Slawn & Opake deliver Heroes, Villains, and Violence to Miami Art Week

“I guess, like all good things, it started with a Nigerian Scammer and a crackhead plotting in a room in East London.” This is what Opake had to say when asked about the inspiration behind their latest body of work. Confirming my impression of the two and their relationship with one another, unserious seriousness, equal parts mischief and camaraderie.

The London duo have unveiled Heroes, Villains, and Violence at The Art of Hip Hop, running from 3 to 31 December. The show is an ode to their shared love of superheroes, complete with all their signatures, from the tear-streaked spray work to the gleefully sinister reimagining of cartoon icons. That being said, at its core, the project is less about chaos for chaos’ sake and more about the pair’s earnest desire to do good. As Opake tells Dazed MENA, the whole thing began as nothing more than an elaborate attempt to get to Vice City. ‘The plan was to find a way to go to Miami, cause fucking chaos, and then dip out,’ he laughs. Disorder is second nature to the two, who have built a practice on needling the limits of what art is supposed to look like and prodding at what is wrong with the world. It is a truly punk ethos, which they refer to as a ‘sensory assault’. This approach is what pushes the art world and the rest of the world to buckle up and do something.

“We both realised that we are actually trying to do good things,” Opake says. ‘Sometimes we stray a little in life, but both of us would love to be considered superheroes to someone and not villains.’

Part of the duo’s mission is rejecting any notion that they are somewhere they do not belong, that the art world has an inherent need to remain elitist and segregated, hence their mission to make it to Miami Art Week. ‘The fine art world is controlled by a select few people who all congregate in their playhouse and decide who they are going to let into their secret society,” he explains. “Slawn and I have fuck all interest in that. Like I said earlier, just do the thing, and if you love doing that thing, whether that is painting, dancing, or whatever, just do it to the best of your ability and do not fall into the idea of being labelled as this or that.”

He continues: “It should all be considered art, and I think it pretty much is. I am not sure how it has impacted the fine art world, but it has clearly impacted culture globally, which is far more significant than what some donut thinks in a gallery that sells work for twenty million quid for a shoe once worn by Monet’s granddaughter’s ex-husband’s dog.”

Staging the exhibition at The Art of Hip Hop gallery and museum carries its own weight, given the long-standing entanglement of hip hop, graffiti, and street art. When asked about that significance, Opake is unequivocal. “Hip hop as a culture started all of it. All this work that’s being created now has its roots within that culture, end of. It started with essentially a load of kids figuring shit out for themselves in a grimy city, and the impact that has had within EVERYTHING is undeniable. So it’s not that it fits in IT FUCKING OWNS ALL OF IT.”

If there is a moral buried beneath the mayhem, it is that Slawn and Opake have no interest in being anybody’s villains.