"Excuse Me..." Print

Salim ”Colt21” Sheikh (b. 1983) is a self-educated artist from Turku, Finland – the same city where he was born, raised and has lived his whole life in. He is a son of a Finnish mother and an Indian father. His father is a self-educated artist and a poet. Colt21 has lived his entire childhood (and most of his adulthood) in the local suburbs; residential areas filled with concrete cubes and mostly populated by the working-class. Because of this history in the suburbs he has seen, and heard stories of, many different fates of individual human beings. Sometimes the things seen and heard have been quite harsh. At some point even he himself has been one of those individuals with harsh stories to tell. In some ways these experiences have created the foundation for his artwork. .......................................................................... At the age of 9, in the early 90’s, graffiti culture was introduced to him by his older cousin. Colt21 felt that this culture of spray-painted-letters was something new, something that wasn’t done so much yet… something mysterious. It fascinated him more than anything before, and pretty quickly he got sucked into this new and colourful urban subculture. Now, when he had found his “own thing” he slowly started to discover his artistic creativity and skills. Ever since that moment graffiti art has played a huge role in his life, and this background of his also heavily influences his artwork. Also, because of his roots in graffiti, he prefers to use Colt21 or Colt21er as his artist name (or “a tag”, as it’s known among graffiti writers) instead of his real name. .......................................................................... In his works he often uses techniques learned among the graffiti/street art culture (such as using spray paint, markers, stencils etc.) and combines these teachings with more traditional techniques he also prefers to use (e.g. acryl painting and collage). Another technique, along with those absorbed from the graffiti culture, he quite often loves to use is collage. His affection towards this technique was born during the elementary school art classes. This affection just increased even more few years ago when he saw a documentary film about a homeless collage artist Ion Barladeanu. When working with graffiti art he sometimes prefers traditional, simple styles, sometimes more complicated three-dimensional styles. .....................