Established graffiti artist and drum and bass icon, Goldie, has pushed his maverick creative style to deadly new levels by creating a unique piece of art combining traditional street techniques with live ammunition.
Commissioned to create a special piece of billboard artwork to mark the launch of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, a raw and brutal new crime shooter, Goldie utilised spray cans, 12 bore shotguns and a rifle range to bring his extraordinary vision to life.
Goldie States, “I’m a real keen gamer and I love my shoot ‘em ups. This was a killer opportunity to mesh street art and the gaming world - creating something original, edgy and high impact. It also gave me a chance to blow the crap out of something.”
The process was complex. First Goldie re-imagined the game visuals using colour separation from the safety of his studio, and then transported his ‘undercoat’ to a remote shooting range and pasted it onto a 10ft by 15ft billboard canvas. He then set about the canvas using a series of graffiti art techniques including spray cans, stencils, free-hand, chalk, sponging and even hand-throwing paint directly onto the piece.
To finish off his creation Goldie then directed trained marksmen armed with a selection of lethal rifles and shotguns to blast away sections of the piece, which he had carefully marked with targets.
The finished artwork is now on show at The Old Truman Brewery, East London’s revolutionary arts and media quarter on Brick Lane. It is then due to tour in exhibitions of Goldie’s artwork around the world, later this year.
Jon Brooke, UK Marketing Director at Square Enix, said “We really wanted to create a cool piece of art that represented the explosive experience of Kane & Lynch 2 so we’re really pleased that Goldie totally cut loose and made something so unique. We are very excited to be displaying this one off piece of art for a limited time at the Truman Brewery near Brick Lane so make sure you head over and see it up close.
Goldie earned his name as a graffiti artist in the West Midlands in the early eighties and has produced artistic works with 3D (Massive Attack) and Sarah Gregory, whilst being commissioned to produce pieces for Noel Gallagher, Bjork, The Sex Pistols, Snow Patrol, Pete Tong, Jason Statham and Sir Paul McCartney, to name but a few.
As a recording artist Goldie has sold more than 2.5 million records worldwide and has also had a successful acting career appearing in movies such as The World is Not Enough (1999), The Ninth Gate (1999) and Snatch (2000). He also appeared on EastEnders and entered Celebrity Big Brother during 2001 and 2002. In 2008 he starred in the BBC Two reality show Maestro.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days follows two disturbed criminals, Lynch – an impulsive and reckless self-medicated psychopath and Kane – a tactical but disillusioned and desperate ex-mercenary, through 48 hours of hell.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will be available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows and will be released under the EIDOS brand portfolio. All formats will release in-stores on August 20th, 2010 in Europe and other PAL territories.