Thundercunt
24-year-old Gabriela Chajnacki aka Thundercunt was born in Montreal, Canada. She moved to London in 2013 to become a mime. And is currently pursuing a Masters in Theatre.
How did you decide on the name Thundercunt?
I was working in a bar in Rome and I had to work interminable hours which made me grumpy, and a friend of mine came up with this name as a joke. So when I came to London, and I got into street art, I realised that this name had stuck. Also for me this name is very empowering. In today's time you can say the word "dick" and no one bat's an eye, but you say "cunt" which is the equivalent, and everyone goes bonkers. I mean cunt is such a powerful word, and I don't want to take anything away from it, I just want it to be more accepted. Society is so overly sexualised today that nothing can bother people anymore, but you say the word cunt, and everyone will lose it. Also, you could like the name or hate it, but if you see it on a wall, you will remember it.
What is the Street Art scene like?
I got in to Street Art very recently. I decided to do legal walls, although my friends did encourage me that with a name like Thundercunt, I shouldn't be asking for permission. Commissions happen, and like most artists, I'm hoping to get money
out of this. I want to do just this to be my job, but what happens is mostly people expect us to do this for free. It's like asking an accountant "Oh hey, why don't you do my taxes, I won't pay you but I will tell everyone about you."
Were you inherently an artist?
I got into drawing when I was like 2 or 3, both my parents are architects, and as soon as I could draw I was handed a pen, and I would cover the walls of our house in drawings. It got to a point where my father stopped cleaning them up and just left them there.
That's when I realised that there was something different about my drawings, my teachers would just say, "What the hell, how can she draw like that?". I stopped drawing as much when I was growing up on account of peer pressure. But I have been doodling all my life, so a few years ago I decided to get back to it, and it got me my first gallery exhibition last April.
Why is your art more monotone?
My style is more of an aesthetic choice, I sometimes feel like placing 4 eyes on one face because I think it looks good, so I do it. When I was in Berlin I saw a piece on a wall, it was a doodle of a naked woman. It was the first time I had seen graffiti without the extensive use of colour, spray paints, stencils or tags. It was more like illustration, and I liked it, I thought it was really cool. I haven't seen street art like that often.
What is the best thing you have heard about your art?
When I was doing the mural on Bethenel Green, and a few people told me: "I feel drunk when I see your art," I was like, "Brilliant, excellent that's exactly what I want."
What message does your art give?
Having studied theatre, I know that everything you put out there (on the stage) has to have a meaning. Which is why all the quotes I put on my art have a meaning, they will make you laugh or make you think but they will have an effect. I have been working a lot on "beauty", because society tries to mould us into this accepted conformity. We see adverts where we are comparing ourselves to models who have been photoshopped as fuck. I think that's why I have the four eyes, and the sad looks in my art, because everyone has weird features, but these people that I have drawn, this is the best picture that someone has taken of them, and they still think they're beautiful with their four eyes and everything.
So in the larger meaning I would say the message is to: Love yourself, and accept yourself.
