The female artists making waves: meet Faith Sprays
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Not too long ago, urban street art was considered a bit of a boys club.
But that doesn’t mean ridiculously talented female street artists aren’t out there, sharing their cultural and artistic expression by using our urban areas as their canvas.
As Canberra’s first urban street art festival, ACT Surface Festival, gets ready to paint the town with the works of 35 local and interstate artists, we’re celebrating the raw energy and rich diversity of the talented women in Canberra’s urban art scene as they bring a female gaze and a unique form of story-telling to the streets.
Meet Faith Kerehona (AKA Faith Sprays), a young artist who uses her art to understand and express her passion for feminism, equality, identity, and culture.
How did you get involved in street art?
I started spray painting when I was 14 or 15 when I went around to the legal walls in Canberra. Then I got mentored by some of the street artists in Canberra…and from there, I started being involved in things like the Art, Not Apart Festival and the Tocumwal Lane Street Art Party. That’s when I kicked off my career.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I’m inspired a lot by social issues. I’m currently completing a double degree in Painting in Sociology and I’m about to start my Masters of Social Work. A lot of what I’m interested in is diverse lived experiences and how to represent that in an artistic form. Also, the human relationship with nature is a great interest of mine.
How would you describe your art?
I would say my art style is primarily realistic but I wouldn’t say it’s photorealistic, it usually combines lots of different textures and really vivid colour palettes. Lately, I’ve tried to stick to an Australian colour palette and make my pieces about flora, fauna and local areas. I really like having diverse subjects as well; I think that diverse representation through art is also really important because it’s in a public space, everyone is exposed to it and sort of has a level of ownership and influence to it.
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Why do you believe there is still such an imbalance of female and non-binary artists in the street art industry?
I think it’s primarily due to just a difference in interest….Graffiti has a different sort of flavor to street art. It’s more about your name, marking the spot, the relationships you have within that community, and the areas that you have painted on. And obviously, there’s a history of anti-establishment, anti-capitalism by reclaiming a private space to public space through tagging or graffiti.
I think that sort of draws men and women differently…There’s divergences and similarities between the art forms that I think have attracted the genders, only because it has that history of New York graffiti and the hip hop scene in America and the Philippines which are more so male-dominated. I definitely think that it’s transformed in recent years, but there’s been a history of it being a male space in its other forms.
How can we change this?
More representation, and inclusion. A lot of the projects that I personally do, I work at schools, and I work with a lot of young people. By just being a female in the field and welcoming everyone and including everyone in the space, I think that’s encouraging for female and nonbinary people to say, ‘Oh, there’s space for me here as well. I can do this if I want to.’ Just shaking up the perception of the culture of the industry a little bit because it’s evolving in new ways and new spaces, which is really exciting.
Why did you want to be involved in the Surface Festival?
It’s the first time that there’s really been a dedicated street art festival in Canberra. So it was definitely a no-brainer to get involved. It’s exciting that something like that is happening and street art is getting an appreciation space in Canberra.
Feature image via facebook.com/faithsprays
