‘This is not another drop’

Shave’s Cut is the visual autobiography of graffiti artist Shave, nom de plume of a pioneer in the Dutch graffiti scene. For the past 35 years, Shave has made coded statements in public spaces: hidden in plain sight on trains and walls, his pieces raw and bold in nature.

War of words
Shave confronts the public, uninvited and unannounced. By writing pieces he rebels against ‘standard bullshit’, offering a new interpretation of reality.

‘Shave your head. Shave eyebrows. Shave all hair. Get rid of hair. Get rid of all the hoopla, lose the philosophical discussion about graffiti, forget the newest fads. Shave hasn’t paid attention to the trends in graffiti, he learned graffiti a long time ago and even though life is in flux, hyper-speed, never ending nonsense, Shave has kept that original idea and feeling about graffiti as his mooring.’

Undisputed
The book matches the philosophy, style and culture of Ruyzdael: a multidisciplinary creative collective and brand producing music, clothing and visual arts. The collective consists of visual artist and music producer Dimitri Madimin, graphic designer Ferry van Zijderveld and cultural entrepreneur Philip Powel, all part of the first hip-hop generation. They have operated in the cultural domain of the Netherlands since the nineties, long before streetwear gained momentum.

Van Zijderveld puts it this way: ‘We create momentum, instead of chasing momentum.’ Ruyzdael believes it is time to come up with a countermove, now streetwear has reached saturation point, with commercial ‘drops’ and ‘collabs’ dominating the market. ‘It is time for the undisputed story from the real makers, those driven by creative forces instead of marketing moves.’

After releasing both music and books – both with a raw visual sound – Ruyzdael will launch its clothing line in spring 2020, created from the vision:

‘This is not another drop’.