Most people will have played the game Consequences, when someone writes half a story or paints half a picture for someone else to complete.

It is similar to the technique renowned street artists Ben Eine and Dean Zeus Colman have been using for their new collaborative show Crimes And Punishments, which opened last weekend.

“It’s great to see what happens when two artists actually have a conversation on paper,” says London-based Dean, who has been producing art under the name Zeus for more than 20 years.

The pair have produced their own distinctive A to Z illustrated with scenes of crime and punishment combining Dean’s drawings and Ben’s distinctive typography.

They got together after Hastings-based Ben, who works under his surname Eine, saw a charity drawing Dean did of four hands spelling out the sign language for Love.

“I really liked the feel of the piece and asked if he fancied coming in with me on this show,” says Ben.

“I really loved Dean’s hand signs; I had never seen his drawings.

“We split the alphabet between us, me doing letters and Dean doing hand drawings. After a month or so we swapped the papers over.

“We wanted there to be some other illustrations on there, and started thinking about what we could do an A to Z of. Something triggered my mind that we could do crimes and punishments. A lot of what we have done has been on the wrong side of the law, so it seemed quite apt.”

So G represents gun, B is for bank robber and X is for executioner – but still adopting the line drawing style Zeus has used in his hand drawings.

Effort has gone into making each drawing unique, with Eine scouring the streets of Hastings for secondhand wooden frames to hold the work.

“We were inspired by the quirkiness of the gallery,” says Ben. “It’s always been important in doing street art to think about what is going to work on a wall,” adds Dean. “What is the point of doing a massive piece if you can’t step back and look at it?

“People put so much time and effort into sketching ideas for their street art, it is no different from any other art form. I always thought of the streets as being a big gallery.”

“When I started doing street art I didn’t have the opportunity to get my stuff into galleries,” Ben points out.

“I stopped doing graffiti because they were going to send me to prison, but I didn’t want to stop painting.”

As part of the exhibition the pair have returned to their street art roots, by painting shutters in the North Laine, including the Guitar, Amp And Keyboard Centre in North Road, and Jojo Maman Bebe and Luigi in Gardner Street, and a giant wall mural on the corner of Gardner Street and Church Street.

It all underlines the growth in interest in street art.

“Graffiti was exported around the world from New York, with a style of music and a style of dancing, when we were about 13 or 14,” says Ben. “The generation before us didn’t understand what it was, they saw it as aggressive, violent and destructive.

“As we have grown up though, so have the people who have grown up with graffiti. They knew people who did it and don’t have a fear of it.

“As an art movement it has evolved and matured into street art, which is more commercial, collectible and user friendly – now you can hang it on your wall.”

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