GAUCHOWORLD AND SALOMON ENLIST TOMAS GITTINS TO ARTWORK GAUCHOWORLD SPACE
Photography by Stuart Nimmo
Where does the line sit between art and vandalism? Can a line even be drawn?
When the shutters went up at the all new Gauchoworld SPACE, we knew that by morning, someone would’ve left their impression on them. An inevitable rite of passage in London’s well established street art scene, we teamed up with Salomon and Manchester-based artist Tomas Gittins to create a lasting impression of our own.
The shutters are now a permanent exhibition of Tom’s works by night, and I caught up with the artist to speak about his journey from a local Manchester lad to collaborating with some of the world’s most iconic brands, creating a permanent mural in London, right in the heart of Hackney.
Tomas’ story begins away from a canvas, simply just intrigued by the visuals he was seeing on Cartoon Network and Youtube after a long day of sketching at the back of school classrooms. “I used to watch this thing called Ed's world, which was like a little animation series on YouTube. I'd always try to copy them,” begins Tomas. “I never really thought it could be viable [as a career path].”
His first breakthrough came ironically after he had put the art books away, but picked them up again after moving from the North (of England) to South Africa; Cape Town. “I didn't really know anyone so I just stayed in the gaff and made weird edits on paint. Then someone asked me to do some artwork for a night they were hosting and slowly I began doing more and more of that.” Whilst he enjoyed making things for others, it didn’t quite satiate his passion entirely, as he’s always seen himself as someone who enjoys “creating concepts and identities”. This manifested itself in the random brands he built, as he reels off a list of concepts he made tangible via t-shirts.
This latest concept ‘The Joy Must Grow’ is all about taking it back to the earliest days, celebrating the journey that’s taken him from “a little kid creating little paintings on paper” to having his artwork on cars, shutters and shoes. His collaborative shoe with Salomon is a significant checkpoint in actualising the dreams he had as a child, as Salomon is a brand that he grew up with, due to his love and active participation in fell running. “Back in the day, there was a thing I used to watch called Salomon TV. My dad is also an ultra runner, so Salomon is a brand I’ve always loved, even when the brand seemed unreachable,” says Tomas, describing the ability to build and grow with such a personally notable brand a “daily what the f*ck moment”.
We speak about the parallels between art and running, often drawing no distinction between in Tom’s head. “I think they’re quite similar,” he begins. “They’re both really important ways I clear my head, they’re journeys with an infinite destination. I’ve always had this idea of doing a split screen video, where I’m running on one side, painting a fatty canvas on the other. The end view is me just standing back, looking at the hill I’ve run up, looking back at the painting I’ve just made. It’s such a similar feeling.”
Our conversation winds back to talking about the space, and the character that now adorns it. Born from a perfect balance of freedom and instinct that shapes so much of Tomas’ work, the artist took a carpenter’s pencil to 40 pages of a sketchbook, picking the most interesting shapes, and anthropomorphising them and allowing them to become the foundation of his identity as an artist – now eternalised on the shutters of the Gauchoworld SPACE.
“They’re like portrayals of myself and what I see. They’re the manifestation of my mission to make a statement, make something that you could recognise as my art. At the same time, I just want to make something that I’d think was cool as a kid, a cartoon I’d watch.”
Although not yet officially open, you can catch Tomas Gittens’ artwork on the shutters of 145 Goldsmiths Row, and every evening once it closes for business.
See you soon?
