The season for family reunions and heartfelt dinners has past, it’s now time for midnight champagne toasts and fervent reflection. The new year is nigh, ‘top nine’ posts have taken over Instagram, and major media outlets are publishing their proprietary annual recaps. In turn, Forbes Mexico recently utilized this period of summary to assess the “The Top 100 Most Creative Mexicans in the World.” Gracing the list is Mexican street artist Said Dokins, whose inclusion contributes to the ever-increasing rise of street art’s prestige within the global culture.
A press release from Claudia De la Garza explains that Forbes’s roundup aims “To recognize the work of men and woman who, from different fields of creation – gastronomy, arts, architecture, music, dance, literature, entertainment, among others – have managed to stand out internationally, breaking molds and opening new tracks.”
“Said Dokins is part of that list,” the press release continues, “Because of the remarkable work he developed this year, painting huge walls in different cities around the world, to establish conversations with diverse communities through his calligraphic landscapes, compositions where the poetry of each sign goes beyond its meaning to open multidimensional reflections.”
Of Dokins, Forbes wrote that the artist has “Found a way to capture the essence of the localities in its streets” encapsulating each place’s “Problems and trends, through a visual reinterpretation of words on large murals from a calligraphy that combines styles from around the world.”
According to the artist’s bio, Dokins has been painting in the public sphere since the 1990s. Formally trained in the arts, he has created murals around the world, and his work “Combines elements from Western and Asian calligraphic traditions” in an effort to “Understand our relations with language, an action that stresses time, space and memory, a political enunciation.”
Through his craft, the bio explains, “Dokins explores formally, symbolically, and philosophically the potentiality of words and letters. In his work, they become gestures, traces that overlap creating patterns, textures, narratives; marks that carve sites, drawing boundaries, producing meaning.”
The artist is celebrating an incredibly successful year with the conclusion of 2019; he completed a plethora of murals around the world and hosted a retrospective exhibition in Mexico titled “Runaway Writings” for which he was heralded “One of the most important exponents of contemporary urban calligraphy worldwide.”
In a statement provided to Street Art United States, the artist extolled, “This year has been a lot of learning, new experiences. I had the opportunity to represent my country in South Africa, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Stepping on these places and knowing about their culture, specific problems, discussions, and contexts has opened all my vision.”
Dokins cited his mural in Cape Town, South Africa, that he completed for IPAF Festival to honor the “People who had been displaced by the Apartheid.” Dokins recalled, “All the children who participated in the mural,” exclaiming “I will never forget how they were coming to the wall to paint, more and more kids coming… until I ran out of brushes. It was amazing!”
Dokins additionally wrote that he spent two months collaborating in Italy and Spain with the Biokip Labs family. “It was super crazy, every day was a new challenge, a new situation.” In the end, he said, “We did a mural that undoubtedly changed part of their perception, but I think also I modified mine at the same time.”
During this period, Dokins participated in Milano Design Week, “where the most important designers from all over the world meet! Super Cool! It was a sea of people!” From there, he “Finished in Ibiza doing a large scale mural, with thousands of complications, we were almost ready to break a wall to put a crane and paint! Haha it was a lot of fun.”
Dokins noted that “London was also unforgettable, Pablo Lugo, Ligia Wright, Lee Bofkin and Dean from Not Banksy Forum helped me to find walls to paint. I was thinking of doing something about our relationship with the machine, nature, and the artificial.” At this time, the Extinction Rebellion was taking shape, and the artist was able to witness its manifestation. Dokins concluded his own recap of the year with one exuberant exclamation: “I appreciate all these experiences!”
Dokins believes every experience in life can constitute crucial material. His bio finishes with the proclamation that “Every experience is a trace, a psychic impression that creates a texture in our symbolic universe.” The idea extends to his experience building his craft of transforming calligraphy into large-scale public works. “In that sense,” the bio finishes, “Calligraphy and graffiti aren’t just on paper and ink, on the walls and spray, but on every event of our existence.” Turning our gaze from the past to future, Said Dokins, now officially designated one of the most prominent Mexican creatives in the world, has many years ripe with experience to harvest throughout the rest of his promising career.
