Christiaan Nagel’s sculptures sprout onto Deptford High Street

The growing amount of street art is just one reason to visit Deptford, south-east London. I interviewed artist Christiaan Nagel as he installed his work along the high street.

Christiaan Nagel’s work can be seen in quite a few areas of London, from Shoreditch to sites along the Thames. Street art has lots of benefits to an area; it cuts down on random graffiti and can bring extra tourism as people see the ever-changing pieces of work. I contacted Christiaan through London Street Art about coming to Deptford High Street and installing some of his work.

Meeting at my flat with a friend who’d helped him carry over his unassembled mushrooms, we chat over a cuppa while he glues the heads of the mushrooms to the stalks on my roof terrace. It’s a windy day, and the three of us have to keep rebalancing the upside-down sculptures to prevent them being blown over.

Christiaan has lived in London for just shy of six years, and he says it’s the progressive, multi-cultural nature of the city, as well as its history, which appeals to him. His mushroom sculptures work on a number of levels. They appear to be growing from places you wouldn’t expect to see either art or nature.

Fungus itself is an odd thing. Some are edible; some poisonous. With bricks and mortar, fungus itself is generally a symptom of a building being in a state of poor health; a sign of damp or rot.

These negative connotations are dissolved, however, by the colours he chooses to paint them. The ones he has with him today are shocking pink and bright sunflower yellow, and perhaps a nod to the more psychedelic associations which mushrooms have. Indeed, you may think you’re hallucinating when you happen upon a street with his work installed. Seeing neon coloured over-sized mushrooms sprouting from rooftops is probably not what you expect to see when you look upwards from street level.

‘I’d say I don’t think so much about art as I feel it,’ is his more simple explanation. ’I’m a bit of a dreamer. I kinda stumbled upon the work that I do. I started putting up these mushroom sculpture a few years ago and then only became aware of street art,’ he says.

Suddenly we’re interrupted. Disaster strikes as a strong gust of wind blows one stalk over and into the fragile head of another sculpture. The process of making the heads involves squirting expanding foam over an exercise ball (which I surprisingly don’t have to hand) so we’re one mushroom down. We bring the others inside and out of danger once they’re finished and painted, and work on the next step; installation.

The first stop is Kids Love Ink and Christiaan is on his own as he happily scales up to the roof with a drill and fixing equipment in a rucksack on his back. He manages it quite easily… but I’m not about to follow him and instead watch from the road as he chooses the position and fixes into place.

One down… three to go. Walking up the High Street, I mention a couple of shops where I’ve spoken to the owners already and who seem interested. He’s also happy to approach people by knocking on their door and taking it from there. At the end of the High Street is what used to be the Noah’s Ark pub; now a solicitors. The owner seems pretty unfazed and totally happy with us hopping up to his roof and installing one there. I find that surprising in itself, but Christiaan seems less so. I think he’s used to both a welcoming or simply puzzled response so isn’t shocked by either. The view from the roof is stunning; looking down Deptford High Street and across to St Paul’s Church, but also down to the Thames through the emptiness of the Convoys Wharf Development.

I watch the fixing process intently as Christiaan installs the next piece; firstly with four screws going into the roof, and then also a wire harness which he ties around the stalk and then fixes separately to the brickwork. It’s still windy, but the fact that there are gaps and holes in the head of the mushroom seems to make it more resistant to the wind, not less. Indeed it looks far more secure than many TV aerials I’ve seen.

A couple of days later, Christiaan returns with a replacement “hat” for the sculpture which was damaged and we chat some more before heading out to speak to the business owners I’d previously discussed the project with.

Asking him about his influences, Christiaan replies with artists you perhaps wouldn’t associate with street art. ‘Michelangelo and Dali are my personal favourites. I also like ultra modern art. I believe the future of art is once again looking at aesthetics. I like skill and craftsmanship. I’m quite easy when it comes to art, I like a lot; it gets me very excited. I can quickly see personalities in art’. Describing his favourite street artists specifically, I get the feeling he almost doesn’t know where to start. ‘Many. My favourites are definitely Roa, Phlegm, and I really like the happy Barcelona style.’

Not concerned purely with sculpture, he began with painting. ‘I painted for many years before I started sculpting. I make these paintings from car paint and oil. I make the canvasses from hardboard, frame then and spray them with compressor spray-gun/car paint. I then use a very liquid oil paint to create the images. It’s a bit like painting on the surface of a car. So I get these very glossy, modern looking paintings,’ he explains.

‘In art class at school we’d always work on traditional canvas and after a while I thought “boring!” The texture is terrible; I need something glossier and more modern. I also do other sculptures for resin. So mould-making really. I cast a big hippo skull last year for one of my exhibitions. This skull I then painted with a thermochromic paint. That’s colour-changing paint. So as soon as you rub ice against it, it changes colour.’

I also ask about commissions for his work, and whether they are different from the public installations. ‘I’m working on some bronze mushrooms. We’ve managed to successfully cast a mini mushroom so far. Because of the lightness of my materials, the bronze casting process works a bit differently. It’s doesn’t require the mould making step. Rather what is done is what’s called a direct blowout.’

He also makes handmade mini mushrooms, and is also always planning future installations. ‘I’m going to Berlin this week to do some big-ass installations and do a bit of filming. I recently came back from Barcelona and I will definitely return and do a lot of work there. The city is a masterpiece in terms of architecture, art and city planning. It’s got all these urban spaces you won’t find anywhere else in the world.’

‘I want to go to Amsterdam too,’ he continues. ‘Most big cities in Europe. I aim to pretty much spend my next few years travelling and doing art. I’m going to Johannesburg for a month in December and I intend to do a lot of paintings and mushroom installations there. It’s my home country and I’ve hardly done any street art there.’

I currently have one more mushroom sitting patiently in my flat awaiting installation, and there’s also interest from some other property owners along the High Street, so it probably won’t be long before at least one more piece can be spotted somewhere in Deptford. As for how many are there at the moment… well you’d best get yourself down to Deptford High Street and see how many you can spot.