The Chop Shop Kickstarter

Unbelievably rad things are happening in Canberra!

Introducing, THE CHOP SHOP.

Sancho Murphy from the Dirty Laundry and Pat Rose from Coy are uniting forces to create a home for Canberra’s street culture unlike anything ever attempted before! Taking an abandoned warehouse in the heart of Braddon and turning it into an space made for street artists, musicians, skaters, creatives, designers and all manner of cool people! And they’re doing it all to support the artists, not themselves! So how about you show your support and chuck some pennies to their Kickstarter, it’s a very reachable goal and all contributions come with a treat; one of a kind skate boards, limited edition shirts, tickets, stickers, parties and more! Get Kicking Canberra!

Mr Manok Interview

Tell us about yourself and what you do?

Well, I create art under the moniker Mr Manok. I like to dabble in a lot of different mediums, I never really like to stay still, I make stickers, posters, I do traditional art, digital art, t-shirts. I made a resin toy one time; that was cool! I just like to do a lot of different things and try everything out to see what I do and don’t like.

How did you get your start?

My start-start? My real start? Happened in 2010, I entered this t-shirt competition that my friend sent to me. They really liked my design, but in the end they chose this really wack design. The design was really shit and it won. They just ended up printed mine anyway, and I didn’t even know any better cause I was 16. I was like ‘Oh my god, they’re gonna print my shirt!’ But in the end they just gave me two of my designs and that was it, they sold the rest. So I wrote an email, I was like “Why you tryin’ to step on the little fishes?! I’m only 16 and still in high school! You takin’ advantage of my stupidness!”

But from there, I just kept winning, at school I kept getting all the high grades. I was very competitive in the art world there. My teachers just kept asking me if I had anything online, ‘cause people were like ‘I wanna see your stuff’ and I’m like, ‘I can’t show you!’ So then I made a Facebook page, and then I found out about Art not Apart and went to that. I met Juliette Dudley, and I was also in a class with Ash Peak, which was pretty cool. Then I was like ‘Oh my god, what is this Us Folk thing?’ And then I went to the exhibition!

Oh my god I’m really ADHD with this interview!
I went to the Us Folk exhibition; that was the first time I was in a real-real exhibition, one that I didn’t have to pay to be in. After that Juliette gave my name to the people at La De Da, so I did an art battle there. That’s how I kinda stuck my foot in the Canberra art community, ‘cause I met Sancho.. Eeeee! And then Voir, and Eugene, and that was pretty rad. And then it kinda grew from there.
I was like, ‘man! I need to do more shit!’ so then I just started doing more shit! I was like ‘I really need to pick up my game!’ and then I’ve just picked up my game! Picked up the ball and just running with the ball. Run Forrest Run!

So what’s the story behind your name?

I’m Filipino, but I don’t speak Tagalog; I only know some basic words. Manok was one of them. I know like ten Filipino words, Manok was my favourite because it meant chicken. I thought Mr Chicken was really funny; only the Filipino people would be like, ‘oh that’s Mr Chicken! Ha ha, Mr Chicken!’ and now it’s just, stuck with me forever! I can’t ever change it! I just thought it was funny... And everyone thinks I’m a boy.. I think I Catfish a lot of women on Facebook. Cause it says Mr and I’m like ‘Oh my goddd, I’m Catfishing all these womennn!’

I feel like people are the same with Sancho

Yeah! Cause Sancho’s a dude’s name!  Yeah! Cause I mean, I was also scared as well, that people would be mean to me if I used my girl name, ‘cause all my characters are really retarded. So like, me going under a different name gives me the ability to do whatever the hell I want. Like I can draw weird ass nips and shit like that.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Umm, cartoons, Pokemon. Other artist with similar styles, 123 Klan, everyone in the Weird Crew, Sheryo, the Yok, Canberra artists…

Which Canberra artists?

All of them!

But which are you’re favourites?!

Awhh, I’m gonna say Sancho. Hehe! Sancho. I like Sancho. I like Voir. I like Houl- I don’t want to miss anyone! I’m scared I’m gonna miss someone, so just put all of them! Just say all of them- cause, it just keeps me going, to be like, ‘oh they’ve put something out, now I have to put something out’. So that’s what inspires me. And.. VINYL TOYS! I like vinyl toys! And toys, and anything like that! I like ice cream. I like, I like, lollies! I like bright colours. And nipples. Just everything that’s funny to me! I like weird stuff…

What's next for Mr Manok?

I don’t know, I wanna do a branch apparel, like, do some trill wear, put my designs on clothing so I can wear it. I’m always like, ‘man I wish I had some, crazy ass, candy coloured clothing!’ I can’t find any anywhere. I think it’d be really cool if I just make my own.

Where can we find more of your work?

I’ve got a website, Facebook page, also have Instagram, but I hate Instagram!

Sancho's Dirty Laundry

One of the biggest supporters of Canberra's street artists and independent labels is a little store called Sancho's Dirty Laundry. The ridiculously cool lady who's been doing the hard hustle for years to make her dream become a reality is Sancho. We had a chat to Sanch about the store and her experience, before it leaves it's current location of Lonsdale St Traders this Sunday, the 4th of April 2014.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and what you do?

I studied at ANU art school, and just did my basic bachelor’s degree through there; it was actually in the photo media department. I originally wanted to go into the, kind of, drawing and painting, but my Dad was like ‘no, artists can never make a living!’, so he made me do something a bit more commercial. But since then, I kind of graduated, jumped from job to job; at one point was working at a commercial screen printers, I worked at the Mint, in product development. But, I just found that it was really soul destroying in the public service. Like, I had friends who were doing creative things, whether it be tattoo apprenticeships, skaters who got into the art side of things, graffers, and I thought it’d be cool to open up a shop which supports that kind of thing. Also I was doing my own t-shirt label on the side and I just found it so hard to get stocked in retail outlets, unless you were a big established brand. So I used my shop as a testing ground for all those things, and so far it’s going good.

How did the shop get started?

After I left the public service I was pretty much just doing pop-up shops and markets, but I found that it was pretty hit and miss. And also, it’s a different kind of target market I’m going for. So then, just when I was about to go back to the Mint, I was struggling paying my bills, doing the freelancing, a friend pointed me to this competition the Lonsdale St Traders were doing. Pretty much you just had to post your creative business idea onto their page and the one that got the most likes won a week rent-free pop-up. So that was really cool!  And it was nice to see how many people supported the idea, it kind of gave me this warm fuzzy feeling. Cause, you know, if they’re willing to help the pop-up, imagine the support from the Canberra community you’d get for an actual shop! We lucked out in the end, that the shop across was moving out at the end of that week, so I just enquired about that space and pretty much just took a chance; and put all my savings into it! I was a bit freaked out the first few weeks; you’ve really got to focus on the marketing side of things and get your name out and about. But in Canberra, with anything, momentum picks up, through the community support network. So it’s been good!

Why Canberra?

Why Canberra? Um, why am I sticking around here? I’m a creature of habit and familiarity, and I don’t know, I guess. I mean, I was born in Sydney, but spent most of my formative years in Canberra, from Kindergarten upwards. And, Canberra’s pretty unique in that, it’s a cool thing because everyone knows everyone. But that can also be a bad thing, because, everyone knows everyone! But, I tend to focus on the positive side of it, and as well, there’s a lot going on. I think that you kind of have to look for it, like in places like Sydney and Melbourne that’re so dense there’s so much more going on that you can see from the surface point of view, whereas Canberra’s like a fraction of the size. Our biggest pull is universities and public service jobs, so that’s all that people see Canberra as being, but actually there’s a lot going on.

I know you know a lot of artists, but who are some of your favourites?

Um, one of my favourites is… I don’t know, it’s hard ‘cause it’s kind of like when you’re a parent and you don’t want to give a favourite child! But I think the one who’s won my affection the most so far, and one of the hardest working artists is Houl. He originally came from Sydney, and it’s cool to see his presence grow in Canberra. I just think it’s from the sheer volume of works he puts up, but also the quality of it. Like, each one just gets better and better. And there’s no ego with that guy, he’s like the funniest, nicest dude ever.

Then I’d say another artist would be Voir and that’s just because the quality of his work, like he’s just amazing. He’s got like four different styles he jumps from. I think he’s done really well to kind of, teeter that line between graff and street art, and it’s really interesting to watch. And he’s been doing it since he was, I think, 14 years old or something.

Any advice for up and coming street artists?

Ah, I don’t know, I’m not that full of wisdom; I think that I lucked out towards the end, but I’d say perseverance, probably. Because if I stopped doing it before that opportunity at the Traders popped up, if I just gave up on doing markets stalls and trying to do the hustle, I probably never would have gotten on to it. People wouldn’t have referred me to that competition knowing that’s what I wanted to do. So perseverance and a lot of hard work hey?

Entrepreneurs always make things look easy, you know when you read those success story magazines, they make it look like the graph is always ‘onwards and upwards’, but it’s not like that. It’s kind of like ‘you go up, then you probably drop three times as much as you went up, then it goes sideways a bit, and you’ll probably backtrack’, that’s what’s it’s more like. It’s just about hard work and dedication. And, I guess you’ve got to be talented too.

So what’s next for you and the Dirty Laundry?

So we’re closing down on Sunday, the 4^th of May, that’ll be our last day. But that was a decision, because I’ve got a few other projects in the works; think pop-up shops, pop-up galleries, some more kind of street art, graff based events. So that’ll happen the next few months, type thing. But we’re gonna open up the new location! In like, two or three months, just depending on how things go. We’ll become more of a graff shop, a bit of a gallery, more indie tee labels, and independent skate labels.

So while we’re patiently waiting for the Laundry’s reopen who else in Canberra is supporting the local street art scene?

There’s quite a few actually; there’s La De Da Bar of course, I’d say they’re probably one of the first, more active, kind of, cultural, bar type, hubs that do it. With regular painty events and what not. There’s Art Market, that happens, I think, once every 4 or 5 months and that’s really sweet because it promotes the commercialisation. People are always dissing making money from your craft as selling out, but it’s cool to have places like this that perpetuate it, saying ‘hey, you can do creative stuff and you can make a living from it, through this event, be a part of it!’. Honkytonks, they do that Wednesdays at the Wall thing, that’s quite good. BeachBurrito as well, they’ve recently jumped on a few creative events through sponsorship and what not.

There could be more that the galleries do for street, graff, and for the lack of a better word, ‘low-brow art’. Galleries tend to be more geared towards the art side of things and often you require a tertiary education to even have your proposal considered. And, I think it’s cool to have these alternative fringe places supporting others, because there are talented people out there who didn’t go to university.

What are your ultimate goals?

I guess, to enjoy my work through helping people. But it’s kind of already like that through this small space. I’ve met so many creative people, and being able to do that for a living, and being sustainable. Like at the moment it’s still in that start-up phase, so I still have to hustle a lot. And, I guess It’d be cool to be taken more seriously in the arts world, through my shop and the people that I support

Keep up to date with Sancho on Facebook: 

Sancho Designs and Sancho's Dirty Laundry