Cartrain
I would never pretend to know anything about art really but I do know two things: I dislike Damien Hirst and I like people that have a pop at him. This is why I find Cartrain interesting.
Cartrain is the pseudonym of a Leyton-born graffiti artist, the name came about from when young Cartrain tried to sign up for a Hotmail account. His preferred username was taken and Hotmail instead suggested Cartrain. He liked it and has since stuck.
Cartrain is currently in a legal battle with Damien Hirst. The story goes that Cartrain used an image of Hirst’s famous £50 million bejewelled skull in his own art that has subsequently been sold on his 100artworks.com site. Hirst personally took an interest in the situation with the express intention of making sure that no-one makes any money from his art apart from him and demanded that the money be returned (Cartrain sold a couple of pieces for a few hundred pounds), which the young artist duly did. The interesting thing about this situation is that Hirst has personally been charged with copyright infringement in the past. In fact, he had to take his case to the highest court in the land. You’d think he’d have a little more sympathy, no?
Anyway, obvious seething from this situation, Cartrain decided to try and get his own back. So, he marched into the Tate Britain and took some pencils from one of Hirst’s installations, then distributed fake ‘wanted’ posters around London. Cartrain made the following statement:
For the safe return of Damien Hirsts pencils I would like my artworks back that Dacs and Hirst took off me in November. Its not a large demand he can have his pencils back when I get my artwork back. Dacs are now not taking any notice of my emails and I have asked nicely more than five times to try and resolve this matter. Hirst has until the end of this month to resolve this or on 31st of July the pencils will be sharpened. He has been warned.
Brilliantly, Cartrain has subsequently been arrested and faces charges for a theft in the region of £500,000, just about the biggest in British history.
Even more brilliantly, Cartrain now uses the pilfered pencils to sign his artwork.
