Hello My Name Is: Serval

Name: Serval
Crew: 7$ & ATT
City/Country: Geneva, Switzerland
When did you start writing? 1992

What’s graffiti for you? hard to tell, it’s been part of my life for 24 years… so it’s hard to separate it from the rest of my life.

Influences? So many over the years, mostly the people I got to paint with and the artists I’ve met and worked with outside of graffiti.

Tell us about your city, how is life and graffiti there? Small city with a lot of high quality painters, people get along relatively well, so it’s actually a nice scene.

What keeps you still writing? That’s what i do best, as much as I work to improve in other forms of art, that’s still what I do best, so I need to paint walls to relax and get the creative juices flowing.

What first made you interested in graffiti and how did you end up on that track? A few guys from school who took me out painting with them, just tags and throws for the first few years.

What trends are you seeing now in the graffiti world that you don’t like? massive recuperation of visual codes or specific elements of styles and histories are copy/pasted for quick fame or a few bucks…

What do you do when you’re not painting? Take care of my family, draw, read, dance, play basketball…

How would you describe your style? Making letters dance.

Can you remember the first piece you did? Oh god, yes, it’s a really embarrassing story… I’ll tell anybody who asks me in real life, but it’s too embarrassing to write online.

Future plans? more collaborations like the one I have with the Museum of Art and History, a new series of paintings with different techniques, and try to paint better pieces as usual.

Do you adapt your pieces and tags to the spot/surface? I try to, it’s something I need to improve.

What do you think about the new generation of writers in your city? Courageous, the buff has become so bad, they have to think 10X more than we did to hit spots that will stay. Most of the ones I’ve met are cool and passionate about their work, which is great.

What are the best and worst aspects of graffiti? I’ve gotten rid of the worst a long time ago, so it’s all good now.

Who do you paint for? letters, still haven’t gotten them to do exactly what I want, so we have a lot more work to do together.

What writers have inspired you? That’s too long a list to write down, those who really care and love letter forms and styles can guess quite accurately by looking at my pieces and the places I’ve been.

What do you hope people will think and feel when they see your stuff? Hopefully the same I was feeling when I was painting, or at least what I was trying to get across as an emotion with that piece, that’s the point of it, isn’t it?

FIVE FAVORITES
Spray Paint: anything really
City: Geneva, Melbourne, Philadelphia, Napoli, Lausanne
Markers/pens: Pilot brush pen, technalo 3B
Surface: whatever
Cap: something skinny

Website: www.silverblack.ch
Instagram: @serval77