COLUMBUS — Sonic Temple has always been as much about the visual arts as it is about the music — and this weekend, attendees witnessed a new, high-pressure addition to the festival.
Enter Secret Walls: a live, real-time art battle where international and local artists went head-to-head in a 90-minute spray paint showdown.
Each day of the festival at 3 p.m., a new battle began, and the winning creator’s work was displayed on nearby walls for festival-goers to see all weekend long.
Competitors have a strict 90 minutes to create whatever they want, but they must do it only using black paint, via spray paint, brush or markers.
“It’s an improv. I always describe it as a visual rap battle; you have to work with your mistakes,” Secret Walls Founder and CEO Terry Guy said.
When the 90 minutes is up, the audience’s cheer volume, measured with a decibel reader, decides the winner.
Guy started the live paint battles 20 years ago in London, eventually massing to a European tour. Now the shows are based in Los Angeles and mostly travel around America in warehouses and nightclubs.
He started it after graduating from university, trying to blend soccer and street art, which eventually morphed into the 90-minute competitions.
For the first Sonic Temple Secret Walls ever, Guy’s team selected four local artists and four out-of-town artists to head the battles.
He hopes to come back again next year
“Everyone seems very happy so far. I suppose if we do everything we promised to put on a show, bringing the energy, bringing the art. It seems like we had a good crowd today, so hopefully, fingers crossed,” he said.
The art and the artists
Thursday’s winning mural, painted by Dave Tattoos, featured an interpretation of My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade” character.
Friday’s winner, Joshua Stout, created a mural of a cartoon cat stabbing through his opponent’s head.
“I do a lot of cartoons. And the history of this battle, when it started early on, they were going really hard on people. So I wanted to do that as cute as I possibly could,” Stout said.
His opponent, Hakim Callwood, opted to make more abstract characters, including a robot farting bolts toward Stout.
Both are seasoned Secret Wall performers, but it was both of their first times at Sonic Temple.
“For them to include us in this as a part of these musicians, I think is really cool. There’s art everywhere,” Stout said. “We did an 80-foot mural by the front, we’re doing a 150-foot mural in the middle…it’s amazing.”
Callwood agreed.
“Sometimes I think visual arts can be an afterthought in programming, and I don’t feel that way at all here,” he said.
Patch Whisky, a South Carolina-based artist, came back to Ohio for the first time in 20 years to be apart of Secret Walls.
He’s worked with Secret Walls for over 15 years, and he’s done several art installations at music festivals before, but Sonic Temple is his first metal music fest.
His Saturday opponent, Columbus artist Dane Khy, took the win in this competition, which was also Khy’s first Secret Walls battle ever.
Khy painted a levitating Boston terrier that’s body was separated into two. His own dog was the muse for the painting, as she and Khy spent a lot of time together while he painted and listened to rock music.
“I spent a lot of time listening to rock and metal music with her. She was with me by my side for a really long time, so I thought this is my first time at Sonic Temple, why not honor her,” Khy said.
Khy also included her in some other art murals he created during the festival. He said it was great participating in his first art battle and first Sonic Temple, and he would love to do it again.
