Afterlife

Ian Kuali'i creative process blends the contrasting elements of very loose graffiti writing techniques with extremely detailed hand cut paper and collaged found materials to create unique compositions. His work is a balance between the rough and delicate, demonstrating the process of destroying to create. His art is predominantly influenced by his ancestral ties to the indigenous people of the Southwest United States and Hawaii, as well as masonic symbolism, mysticism, global politics and themes of urban decay.

Ian says, "I first started working with rusty spray cans about 14 years ago but just recently (about [2010]) started knocking out the cans in this style. The concept for this ongoing series came about after one of my excursions to a well known graffiti spot in Downtown Jersey City. I discovered all of these discarded cans and thought to myself, 'This tool gave us life and here we are just discarding it's empty vessel.' So the idea was to harvest these rusty cans and give life back to them so that maybe they could be remembered again."