The Can Do Collective
by: admin | Thursday, 4 March 2010
Camden Town’s busy Stables Market hides various gems and one of them is a shop that’s not too concerned with shoppers. Canvasses litter the floors and the staff doodle and paint, ignoring potential custom as they lose themselves in art. This is the home of the Ifreecans. The collective came together two years ago and is an eclectic mix of young artists ranging from poets to painters who have set up shop, quite literally, in North London’s ‘alternative’ heart.
Kiboko84, one of Ifreecans founding members, ran a stall in Camden selling clothes printed with his own artwork while he was at Uni. The stall has since grown into a shop, and the artist into a collective who- following a first appearance at the recent Streetfest art and music festival- are now working towards their first exhibition.
The collective was originally set up for creative people of Afrocentric origin to produce and showcase their work. The name Ifreecans is a pun that speaks of individualism as well as origin- I am free, I can do anything. But as the collective attracted interest from people from different cultural backgrounds it decided to release itself from its cultural limitations. Ifreecans has gone on to become a vastly diverse group working with artists from France, Portugal, Italy, England, Kenya, Ghana, South America, South Africa. Its influences are equally as vast, from the Bauhaus to hip-hop, art deco to martial arts. It fuses these with personal style and technique to create individual as well as collaborative pieces.
Lax regard for convention is clear on an Ifreecans canvas where pens, felt tips, crayons, paint, spray, coffee, teabags and pretty much anything else that can make a mark on paper finds its use. The collective’s attitude of ‘creativity unbounded’ is palpable in pieces where text, colour, shape, form, and even smell are considered.
Kiboko84 is fresh out of art school and beginning to expand his work beyond his home turf of London with his sights firmly set on creating a far-east connection. He’s recently begun to organise independent exhibitions, painting, printing and building up a varied commission portfolio that ranges from large-scale paintings to a children’s book.
Robz GettoSoul is a graphic artist and painter. He has been printing tees for a while putting shirts on the back of many a musician, from young up-and-comers to the well established likes of Ty and Erykah Badu.
Bubblin Sunn is based in France. He is an animator, illustrator, painter & music producer. Wandering past the shop in Camden he was taken in by the collective and hasn’t looked back. His work uses everyday commodities like coffee and wood to expand its presence beyond the visual.
Hi – Fi are a duo who handle the music side of the collective. They performed at the YES WE CAN event hosted by Ifreecans last January and for TANO, a collective exhibition in Camden.
I scratch my head. Ifreecans, does it make sense? I scribbled on the yellow not the white pages of my sketchbook, next to the words feel artistic cane, trying to keep my vision honest.
He’s in the kitchen baking the tees, just like me, they want to be…the first track, with vocals, i ever heard by fidelismusicus bellows in the background….not bad, not bad at all …. encourage him nyaroroi tells me. She is wise, my mentor in surprise,
passing on to me the motivation to motivate others as she has me, over the years 10 minutes after we first meet, gettosoul and I bond over the preference of sf20 binder over opaque and the marvel that is puff. We still marvel at puff, he uses opaque more than me, and i still champion sf20.
Hatuta piga kelele [we wont make noise] …..as if. The crowd at twickenham roars. I’m jamming with ek13, she’s rocking her sketchers with multicolored soles, a camera and a camcorder. fresh….best rugby festival i ever been to. i made friends.
The graduate shows weren’t all that this year, I’ve taken kcola around… from csm to the truman brewery to camberwell college. She doesn’t do walking, shes vexed, im laughing. I know why I walk instead of taking the bus or tube,maybe one day she will realise what it was all about. She hit the new capital of culture and did.
He calls me teacher I am humbled, although I learn as much from him as he does from me. Many people say they can draw, I have met many artists, seen many drawings,
Pensee+ can draw. We need to work on the painting
‘there’s a girl downstairs whose doing something similar to you, come ill show you’. I follow this guy, a stranger, full of enthusiasm, wanting me to see what he has seen. My stall will be vacant, but I decide to go nonetheless. I’m glad I did. I met
lala It’s been a while, six years to be exact. Transition, I can see it…rite of passage when I get to hear it, as the words she does weave, eventually you will receive. Welcome,
newbornpoet Teacher, this guy is big says pensee+. Bring him to the meeting I said, let the collective decide. In strolled this mellow french fellow with an afro. Unanimous vote. His creative skill and vibe earned
Bubblin Sunn an ifreecans collective spot.
And then there was three, girls with sktbrds, cool, free, different. I gave em stickers, they found the hut. While preparing for the Tano exhibition,
dthe5ftwnda revealed she was an artist.
Creative medley, super work ethic, self belief and growing talent. The short story with many ‘to be continued’-s, I found them, they found me,our creative interests painting, illustration, graphic design, photography, music, poetry….brought us together. Situated in Camden Stables Market, London [first left after the Cuban Bar] the Hut of the ifreecans collective is yellow and houses tees and paintings for now. But we are preparing some music, some poetry and some exhibitions and events.
Its is only the beginning, we learn, we grow and we improve with time.
Feel artistic cane.
-Kiboko84
