(upbeat music) (water thrashing) (soft music) - I have a funny question, these are all like traditional Polish dishes, right?

- (indistinct) - Are there any dishes that you guys invented here in Brooklyn that aren't from Poland or is everything... Oh you don't know, okay.

I'm just curious.

(soft music) Two things you can almost always find in North Brooklyn, a warm tasty pierogi and some inspiring street art.

I've got one, so the other's bound to be right around the corner.

(upbeat music) - [Jilly] I don't really feel like there's anything really illegal about what I'm doing.

- [Ralf] Sure.

- [Jilly] Cause it's a reflection of our society.

And some people see it as art, some people see it as an expression, some people just see it as vandalism.

And there are all those gray areas in between.

When I do you put up a piece there definitely is a lot of adrenaline.

That hasn't gone away over the years, which is really interesting.

It's the same beautiful nervousness that you have.

(laughs) It's like performance, like equate it to like a performance on stage or something.

My hands still shake after each time.

- Wow.

- And that's, I know, I'm really proud when it gets up.

So... - So bad ass.

- Yeah.

- Who's the bad-ass I'm talking to?

Infamous Renegade Brooklyn street artists, Jilly Ballistic.

How bad-ass is Jilly?

Jilly is so bad-ass we can't show you her face and even that's bad ass.

(laughing) Yeah, that's so bad-ass.

(upbeat music) - [Jilly] I started street art back in 2010, 2011.

I found myself wanting to work in the subway.

I just loved the environment.

It's fast paced.

You can work with that environment 24/7.

You don't have to worry about the weather.

There's a little bit more of a risk cause there's cameras and there's a lot of people.

I really dug that.

I kind of looked into wheat pasting, which is you take an image and you put it in site specific areas.

I just went on this deep dive of historical imagery.

And I think it was 2014 that I came across just this endless treasure trove of government files of World War II, World War I and just soldiers in gas masks, families in gas masks.

And I'm like, I have to use this.

And I just put it in our modern spaces.

And I just could not believe how well it worked with our current political climate.

And it was just like, this is just something I have to use.

And that's how it started.

(dramatic upbeat music) - There's some sort of like covert I don't know the right word is like espionage.

There's some sort of like, get in, get out.

Nobody saw me.

I'm a Ninja.

I got put this work up.

And if the riskier sometimes sort of the better, I feel like, if I'm putting words in your mouth, please forgive.

But is that accurate?

- [Jilly] I think what takes the longest is waiting for the right time to strike.

Literally, you're waiting for a moment where there's the fewest people on the platform.

You don't want the train coming in and out of the tunnel, you want, you kind of get a sense of when's the right time to put the piece up and then just walk away.

And putting the piece up just take seconds.

- Okay.

- And you really have to trust, really have to trust your gut cause the platform will never be completely empty or the train car will never be completely empty.

Then you have to kind of get a sense of who's there with you and they're complete strangers but you kind of get a sense of, okay that'd be cool with me doing this.

You know, they're not a plain clothes cop or, you know.

- So there are some times when you're just like retreat back, come back, and we'll fight another day.

- [Jilly] Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

You can't force it.

Otherwise it just won't go right.

(upbeat music) - I guess it occurs to me that like the danger part that there might be like the adrenaline part is like as part and parcel, like comes with the territory of doing the street art.

Like you're just accepting that there's a little bit of danger and maybe that's sort of even goes with maybe an idea that - I could be projecting this idea or it's real - this idea of like kind of civil disobedience.

But I also feel like in everything I'm seeing, even in like the small bits of like color and imagery used like a very sharp sense of irony and a very sharp like sense of humor.

Where's that coming from?

Is that an accident?

Is that very calculated on your part?

- [Jilly] I totally agree.

There's definitely there's an irony.

There's a humor to it.

There's a dark humor to it.

And I think that's, I think that's parts of my personality coming through.

So that's part of the artist slipping in there cause that's how I really approach every situation is I know this is serious, but how can I also laugh about it?

Because I'll cry.

(laughing) (upbeat music) - Talk a little bit about being based here in Greenpoint for so long.

I feel like Greenpoint is such a particular neighborhood to live in, like in its relationship to North Brooklyn and what it means.

- Yeah, I was born and raised in Brooklyn.

So Brooklyn always is, yeah it's...

It's always my, it's always going to be my home it's always be my borough, you know?

- Yeah, yeah, same I was also born here.

- All right man.

And I found Greenpoint cause it was affordable and it was close to a train which is what you want when you're right out of college.

It's like, okay, this is great.

There were some great dive bars.

The waterfront was dilapidated and I loved it.

It was just falling apart.

And like you had to like climb through fences and you got to sit on something that was about to collapse.

It was dangerous as fuck, but yes, it was just it was such a great time.

Just to... and there was like a ton of graffiti, lots of tags, people practicing their throw ups and stuff.

The graffiti and the street art scene is something I've always seen.

I've seen it rise.

I've seen it fall.

I've seen it change over time.

I've seen it become more mural focused than graffiti focused over the years.

New York has always has that, that vibe of you can do it.

You can do it here.

You can make stuff here.

So it's, I think there's some energy about New York that it wants people to create and to survive and kind of New York forces you to live.

- [Ralf] Yes.

What was going on with you right before a pandemic broke?

- [Jilly] When March hit, that's really when it got real in New York City and everyone had to start quarantining and I had to really adjust how I made work.

And since I worked and I still work in the subway and the subway was kind of off limits back in March.

So I didn't really have to adjust my imagery cause I worked with, I work with PPE, I work with gas masks and face coverings and protection.

So I never, I didn't have to adjust the visuals of my work.

I just had to change where I put up my work.

And this was the beginning, like in March and stuff and in March and April in New York City, it was just the strangest surreal feeling on the street.

Nobody was out, it was just, it felt kind of hopeless.

And I'd never seen my city like that before.

And I would put up work and I knew that putting up work, it's like, no one's going to see it.

It was weird, but I still felt like I had to put up work.

(upbeat music) - [Ralf] Did your situation change economically?

Or like, how are you normally getting by and especially in this time?

- In terms of my job, I'd been furloughed.

So I'm on unemployment.

I will have to move out of this apartment at some point.

- [Ralf] How long have you been here?

- [Jilly] I've been in this apartment for over four years.

- [Ralf] Okay.

- [Jilly] Yeah, the company I'm working for is hemorrhaging money.

They're not really making any money.

So I don't know if I'll be asked back.

So there's like a lot of things in limbo right now.

- [Crowd] Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter.

- [Ralf] Did your art sort of change or alter in any way around like the new resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement when that started to pick up around the murder of George Floyd?

- [Jilly] Yeah, it's also really unfortunate how this work involves your respiratory system involves a power dynamics.

I use a lot of children in my imagery and just how they're forced into situations there by the powers that they.

- [Ralf] And now having to go on.

Is that feeling like a new adventure?

Is that disappointing?

Like, are you taking that in stride or are you still sort of coming to terms with it?

You know, that's just like New York, it's like I've never lived in the same city twice.

That's what it feels like.

Even though I was born and raised here you see it go through so many different changes and - What a great way to put it, yeah.

- It's one chapter having been here for so long that I'm going to be moving in with my partner.

So that's the positive part and it's a new neighborhood to discover.

So I'm just going to embrace that I think.

- What is it about street art specifically that somebody might miss that is for you?

Like you either would explain to somebody or that you find people miss and don't get about what street art is and why?

I almost feel sometimes that it's compulsive that it's just like the city is calling you maybe, I don't know.

- What's been happening since March with like the Black Lives Matter movement and defunding the police.

People are seeing the power of what the street can do.

And graffiti comes along with that.

And I think now people are being reminded that the streets are, they are the people's voice.

And when you either gather on the street or you write something on the street or you make it, I mean, you make it public, it's, there's some, there is some power to it.

As people just still continue being in the street.

You know, hopefully there's a new wave of street art.

That's what I'm hoping.

And it's not just decorating plywood on a storefront.

That's not really...

I would say we can, we can do better than that.

I saw an empty ad space on a platform off the L train.

I just happened to see it while I was commuting.

And I'm like, I knew right away I wanted to work with that particular space.

From there, I just do a deep dive into what image would fit comfortably in that space.

So it would work with it as though it's not overpower it or just or dominate the space, but look as though that figure was always meant to be there.

- [Ralf] Sometimes an artist is a decorator or designer, who focuses on making spaces more beautiful, more of a delight to our senses and that's magical and wonderful.

We need that.

But sometimes an artist is also a soldier.

They fight on the frontier, the rest of us can't or won't venture out to.

They fight to protect our streets, our values, our souls.

I salute those soldiers.

(upbeat music)