Meet POW! WOW! Street Artist SPIDERTAG
Spidertag describes himself as a "street art superhero." ThisMadrid-based artisthas become known for his abstract, geometric shapes and interactive neon murals.His innovative use of materials and incredible designs made him a real standout at the most recent POW! WOW! festival in Hawaii and WOD Magazine was lucky enough to chat with the artist himself in this exclusive Q&A. https://www.instagram.com/p/BupD2JODto7/
WOD: Tell us about yourself.
ST: I’m a street artist who works with neon lights to create temporary geometric figures and permanent interactive murals.
WOD: Tell us a little bit about your recent experience with the POW! WOW! event and how you became involved with it.
ST: POW! WOW! is an international Urban Art Festival that happens every year in Hawaii, but they also host events in cities all over the world. It’s an important thing to participate in such a big event and I’m so proud to be a part of 2019's edition.[caption id="attachment_6461" align="alignleft" width="300"]
POW! WOW! Hawaii, 2019[/caption]
WOD: What are some of the biggest influences on your work?
ST: I love art and culture. I try to learn as much as possible from a huge range of things including Russian constructivism, kinetic art, electronic and alternative music, literature, cinema, video games, graffiti, current muralism, and modern architecture.
WOD: You do interactive neon murals, tell us about what that is exactly and what inspired you to start doing them.
ST: My intention is to work with neons to make unique murals that you can maneuver and play with using a remote control to make changes. For two years, from 2013 to 2015, I was looking for new materials to work with until by accident -like a superhero story- I randomly found a warehouse store containing the materials that changed my career: flexible cables with batteries. So I restarted my career. Last year I had another eureka moment when I found neons that allowed me to do permanent and interactive murals.
WOD: What was your first source of inspiration that led you to this artistic, unique path of creativity?
ST: A lot of luck but also intuition and a lot of effort to find something new. Failure was also important to me because when you are on a path and you just aren’t sure, you can fail. It's painful and stressful but in perspective it’s also part of the job.
WOD: You source all your materials locally, why did you chose to do this instead of bringing them with you?
ST: Well, since I started to travel the world, I had to deal with a new logistical problem: importing/exporting customs. To avoid this problem, everywhere I go outside the European Union -where I live- I work with a project manager or assistants to find all the things I need before arriving.[caption id="attachment_6509" align="alignright" width="386"]
Festival Estau in Portugal, 2018[/caption]
WOD: Anything else you would like readers to know about you?
ST: Stay tuned to see my new adventures and keep on dancing in the streets!
Learn More About POW! WOW!
POW! WOW! has become a global phenomenon. This nonprofit organization brings contemporary artists from all over the world to create incredible murals and other artwork while also engaging the community through outreach and educational programs (read our Q&A with POW! WOW! founder Jasper Wong here).
