When Fluke and A’shop crew embarked on their business venture with Lennox one year ago, the future of their partnership was promising and full of potential. What began as a chance encounter with Lennox’s Artistic Director, Kyle Mitchell, became the start of something brilliantly innovative. Armed with giant canvases and specially formulated thermochromic paint, the artists transformed the Downtown Los Angeles-based Container Yard into a one-of-a-kind interactive art show made possible in combination with Lennox’s engineering genius, appropriately titled ‘Degrees of Perfect.’  

A’shop crew—comprised of some of Montreal and Quebec’s most gifted graffiti artists—was established by Fluke in the ‘90s as a means of generating income and gaining wider recognition for the talented members. “I had a rough time making ends meet at one point and decided to organize myself by gathering some of the most skilled guys I knew to try to make a living off of what we did best, which was painting on walls. That’s where I transformed from essentially being a vandal into a street artist.” Their perseverance paid off, and they’re almost exclusively responsible for many of the murals and large-scale projects beautifying Canada’s eastern coast.

Myspace caught up with Fluke following the mural showcase to get his favorite aspects of the event.

The Artists Involved

We started scouting through all of the artists from the street art world in search of different styles and art backgrounds. Two of our in-house artists, Zek One and Dodo Ose, were chosen for their expertise and ability to take on these new kinds of projects. It’s not everyday that you get to play with thermochromic paint and stuff like that, so we needed people who were up for the challenge. We also decided to work with artists from different areas for a bit of a variety and international flavor. We went with OG Slick from LA to have someone local, 123Klan for that European-French flavor, and Bacon, who is one of the pioneers of graffiti art here in Canada.

The Innovation

This new concept of art that we created could change color based on hot and cold temperatures. Because it was such a complex endeavor, the only way to truly be able to explain it was to film it, but also showcase it in the form of a live gallery and have people be able to interact with the pieces in real life. The murals were timed to change between hot and cold stages every seven minutes.  Essentially, you’d be staring at a piece and if you came back to see it promptly seven minutes later, it would look completely different. They are all timed like that and at different moments so that everywhere you looked, you were seeing a different stage of one of the murals.

The Variety of Interpretations

Each artist was given a theme, and then they were free to interpret it however they wanted to. There were five themes: Balance, Solar, Adaptive, Quiet and Purity, and these words are also qualities in the machinery of our client, Lennox. For example: “Adaptive” was interpreted by Bacon by showing an octopus appear and disappear. His reasoning was that an octopus is one of the most intelligent animals out there. It’s something that can adapt to its environment and camouflage itself in its surroundings. It’s a hunter, and it’s very smart animal. Lennox’s thinking behind their product is ‘Hey, our thermostats and our machines are there in the background whether you know it or not, and they’re controlling your house.’ It’s interesting to see how an artist would interpret the word “adaptive” differently than a client would. The art pieces truly were interpretations of the artists.

The Audience’s Reaction

What we’re trying to accomplish is to get people to interact with something that changes and morphs in front of you but isn’t digital — it’s chemically and naturally created. It’s interesting to watch guests interact with the art. They’re used to being amazed, and the eye is trained to not believe things. To see the art change without smoke and mirrors creates something different in the brain. I’ve seen people walk up to the pieces and try to figure it out on their own by touching it, but understanding that it’s changing temperature is a whole ‘nother thing.

The Overwhelming Support

The turnout was fantastic. It wound around two city blocks! We didn’t expect it to be such a huge success, but we couldn’t have asked for anything better. We’re very proud of our accomplishment and we’re glad LA was where we could think of something like that. We’re hoping that this project will intrigue future partners and get the imagination going. We can only produce these really cool projects if our partners and clients are also really cool, so we’re hoping to attract future clients who are willing to take that risk and willing to do innovative and cool projects and think outside of the box a little bit. It demonstrates that guys like us and street art can evolve into something new.