‘The Least I Can Do’ selected works by ACME, Sept 1st-15th
Approach
Privilege is something you might not know you have until you know you do.
In the misty early years of graff you could only learn on the job there was no other way, if you weren’t already trying to do it then it was unlikely you would ever find out how to do it. However the more you did it, the more mysterious portals to the unseen world of the biggest underground art movement of the century would appear, and as I say sometimes they have gatekeepers but always they have cornerstones.
Acme is that, he held up the secret access points so you could go through the path he had cut, would tell you where the trolls were so you didn’t get robbed 100% of the time. Although it’s 50/50 on how to get back in one piece, and ultimately how to not poison it for following generations.
Our Faculty
In an era when there was no industry, no nice art paint brands, no whisper or early signs of the popularisation and commodification of the art form, he was right there, 24/7 365, documenting and enriching the lexicon of styles and techniques.
He wasn’t just showing you the graff scene live and direct, as it happened, giving you the absolute privilege of seeing as much of what was happening in the Capitals graff culture as the heads, actually in that city, and making sure the needed insights into tools, tech and timelines were available; No, he was simultaneously active, in creating more work and claiming more space in the local scene than any artist prior to, or indeed today, and if your brain just gave you the name of an artist you think has done anything near the same, well ask you self did Acme bring them through?
You’re fooling yourself if you think not.
Making History
The man has an archive steeped in history, imagine that, even the archive has its own history, from the connections he made with some of the country's greatest writers to the archive, being part of a major criminal prosecution, to walking into the belly of the beast (quite literally) and retrieving it all afterwards, paying the systems price of being a real outsider artist, operating outside of the machine and covertly contributing to the leading platforms within the culture currently.
I’ve had the privilege of knowing ACME for most of my life. This body of work gives you 1 small degree of the 360 of it, and is a brief peek at the university at the centre of our universe. The secret 24 hr kung fu school, where he would give you a slap for calling him The Master, he really didn’t and doesn’t want your acclaim. He did and does want you to rate the culture as highly as we do, because it has and will, change and reframe the direction of your life and the world you live in, and that is, the least he can do.
Words - BenOne -