FAILE

The name FAILE is an anagram of A-life, their first joint project in 1998 on the streets of New York City. Due to the similarity in name to a NYC-based shoe company, they renamed the project FAILE in 1999 and eventually renamed themselves as well. FAILE counts as a commercially very successful representative of Street Art/Urban Art.

Through regular exhibitions from 2002 onwards in Europe, North America and Asia, their public profile grew; however, they continued to be active on the streets. Within their works, FAILE like to play with ambivalences such as life-death. Recurring motifs within their oeuvre include the space shuttle Challenger, the FAILE Dog, the Wolfman, female figures and various vintage cars.

Although street art is the main medium of FAILE's practice (in concrete terms and as a source of inspiration), after 2005, they began to work more slowly, creating thematic suites (War Profitees; Lost in Glimmering Shadows), small editions and increasingly three-dimensional media, from arcade cabinets to salvaged wood to large-scale casts. However, all of FAILE's projects are characterised by a consistent openness to chance, external cultural influences, audience interactivity and the organic rhythms of the street.

FAILE has also consistently produced artist books (mostly in collaboration with the German publisher Gestalten Verlag), including FAILE: Prints + Originals, 1999-2009 (2010), FAILE Temple (2012), and FAILE: Works on Wood: Process, Paintings, and Sculpture (2014).