ANDREW HEM

Andrew Hem’s first story is about growing up in the Los Angeles area in the late 80s and early 90s. Andrew copied the graffiti he saw on walls around his neighboured in Culver City. He thought one font in particular – big, blocky letters – looked really cool. So cool, in fact, that he once handed in homework in a schoolbook covered with his own replica of the font. He was 11. His teacher called him to the front of class. “Andrew,” the teacher said, “when did you become a gangster?” Andrew didn’t know his favourite graffiti belonged to a notorious, murderous gang called the Culver City 13.

His second story is about how everybody in Cambodia paints the same way. Take, for example, paintings at Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious monuments in the world. They all look like they were done by one person, even though that would have been impossible. His parents are Cambodian – his father’s an