From 2004 until 2009, Barrisson worked on the London Police solo and ventured out to other cities. “At this point, I was doing it on my own and I was doing it more illegally in every other country because there wasn’t that niche of the electricity box and the paper, but I would still try to pick my spots to not mess up someone’s nice wall. I would find a wall that already had a bit of graffiti or a bit of wood that was boarding up a shop. I would try to find spots that I felt I could beautify as opposed to vandalize. I did that for many years, covertly spray and go out in Barcelona—which is a great place to paint,” he recalls. “You make sure you go out from twelve to five in the morning. Those were great times to go out. There was no one about on the streets. You could take your time and stencil or spray, come back and do the pen work later.”
For years, Barrisson loved painting in the streets. However, he says, about a decade ago, the situation began to change. “The fines were worse,” he says adding, “you’re a man in your thirties. You get caught drawing on a wall, things change,” he says.
I would try to find spots that I felt I could beautify as opposed to vandalize.
“Then the mural scene started kicking in. People wanted bigger and better murals. Also, you lose the excitement of going out and being up at 3 in the morning in Barcelona and putting up these characters that are only going to get painted over the next day, or someone is going to pull it down or someone is going to cross it. At a certain point, you start thinking, ‘I want to put effort into something that I know is going to stay there for two years’,” he says. “That’s when you kind of get more into doing murals and little jobs and canvases, to be honest. Putting that same effort and work into a canvas that can then go on to be sold, it can be on someone’s wall. It can be part of a show.”
In 2009, Barrisson and Gibson reunited. It started out as a collaboration between the two artists that brought together Barrisson’s characters with Gibson’s architectural style of art. That was when the work began to feel like it came from both artists. The London Police were back together and, a decade later, they remain a partnership.
“I think it works best for us when there’s a good combination of the two styles,” says Gibson. “I like it when it all merges together and it’s a fantasy landscape with Chaz’s stuff and my stuff. That’s when I think that it works well. It’s an ongoing thing. There’s so much to explore, so many different things that we can do with it.”
Together, they make works that merge the distinctive styles of two individual artists in a way that is always complementary. Barrisson’s street art sensibility, which launched the London Police years earlier, remains intact; but Gibson adds his own illustrative touch with realistic portraits and detailed urban backdrops.
“Flexibility is definitely key to accomplishing a mural, but, of course, we’ve made hundreds and hundreds of works together now,” says Barrisson. So, while the two are
open to flexibility, they do start with a plan. Depending on the project, there are a few different ways that they might approach art-making. “If it’s an intricate piece, it starts with Chaz spray painting the background colors in and he does all these throw-up logos,” says Gibson. “That takes place a few days before I can get my hands on it.”
The line work is a crucial detail to every piece. They want lines so tight that you might think that they’re printed as opposed to handmade. “In our artwork, we want it to be exemplary,” says Barrisson.
There’s a lot of humor in The London Police’s work, from the armies of smiling Lads that propagate the scenes to other characters, like a dog astronaut or mermaids. Yet, there’s a sense of absolute perfectionism in every piece.
They are careful as to what images the London Police capture as well. “Whimsical” is a word Gibson uses to describe their work. What they choose to represent is important, but so is what they don’t feature. Barrisson notes that they avoid politics and anything that might have too much of a message.
“We like to create fantasy stories that we can enjoy,” says Barrisson.
Recently, the London Police traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to paint at Camp North End, the site of a former Ford factory. “They made the Model T car there in the early 1900s,” says Gibson. Later on, it was used as a manufacturing site for a military contractor. Now it’s being redeveloped as a shopping and business center. The London Police added their touch with Lads on a conveyor belt and other characters, like Tanksy and their Lad-styled dog, in the foreground.
I think it works best for us when there’s a good combination of the two styles.”
The canvases and murals are only part of the London Police’s output. There’s a performance aspect to their work as well. The duo like to sing songs about dogs. They even made a “Dogumentary” that compiles this work. Perhaps we could consider their Instagram—replete with stories filled with adventures in the studio and on the road—a part of their art as well. In the future, they’re interested in working more with animation. “A lot of times it feels like Bob’s paintings are stills from what would otherwise be an animation or short film or cartoon,” says Barrisson.
Even in the earliest days of their career, the London Police wanted to make travel a part of their art. Barrisson and Gibson have painted everywhere from the Netherlands to the UAE to Mexico. But their journey wasn’t fast and they want to continue their steady creative and commercial progress. “It’s just about trying to build it slowly over the years so that it remains on an upward trajectory,” says Barrisson. “You don’t become yesterday’s news, but you keep going forward, but not too fast, not too quick.”
This article originally appeared in Hi-Fructose Issue 52, which is sold out. Subscribe to Hi-Fructose today and get our latest print issue here.
