A 3 a.m. Berlin walk through self-employment, panic, murals, THE FLOOR, CounterCult, tattoos and the work of staying independent.
Three in the morning in Berlin
At 3 a.m., the Berlin sky was deciding whether it was setting or rising as I went down into the U-Bahn with the other witching-hour people. I had just left a hidden underground party, thanks to Eva putting me on the guest list. The meeting on the way home was also work: an artist had booked me for the following month.
After roughly a decade of self-employment, I have made peace with the fact that my life does not fit a corporate nine-to-five. The next job often comes through a person you met in the world, so I keep moving through the noise, looking for the people building something alive. My tattoos have become markers of those encounters, a walking gallery of experiences and friends’ work.
The panic underneath independence
When the low season arrived and bookings dried up, I watched my emergency savings disappear and started interviewing for corporate jobs. My visa restrictions stopped that route, and three interviews reminded me that I am a bad employee when I cannot build with my own hands. A desk and a full-time Trello board feel like a slow death to me.
The safety of a nine-to-five is not as stable as it looks during a recession. My way through has included late parties, greasy food work, web3 and culture-tech events, village dances, dinners where nobody shares a language and clothes ruined by paint. It is not a clean career plan, but it is the life I keep choosing.
The work I am building
I am booking Sketchy Shona original murals and public art installations along the East Coast in August, including New York. A mural can become a permanent landmark for a place, not simply an image for a campaign.
I launched THE FLOOR as an artist-run co-living residency and project space. It has hosted five emerging artists, with the calendar booked through autumn at the time of writing. Countercult is cultural infrastructure through which I have been working with VC firms and co-working ecosystems including The Delta in Berlin.
Rooms, gatherings and public work
At THE FLOOR I curate salon nights, including a Japan and CreativeTech evening with Sayaka and a traditional Japanese tea tasting. I am also developing festival and installation work, and preparing DA SWAMP for 48 Stunden Neukölln from July 3rd to 5th, free to attend.
I have returned to tattooing after a forced break caused by not having a proper sterile studio. I am running local art tours and street-art workshops, building Countercult as open cultural infrastructure, and working toward live drawing and tattooing in Berlin clubs such as Klunkerkranich. These forms remain connected to the artist archive rather than replacing it.
What THE FLOOR holds
Laura, a DJ from Paris, became the fifth resident. Applications for stays from November 2026 onwards ran for one to four months, and the next salon and DA SWAMP dates were part of the programme. The Floor gives the work a room where artists and visitors can meet it before it becomes a finished record.
I am still a Berlin-based contemporary artist, founder of CounterCult and founder of THE FLOOR. I am learning how an independent art practice can become an archive, a place and a network without pretending the financial uncertainty has gone away.
Originally published on Substack