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Temper recieved an interview in the prestigeous Time Out magazine, London, with a full page feature entitled The Knowledge. Artist Arron Bird - aka Temper - has taken his graffiti off subway walls and into art galleries, on to the Sprite can and now to the head office of advertising supremo's Saatchi & Saatchi. Raised in Wolverhampton, and influenced by artwork produced by Goldie in the city at that time, Temper wants you to take graffiti artists seriously: ‘We’re not street urchins, we’re business people.’ ARE YOU GLAD THAT GRAFFITI IS NOW RECOGNIZED AS ART? I could never understand why it wasn’t seen as art. Galleries and advertising people now are from a generation who understand graffiti. It speaks to them more than a Picasso. WHAT WAS IT LIKE CREATING ARTWORK FOR SAATCHI & SAATCHIS HEADQUARTERS? When I got a call from Chris Allen, their art director, I didn’t know what Saatchi & Saatchi was. It was only when I spoke to my manager and he fell off his chair that I realised. They wanted it to feel as if a graffiti artist had broken into their office and gone berserk. I freestyled the whole wall, starting on Friday at 8pm. I slept four times for 15 minutes and finished at 7am on Monday morning. IT MUST HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFERENT DESIGNING THE NEW SPRITE CAN FOR COCA COLA? Yes, when I started as a graffiti artist, my objective was to tag my name on as many different places as I could. So knowing there were millions of people seeing my signature on each can, it was like evolution. DO YOU PREFER CREATING WORK FOR EXHIBITIONS OR COMMERCIAL PROJECTS? The companies I work for give me space to create. If their heart is in the right place - like Coca-Cola - then it’s not just a clever gimmick, they just want me to do what I do. When I started using acrylic paints, the people at my gallery said it was a very important step, that I was like a modern-day pre- Raphealite. They were the biggest art movement ever and we’re the new movement. A LOT OF YOUR ART FEATURES KUNG FU ICONS. WHY IS THAT? Kung Fu used to be so underground. It was hard to get hold of the movies, the same as with hip-hop music. I made connections with it, because breakdance moves are almost identical to Kung Fu. WHY ARE YOU CALLED TEMPER? ARE YOU GRUMPY? When I was at school, if I had a problem, i’d go into the school yard and lose my rag, so my mates called me ‘Mad Temper’. During the ‘80s I had another street name, which I can’t tell you for legal reasons because i’m still wanted for criminal damage. Now my aggression is directed at my work: throughout the ‘80s, if I hadn’t been spray painting I’d probably have commited about 12 murders. Interview: Alice Fisher Temper is at the Sprite Urban Games, which takes place on Clapham Common, July 26-28. Please click to the 'Related files' button to veiw the full article.