It’s with a heavy heart, and prodigious pride that The Culprit Club announce, ‘Life Ruined My Graffiti’, an east coast touring solo show by prolific graffiti writer, IROK.
On Friday 24th March, Work-Shop will host the Melbourne launch of ‘Life Ruined My Graffiti’, an exceptionally personal series of hand painted portraits and prose expressing the frustration, heartache and hardships of IROK’s double life as a vandal, and a father.
“After coming home three days after my first son was born to an empty house and an empty nursery, I sat down in the dark and something changed in me.
The bravest leap of faith I ever made was to throw away safety of my underground world to start a real life from scratch. The white-picket fences, the fancy job titles, the family … it’s all lies we’re taught to lead for the perceptions of social success. This is not who I am.
I never felt happier than in the warm embrace of a subway tunnel or behind a fenced off area away from anyone else making their way through this life. Being alone in these places was my safe haven, but nothing that free comes without sacrifice. “
IROK’s emotive transition to canvas portrays both the pain and pleasure from his double life. His personal sacrifices are painfully prevalent through his works with every emotion and experience bleeding onto the canvas.
“These paintings are a piece of me, they represent choosing life over the blissful ignorance of my graffiti, and how safe from the real world I had been.
This is my life, and it ruined my graffiti.“
RSVP here.
Sponsored by Young Henrys and Ironlak
What you'll get
Good times, amazing artworks and delicious Young Henrys beers!