Eight years of PHilfyness

Coinciding with the first ever PHilfy TVHead stencil to be used as a tattoo design, PHilfy is looking back at 8 years of the famous TVHead. Heres a little taste…

PHilfy TVHead tattoo by Chris Jackson, Australia, 2009

..In 2001 whilst at uni in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK a friend and I decided to get into stenciling and streetart, mainly to express our dissatisfaction with the way the country and society functions generally. I had recently worked in an fast paced international business/office environment as part of a one-year work-placement scheme for my degree.. and hated every minute of the experience! This in turn is what created the stencil design of the TVHead. 

Poster outside Cargo, East London, 2003

PHilfy and Selph, Barcelona, 2003

Whilst working in my work-placement in the Docklands, London, everyday I witnessed unhappy people struggling in a job they hated and who were unappreciated by their boss and managers and the all-round unhappiness in the office was unbelievable.. the company had no loyalty or dedication to taking care of their employees and the employees only worked there to have a job, not because they believed in the business/industry.... but either way, as I was studying business/marketing at the time and the experience really hit me. 

PHilfy character at 2005 Hong Kong Rocket outdoor festival with START Collective

PHilfy canvas painting, London, 2002

PHilfy and character at 2nd Rocket Hong Kong outdoor festival 2006

PHilfy canvas painting for 3rd Hong Kong START Collective exhibition, 2007

PHilfy sketch ideas for toy designs with Crazy Label Hong Kong, 2006

PHilfy canvas painting for 3rd Hong Kong START Collective exhibition, 2007

PHilfy at East Pack bag art exhibition, Hong Kong, 2007

PHilfy window painting, Hong Kong, 2006

PHilfy canvas painting, London, 2005

PHilfy cap design, Hong Kong, 2005

PHilfy toy characters, Evisu Jeans exhibition, Hong Kong, 2007 

PHilfy photography for Hong Kong street markets exhibition, 2008

PHilfy photography, Hong Kong, 2006

PHilfy sketches, Australia, 2004

PHilfy and Irie canvas art for live-art event at 93Feet East, Brick Lane, London, 2004

PHilfy and Kiko at Rhythm Factory exhibition, London, 2005

PHilfy art at Cable Street Crew gathering, London, 2005

PHilfy canvas painting for Hong Kong START Collective exhibition, 2006

PHilfy canvas art at 2007 Hong Kong START Collective 10:10 exhibition, 2008

...So in 2001 when it came to designing a stencil I wanted to bomb every to express my anger at the working business environment and system.. I choose to use a computer monitor (PC screen) as my symbol of choice... I figured that if our PC monitors could vent as much anger back to us as we vent to them when we are at work and hating our jobs, then there would be a hell of allot of angry pc monitors in the world. 

After bombing the stencil around my uni and later around East London with ESP’s Selph for about two years solidly, the famous PC Monitor stencil was simply know as TVHead by PHilfy from ESPLondon. You can find the stencil in a number of streetart books in both English and Chinese.. although none refer to the artist, crew or idea behind the design.

Today I reside in Melbourne, Australia and paint/design mostly for ESPV, friends and family... and myself. 

More PHilfy designs can be found at my Flickr (see link on ESPV blog) 

Interested in an art swap? Collaboration? Design project?.. hit me at philsyb@yahoo.com