next part of your adventures?

I was approached by Jess our Project Manager, who has close ties with a Denver based non-profit organization called Hello Ghana and asked if I would be interested in partnering up with the group in an Ofaakor orphanage. In early 2017 I will be working with the community on some creative projects and painting a large mural on their newly built library. Africa has been coming up for me a lot lately and I have been aware of its pull.

I had already been planning a trip to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with my father so the timing has worked out well.

If there were no limitations to your creativity at all, what is the one thing you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t been able to, or would never be able to do?

I would like to immerse myself in communities who have been war torn or scarred by natural disaster. I want to erect monumental works or beacons of love within these communities bringing people together not only to enjoy the work but also to help with its creation. Unconditional love is the highest vibrational energy and sharing this frequency within torn communities is what I would choose to do.

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Besides your next trip, what’s next? What other plans do you have waiting to be unleashed?

After Ghana, I have commitments in the Bay Islands of Honduras working with a local school on a beach clean up and sculpture project as well as the painting of a mural. I also really want to get started on the film project in the United States that I mentioned earlier.

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You can check out more of the LOV3 work from Bode Klein over at his website as well as information on the LOV3 Project over at Facebook.

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