Paper Twins: Two Guerrillas are Better than One

A guy got arrested once for scrawling a Milan Kundera quote on an overpass.

“As soon as you love someone, you start contemplating their death,” was etched high above a 12-lane interstate.

It’s the sort of cerebral line you mull over when you’re 19, heart-heavy and completely alive.

He’d intended to give commuters something to think about other than Terry Gross’s interview skills or the hi-jinks of wackass DJs. Instead, he spent two nights in jail and many an hour picking up trash along I-20. To some, this type of altruistic notion may seem slightly naïve, but to many guerrilla artists the ideal is as familiar as breathing.

The Paper Twins are two such artists – they produce work on the streets of Atlanta not only as a means of individual expression, but also to interact with, and beautify, their community with bold design and playful themes.

The duo’s work has shown up across rusty parts of Atlanta like Cabbagetown, Poncey-Highlands and Little 5. In a single night, concrete walls are transformed into canvasses and covered with black sketches and bursts of color. Like many guerrilla artists, the Paper Twins – Bankrupt and Broke Ass – remain anonymous to keep themselves protected from Coppers.

For the following interview the Twins sat down in a smelly ATL bar to drink whiskey and describe not only their individual artistic process and intention, but their compulsive love of vandalism.

Dashboard/Beth Malone: So you’re the sneaky dames that have been decorating my street – it’s beautiful – why the anonymity?

Broke Ass/Paper Twin: It’s not entirely anonymous as we do leave the Paper Twins calling card, but, you know, it’s illegal. Also anonymity makes for mystery and mystery is one of the best things about street art, in my opinion.

Bankrupt/Paper Twin: All these street artists have a name but it’s not their real name, so we thought why not do the same? Also, what we do could get us in trouble, so just to be safe we’d rather not use our names.

Dash: How dangerous is the work you’re doing? Any run-ins with ne’er-do-wells?

Broke Ass: Being the look-out always feels sort of like being a hooker, but nothing terrible has happened. Yet. One night we did a collaboration with JUSE and I wrote some phone numbers on my leg in preparation for jail, but then it was all okay.

Bankrupt: The streets are dangerous, but what we do is pretty quick. Our work is ready to put up before we leave our houses. The wheat-pasting process is very quick, sometimes it only takes seconds – it really depends on how big the piece is you’re putting up.

Dash:I’m sure many things have influenced your work – can you tell me about some of them?

Bankrupt:: I happen to be from South America so that’s why [we use] the neon colors and tribal looking patterns on clothing. The bright colors in our work are something you see in the clothing of people that live in the mountains. Also, the places we choose to put up our pieces influence everything. Walls are very important – we do a lot of touching and picture taking. I know it sounds creepy, but if the wall is too rough, it wouldn’t work.

Dash: Are there other guerrillas that inspire your work? And why do you feel the streets, are the best vehicle in which to express yourselves?

Bankrupt: Yes, too many! I think the day I found out about Blu and Miso, I realized that putting stuff on the streets didn’t have to have a political meaning and that it could be just fun, for the simple sake of having people see it and enjoy it.

Broke Ass: The streets are so much fun to work with – from picking the right place and looking for walls, to going at night and the thrill of it all. The streets are the greatest canvas.

Dash: What materials do you use most? Maybe you can’t live without Elmer’s glue or black paint or chicken wire.

Broke Ass: Colored paper, flour and water! And these terrible sharpie magnums that give you marker-aches.
Bankrupt: It’s pretty awesome to go out at night carrying big pieces of paper and Tupper Ware with wheat-paste in it. It always looks like we’re about to go make some cookies for our grandma or something.

Dash:: As guerrilla artists, how would you feel to see your work in a gallery?

Bankrupt: I think one of us, I will not say who, might be doing that soon but not under Paper Twins. Paper Twins, I think, will always stay on the streets. But to be honest with you, I’m pretty open to ideas, so who knows. I think the other Twin might disagree with this though. Shh, don’t tell her.