Tagging Taichung

The Word on the Street in Montreal

2010-11-17T07:37:00.000+08:00

Thanks a bunch, MyWhat?

Yi-Zhong Jie, Taichung

2010-09-25T20:31:00.001+08:00

Had a camera in my pocket, time on my hands and graffiti in front of me this afternoon. Only thing I didn't have was boots to cross a muddy lot to shoot an awesome fresh wall down there.

Down in a smaller alley...

And in a parking lot, just in time for Halloween...

Posted from the BattPhone

Huffington Post: PHOTOS: Green Graffiti -- Protest Art Gets Environmental

2010-08-03T23:14:00.001+08:00

		PHOTOS: Green Graffiti -- Protest Art Gets Environmental
	Environmental graffiti can be an efficient and eco-friendly way to spread a message. Think of all of the paper saved! Around the world, from Mexico...

Xitun Rd by the Highway

2010-07-21T12:15:00.000+08:00

New Paint By The Highway

2010-06-01T12:19:00.001+08:00

Yeah, I don't get around much anymore, but I found this dated 2010 on a nice retaining wall on a frontage where Taichungkang Rd gets all funky doe scooters on the way up to Tunghai

- Posted from the BattPhone

10 Times as Bad as Expected

2010-05-14T10:11:00.000+08:00

By Priest (via Marcus)

70,000 barrels of oil a day are spilling in the Gulf of Mexico. That's the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill every 4 days.

It Does a Body Good

2010-05-09T20:53:00.001+08:00

Next to Starbucks on Kungyi Rd

- Posted from the BattPhone

Stencil Time in St Louis

2010-04-27T11:51:00.000+08:00

EYE HEART STL!!! from Peat Wollaeger on Vimeo.

Under the Tracks

2010-03-02T11:19:00.000+08:00

Out and about in Taichung and saw this wall from last year.

How To, for the Young-uns

2009-12-11T17:22:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Omen...

From Toy to King from kreisone on Vimeo.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

2009-11-17T11:41:00.000+08:00

Here's an interview by Galerie d'art Yves Laroche with Omen, of Taichung Four Crew. Omen is currently painting in Montreal.

YL :You've lived in Asia for a minute, right? Tell me about painting nights there.

O : It was awesome! I lived in Taichung,Taiwan. I lived there for 4 years. I can bust Chinese and everything. When I got there there was only about 12 graffiti writers in the whole country! With a population of around 25 million you can see how that is just crazy. I was bombing around town with this paint called PP SPRAY ( all the pressure and twice the lead.haha.) with stock caps no less. And I saw some other guys were bombing as well. Mostly 3 other guys but I had no way of meeting them. So one day I was walking by my piece and underneath it was sprayed "omen. do you want to paint with me" and 2 check boxes with "yes" and "no". later that night I checked "yes" and then went to another spot and dropped a piece with my email address. But before they could reply to that message my friend Jessica told me she ran into them (it was two guys SAME and BOBO) and they were coming to the restaurant I was eating at. It was pretty awkward because my chinese at this point sucked and all we were doing was meeting to paint. After that we did the first production in Taichung the largest piece in all of Taiwan and went bombing pretty much all the time together. I miss them. It's not the same as here. There you have freedom at the price of no laws while here it is the opposite. One day. One day. Now there is at least 30 writers there , ha, and I keep track of what is going on there via flickr.

Love Minus Zero/ No Limit

2009-11-16T16:15:00.007+08:00

I don't get to get out as much anymore to find new graf around town, but this is right across the street from my house, so it was something to do on a busy Sunday. Seems like someone working in my neighborhood who calls himself Zero. I hope to see some more of his stuff soon.

There was also some stuff left over from when the lot was a bar that I never saw open.

Angel Baby

2009-11-16T16:09:00.001+08:00

There have been a couple new stencils here and there around town. Here's one from the corner of Da Long and Dong Hsing Rd.

An Empty Suit/Nice Threads

2009-09-12T13:15:00.000+08:00

Saw this new stencil on the way home from work last night. I've seen another one or two somewhere but have already forgotten where.

South Wenshin Road Artifical River

2009-06-28T14:19:00.001+08:00

Obligatory New Post

2009-06-15T11:25:00.002+08:00

I just found a new outdoor gallery of Taichung graffiti art & will get out and get shooting just as soon as time permits. It's a motherlode. Looks like a kilometer of riverbank colored up on two sides.

In the meantime, check out Craig's "Wall Art Korea." Good stuff.

Where da Grammar At?

2009-05-19T08:38:00.000+08:00

Some bitty in Milwaukee (warning, Fox News, remove your brain) got her knickers in a twist over graffiti in her neighborhood that read "Where da bitches at?"

Now, I like correct grammar as much as the next English teacher-- unless it's an English teacher in Taiwan, but nevermind--however, I think that, since this has been a recurring nightmare for the last several decades, it's time for the new generation of grammarians to ease off and allow popular usage to help the language evolve. If it wasn't for language evolution, we'd all be talking like Chaucer.

So, if you're out there writing, throw some prepositions UP!

Downtown Taichung

2009-04-20T12:43:00.000+08:00

Chung Ming South Road.

2009-04-17T15:44:00.002+08:00

Still Here

2009-04-14T14:28:00.000+08:00

Four Crew has been more active than me the past few months.

I've seen a couple walls around town that have been brightened up and will get back to that a bit later this week. For now, here's a wall along the canal near WuChuan West Road.

Ximending Graffiti Art Exhibit

2008-12-02T09:39:00.002+08:00

Something is going on in Taipei on 12/12 in Ximending. It involves the best graffiti artists in Taiwan, so if you've got free time, get up there and get yer culture on!

Do It

2008-10-03T22:01:00.000+08:00

New/Old Graffiti by the Wuer HSR Station

2008-07-06T17:36:00.005+08:00

I saw a couple walls painted up right by the Taichung HSR station from the bus the other day and figured on getting back to see if there was anything else nearby. Just across the stream to the south beneath the overpass there is perhaps a .5km long wall that is 98% covered with great stuff from Four Crew and Virus No 6. Most of the stuff along the wall is dated 2007, but there's a ramp tagged 2008 on the south end. It's good to finally find where everyone has been active for the past year.

Graffiti Animation from Buenos Aires

2008-06-25T23:29:00.001+08:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Graf-wii-ti

2008-06-09T08:31:00.004+08:00

Martin Lihs, working on his Master's Thesis at Bauhaus University in Weimar, has developed a modified Wii controller with which one could practice tagging inside on rainy days. As his thesis is not yet complete, full specs have not been made public, but Lihs suggests about the next version that he's

planning to build a new spraycan with more functions and also an advanced software with collaborative spraying option, different caps, different colours…. and maybee different Sprayers make an appointment and create grafitties together: online!

Controllers might be ready for Christmas, but I guess Santa Claus won't bring you one if you've been defacing public property.

Cans Festival, May 2008, London

2008-05-06T21:26:00.002+08:00

Bloggage by Tanya » Blog Archive » Cans Festival:
Here's a link to a collection of great shots from London this week.

Tanya sez she "decided to check out the Cans Festival which was publicised just a few days ago.
The location had been kept a secret while Banksy, Bandit, Jef Aerosol and others transformed a
bland tunnel near Waterloo Station, into a street art extravaganza.

""

Updated:

Here's a video from Current on the topic of Banksy. I haven't been able to view more than the first ten seconds yet because of my super slow connection where I'm at. I hope you can enjoy it where you're at. When I'm at a different place, I'll see where it's at. And what it's about.

T-T-Tagged

2008-05-01T12:14:00.001+08:00

Do I stutter? A little, when I'm excited. But check this out. This bit of self-promotion brought to me by Paint That Shit Gold. Go there. Have fun. Nice is what you are when you're at your grandmother's house.

Four Crew Spring 08

2008-04-18T15:45:00.006+08:00

Fast and Same got busy all over a wall in the canal next to Chung Ming S Rd next to the Early Bird.

Spring Update

2008-04-18T14:58:00.009+08:00

My students all went out for the day, so I took an early lunch today to go collect some graffiti underneath the highway on the way up to Tunghai off of Taichungkang Rd.

Some of the stuff below dates back to 2006, but some of it is dated 2008. If I'm not mistaken, this stuff is the work of Taichung's "other" graffiti crew. I thought they used to call themselves Stinky Tofu Crew, but I didn't see that tag anywhere today. At any rate, they've gotten real good.

Vote for Omen!

2008-04-13T10:37:00.003+08:00

I just received word from the man himself:

Hey omen-affectionados,
Please be sure to vote oMEn as "best graffiti Crew" in the Mirror's best of Montreal. I know I'm not a crew but they don't know that...shhhhh...

So, do what you have to do. Click on this here link and fill in the form. Now, this is the tricky part...
They ask that you vote in at least 25 categories, so we can't all just go to vote for the Best Graffiti Crew then high five each other and go home.

I have very little knowledge of Montreal, so I wouldn't know how to vote. If I still have any readers from the Montreal scene, please feel free to leave suggestions in the comments. Not that I'm inviting anyone to tell anyone how to vote and thus bring North America's last great democracy crumbling to the ground...but still. ... wait...Montreal has a king, don't they?

New For You

2008-02-24T16:12:00.000+08:00

Out with the kids on Sunday afternoon when I spotted this truck in a parking lot between DongXing Rd and DaTun Rd near the Costco. There's some more graf around town that I've seen, but this has been the first time that I've had my camera with me in months.

Interview with Fab 5 Freddy by Miz Metro

2008-01-30T12:53:00.001+08:00

Got an email today from Myles in New Yawk who turned me on to an interview with Fab 5 Freddy and the story of a historical artifact from the early graffiti era recently discovered in SoHo (not the one in Taichung... err ...oddly enough?). If you're in, or on your way to, NYC, check out the Wild Style Exhibit.

The interview is below.

Recently a work of art, in the form of a graffiti wall, was discovered. It displays work by, Fab 5 Freddy, Futura 2000, Jean Michael Basquiat and others. The wall was only rumored to exist, but it was found behind layers of sheetrock and plumbing prior to its building being renovated to luxury lofts. The wall has been renamed "The 151 Wooster Wild Style Wall." The mural and 16 other works (Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fab 5 Freddy, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and Ero) will be on display until February 15th at 151 Wooster Street New York, NY.

Below is the interview that Fab 5 Freddy gave to the up-and-coming singer/songwriter from New York, Miz Metro. In addition to her beautiful music and powerful voice, Miz Metro is very in touch with the underground street-art scene that has been in New York City for decades. To check out Miz Metro's music and see more pictures of The 151 Wooster Wild Style Wall, please go to http://www.myspace.com/mizmetro .
Excerpts from Miz Metro's interview with Fab 5 Freddy151 Wooster Street SoHo NY, November 2007

MM: How did you come to write on this wall? When did you first visit 151 Wooster?
F5F: This woman Edit DeAK who's house this was, a really noted art critic told me "come and paint on the walls" - she just let it happen - when right outside people were like, "Ugh, that's horrible. Get those guys out of here." She was able to see things that now many people see and understand. Now they use this style of painting to represent hip, young, cool - the music does the same thing, you know about that. It was something I definitely saw was a lot bigger then it was, but I had no idea 25 years later I'd be standing here in-front of this wall dropping this history like we uncovered some secret tomb.
MM: Looking at all of this, how does it make you feel?
F5F: It feels great, when I saw all this and got wind of it, it just made me think about what point I was at, and all the other things that I was about to do. So now 20-plus years later it's like the preverbal mark on the wall… The thing I like about seeing it is a lot of people would look at this and try to say "I like when you do the big colorful things, but I don't like it when it's all the scribbles" - but I like that too. On the more artistic side, I was the urban nerdy kid who hung out in the museums, I was on the street corners doing my thing but I knew about Jackson Pollack, I knew about Franz Kline, so I was seeing how abstract painters are inspired by the calligraphic history of it all… The interconnected craziness turns it into a whole thing like what you have here [pointing to The 151 Wooster Mural], which really represents the wild energy of it all from that period.
MM: Is it significant that "Wild Style" is actually written on the wall?
F5F: Yeah, well there was a crew named Wild Style, wild style was actually a style of graffiti - of the really interconnected pieces… Charlie [Ahearn] and I named our movie "Wild Style" - the first film on Hip Hop culture to really speak so broadly to specifically that style of work.
MM: Looking back on all this I'm curious to know how you feel about hip hop and the culture it is today. On MTV, you hosted the first international show that really brought hip hop around the world. Now it's a phenomenon in all these other countries. How do you feel about that?
F5F: I feel great about it, I'm very much so still a part of it. Today I produced a show for VH1 called "Hip Hop Honors"… As a producer of the show I was honored, along with Charlie Ahearn, for producing and being a part of the film "Wild Style". I'm really happy to see the culture go beyond my wildest dreams, or imaginations of where it could go. It's a great thing to see people in different countries, from different places and different spaces being a part of this interesting culture. It's really great.
MM: It seems like everything that you were a part of putting out there into the mainstream was very positive. How do you feel about the different directions that Hip Hop has taken?
F5F: In general the good parts of Hip Hop are still probably the most important, and I'm not just being biased. I think it's probably the most important cultural force that's emerged, without question, in the last 100 years because it continues to thrive and grow in every aspect… In America there's so much of a commercial, watered down, "lets just get the money" vibe, but when you go to every other country around the world - all over Europe, all over Asia, all over Africa - people take up this culture to give themselves a voice. They don't have outlets to media that we have, the outlet to galleries, so people have picked up these forms to express themselves in ways that are really beyond comprehension. There's nothing really that you can compare to what goes on with people picking up spray paint, and grabbing the microphone, scratching some records to kind of make a sound, and giving people a vibe that they mean something. That's the important thing about [Hip Hop] to me.
MM: You mentioned that one of the main things asked by the press was "How long is this going to last?" Were you aware that this movement was something that was going to go beyond what was happening in the Bronx, Harlem, and Brooklyn?
F5F: To a certain extent I did… I knew the amount of kids throughout the city that were avidly into this but [in 1980] it was still a big secret to the rest of the country and the rest of the world… I knew that once people got a sense of it, got to see it, got to understand it - they would at least be able to appreciate it. [In the 1980's] if you were Black or Puerto Rican and you were wearing street cloths, whenever you would see [graffiti] images in the press it was negative, it was crime - like "these are the bad guys"…. I wanted to help make a film to see images of people that look like me that were doing something. That's why, as a painter, my "Swan Song" on the subway system was an homage to Andy Warhol; I did a whole subway car painted with Campbell soup cans to let people know - "wow some of those kids that are doing those trains must know about art." Warhol was somebody that I really admired as an artist… He redefined what an artist could be in this pop culture and I was very fascinated - myself, Jean-Michel, and Keith Haring were all thinking about that aggressively, talking about it, then doing our own thing based on that history.

Taipei Graffiti

2007-11-18T21:21:00.001+08:00

BBrother got written up in the Taiwan Journal way back in May. And here it is November and I'm just getting around to seeing it and stuff. Still, this remains Taichung's best English-language graffiti blog written by someone born in New Jersey. photo by Chuang Kung-ju

Bad Blogger

2007-10-29T15:33:00.000+08:00

There are a couple walls that I've seen in Taichung in the past two or three months that have been marvelously painted, and I do see new stuff popping up from time to time here and there. I'm running ragged 6 days a week, though, and in getting from point A to B I have no time budgeted to stop and capture what I see to share here. I have a week's holiday or two coming to me in January, I think. I'll see what I can scrape together then.

In the meantime, check out this green graffitti in Brooklyn. It's not going to grow on me anytime soon, but I'll bet it would do well here.

Hippity Hop Music

2007-09-24T06:26:00.000+08:00

I have no idea what made me do it, but I channel surfed over to Taiwan's MTV this evening. Saw some guy with a green mohawk break dancing and felt like watching for a bit. My students like to try their moves at break time. I looked a bit closer and the studio graffiti in the background was done by Bobo and Same. There's video on the MTVchinese.com website where you can sorta see it in the background if you know what you're looking for. Hip Hop, Break Dancing, and Graffiti all represented in one neat little package. Don't make me wanna go hippity hop, but there you have it.

Noodle Noodle

2007-09-24T06:25:00.000+08:00

The same fine folks that bring you Oldies Franks, have a noodle shop within spitting distance called Noodle Noodle. And between the two is this parking lot. Saven/Same hooked up with the guys from The Seventh Letter when they were in Taipei a while back and is now spreading their name and notoriety too.

GREAT GRAFFITI! | Signs & Posters | Funny Videos, Pictures and Jokes at JibJab

2007-07-30T10:41:00.000+08:00

GREAT GRAFFITI! | Signs & Posters | Funny Videos, Pictures and Jokes at JibJab

Paper Factory Outside

2007-06-06T02:14:00.000+08:00

Near that B&Q on Beitun Rd there's an abandoned newspaper factory. Apparently, there's a lot of graff inside as well. I hope to get back if it ever stops raining.

Ghost Town IV

2007-06-06T02:12:00.000+08:00

Ghost Town III

2007-06-06T02:11:00.001+08:00

Ghost Town II

2007-06-06T02:10:00.000+08:00

Military Ghost Town

2007-06-06T02:05:00.000+08:00

Saw Fast at breakfast one morning and he drew me a map to this great old public housing project which was built to house military families. The whole place is tucked into an area the size of a football field and consists of 12-15 buildings, I think. They were abandoned a little over a year ago and left quite a mess behind. Thank god for the graffiti guys to come in and spruce the place up a bit.

These are all from a neighborhood near Beitun, almost as far as Chungde, I think. I'll try to map out the site. Might not be much use, as I was crawling over the fence which surrounds this place, a neighborhood busybody informed me that they were going to be tearing the buildings down within a few weeks.

Taichung Top Center Graffiti

2007-06-06T01:59:00.000+08:00

Ok, I finally got down to it and selected some of the best shots of what 4 Crew were up to between Christmas and Chinese New Year.
This place is an abandoned shopping center that was probably open for about a year, three or four years ago. Since I took these shots, the place has been surrounded by one of those lovely fences that seem to be everywhere.

To get inside I had to wake up a bum who was sleeping just inside of where the window had been smashed. He nodded at me and went back to sleep.

Top Center

2007-04-21T21:54:00.000+08:00

At the corner of Wenshin Road and Taichungkang Road, next to the Mercedes/Smart dealership stands a large, vacant building that was a mini-mall as recently as, I don't know, two years ago? (Geez, there I go again, posting without checking my facts first. Sorry about that.)

And We're Back

2007-04-20T09:17:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Fast for the heads up on three new locations around Taichung. I went for a ride yesterday afternoon to catch up on the latest from Four Crew. More photos coming up.

Graffiti Animation

2007-04-13T07:13:00.000+08:00

Here's a cool bit of graff from Belgium. It took a long time, but the painter animated an animal running alongside a train track. Very cool.

Happy Holiday

2006-12-31T16:33:00.000+08:00

Four Crew Working

2006-10-21T17:34:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Fast for the heads up today. I caught up with FourCrew underneath the bridge where Chung Ming South Rd crosses over the river. Here's a bit of how things went:

Hua Mei St

2006-10-20T12:22:00.000+08:00

A bit of Bobo/Saven underneath one of the bridges over by Oldies & Frank's Hot Dogs.

This one and the detail below were done by a guy called Chek who was down from Taipei.
When I first saw Bobo's self portrait, I was looking at it from just across the stream and I couldn't make out what it was. Duh. How does he do that?

There's Something Happening Here

2006-10-20T12:01:00.000+08:00

Well, for one thing, the 7th Letter Crew is coming to Taipei on the 25th of October. It's a part of their Asian Letters First tour. They're in Tokyo today and tomorrow. Take a peek at what's happening at the Known Gallery.

There's something else going on in Taipei on the 28th of October. Apparently 8 graffiti artists have been arrested, or given heavy fines for doing their thing up there, and folks are getting together to stage a protest at 華山藝文中心 for the decriminalization of graffiti art. Fair enough. Anybody know what time?

Also, in December, down here in Taichung, there will be another graffiti exhibition at the former Taiwan Tobacco and Alcohol Administration building on Fuxing Rd. More details will be made available when I get them.

Graffiti in Taiwan

2006-10-11T21:29:00.000+08:00

The Real Taiwan has links to four YouTube videos with Graffiti Guys running around Taipei doing their thing. Is it Art? There's the eternal question. I remember taking an aestethics class in university and I'll be damned if I can remember the answer to "What is Art?"

1 Week of Art Works

2006-10-10T20:51:00.000+08:00

Again, not necessarily in keeping with the blog title, this is a guy called Daisuke Yamamoto painting and repainting a wall somewhere in Japan. Groovy tunes, as well.

The US vs John Lennon

2006-10-03T10:47:00.000+08:00

I hope to have the opportunity to see this film about the US Government's harassment of John & Yoko in the 70's. If I didn't have to search for a pirated version, that would be all the better. What are the chances of it showing in Taiwan?

Whoever is doing stencils in town really did a good job on this one.
And look a little closer at the attention to detail.
This is the second John Lennon stencil in Taiwan in the past few years. Two years ago, there was one at the park by Chung Ming and Kungyi, but it--the graffiti--got vandalized. How's that grab ya?

Virtual Graffiti

2006-09-25T10:35:00.000+08:00

Fooling around, Praise Bob.

More from up by Daken

2006-09-25T10:21:00.000+08:00

This is from The Stinky Tofu Crew, Free, Dabu, and CGSB.
The first piece asks how much time you spend in front of the TV with the remote. Unfortunately, the second picture contains another Omen rip off. I'm not saying these guys aren't talented. Let's see what else they can come up with.

BNE--San Francisco's Most Wanted

2006-09-23T23:04:00.000+08:00

"BNE." Not sure what it stands for. "Banksy's New Elephant?" He's all over San Francisco and is possibly on a world tour now. Same tells me that he just plastered Ximending with stickers the week before last. The link goes to CNN's story, including an interview with undercover officer Christopher Putz. I wonder if that's his real name.

Banksy Opening in LA

2006-09-23T10:15:00.000+08:00

At first I thought this was just going to be a collection of photos of all the celebs who showed up at the opening, but you can scroll past all that (check out Perry Ferrel's wife though, Zoiks!) It's nice to see what a graffiti artist does when he can bring his work into three dimensions. Again, is it "Street Art"? I dunno. Hey, I may not know street art, but I know..., well, you know.....

Street Art Finds a Home

2006-09-22T23:54:00.000+08:00

If art is taken off the street, is it still "Street Art?" This article is from yesterday's Taipei Times. I'm looking forward to going to Taipei to check out the exhibit at AMPM gallery (AMPM Gallery, 4F, 24, Alley 55, Neijiang St. Alley, Ximending, Taipei (台北市西門町內江街55巷24號4樓).

Fresh Stencils in Taichung

2006-09-21T01:02:00.001+08:00

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

That's the first Oscar Wilde quote that jumped out at me. It's awesome to see him recreated in graffiti. New subjects keep popping up. I thought at first that the person doing the stencils might be in 4Crew, but I was wrong. Hello Stencil Person/People. You Rock.

Mural Behind the Station

2006-09-20T17:18:00.000+08:00

Coming back from Taiping, I wound up on Fushing Rd behind the Taichung station. I noticed last week that there was quite a bit of stuff up back there and I took a minute to ride up a back alley through the freight yard and came across a railroad siding with a mural that was about 50m long.
It's quite impressive, and not just to me, either. After I'd finished. An older woman that I'd noticed walking her dog came over and asked me if I could read what had been written, she wasn't sure if it was English or Chinese. I told her that it said "BOBO" because that was the fella's name that painted the wall.

She was very impressed, she told me. There were a few guys in their 20's and they came out on three different nights. She told me over and over again how fast they did it. I asked her if she liked it, and she said "Oh yes, the colors are very pretty, and they did it so fast."

She said the cops had come out one night and told them not to "Sloppy Paint" is the Chinese. Models come to have their pictures taken in front of the wall now. When she asked the guys how much it cost to do a wall like that, and the price quoted was about 3000NT, she said that's a pretty good deal. Sounds like she'd like to have her garage done.

I know that I must have misunderstood the woman. At least once, maybe twice. She pointed at the two guys below and ... I should have recorded the conversation so I could double check. The night these were going up, she complained that with one guy across the tracks looking at her house, she felt like there was a prowler, so they added another one, and it was ok? She's pleased with the results.

Back to Taiping

2006-09-20T16:41:00.000+08:00

I found myself with a day off in the middle of the week, so this morning I rode out to Taiping to see what the guys came up with in the end.

2006-09-18T22:38:00.001+08:00

Q&A With FAST

2006-09-17T20:57:00.000+08:00

TT:How long have you been painting?

fast: 12 years, but the first few years were mostly just putting up tags, i guess i started pieceing about 8 years ago. mostly consistently but there have been a couple breaks in that time for a half year or year.

TT:What did you draw when you were younger? What do you think about the art classes you took in school?
fast: i didnt really draw anything seriously except graffiti. the art classes i took in school were mostly for the credits. i didnt find art class in school really made me interested or motivated me to do art.

TT:When you first started tagging, what gave you the push to start putting your work on the walls for everyone to see?
fast: i was just drawn to it. cant really explain it but when i started noticing tags around my neighbourhood it just felt natural to add my name to it.

TT:How did you meet the other members of 4Crew?
fast: i met sam first. it was actually on my second day in taiwan i just saw him painting under a bridge and walked down there and talked to him. a few months later we hooked up to paint and been painting together ever since. since taichung has a relatively small scene we hooked up with bobo and then omen after that.

TT:Where in Taiwan, besides in Taichung, can your work be seen?
fast: ive done a tiny bit of bombing in taipei but most of my stuff is in taichung area. sam and bobo go to taipei quite often and they kill it up there. omen too. ive painted in toronto, vancouver, montreal, new york, amsterdam, and obvilously taichung. in taichung we basically have the city pretty much to ourselves. i havent been down to kaoshiung yet but bobo has. he has some friends from down there.

TT: where are some of the more difficult-to-reach places that you've painted?
fast: im not much of a crazy bomber...when i was younger i was addicted to the insides of subways. i still like to go out and do fillins every once in a while, but i guess the only "difficult-to-reach" locations ive done are passenger and subway trains. i like to do freight trains as well but in taiwan you dont have much oppourtunities for those. i dont do as much trains as i would like to though. ive been in subway tunnels a couple times but didnt paint anything worth talking about.

TT: What kind of paint do you use?
fast: in taiwan i use the brand called PP Spray. its cheap, has a decent selection of colors. covers pretty well. i know there are a lot of better paints out there but you cant beat 55NT a can. i think graffiti fading at different rates have more to do with the surface of the wall and how watered down the primer is. i usually buy a bucket of primer and thin it out by adding water. so the first half of the bucket is more paint and the second half becomes really watery.

TT: What are the hazards of this kind of artwork? Police? Gangs? Drunks? Injury?

fast: the most problems ive had with graffiti have been police. dont get caught for graffiti in canada its a lot of hassle. taiwan is much better in that regard. ive done some stuff when i was younger that i wouldnt do now because of risk to personal injury. but as for gangs and drunks ive had pretty good luck so far.

Taichung 4Crew In Person

2006-09-16T23:24:00.000+08:00

Had the pleasure of meeting BOBO, FAST, & SAME of 4Crew today. They're a great bunch of guys, and were very open to talking to me about their work. Check back in the next couple days for more pictures from the river bank in Taiping.

Banksy at Disney

2006-09-16T11:50:00.000+08:00

Banksy snuck into Disneyland and added a little something to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The article says that it took security 90 minutes to remove the item as a security precaution.

He was also quite naughty at some record stores across England. Here's a link to the Flickr stream showing what he did to Paris Hilton.

Omen in the East

2006-09-16T09:18:00.001+08:00

This is a rather ham-fisted combination photo of a mural that must have been done a while back on Fuxing Rd on the other side of the train tracks.

Taichung East Side

2006-09-16T01:05:00.000+08:00

I've been driving around town a little more than usual lately and I've come across quite a bit of 4Crew/YIA's stuff that I hadn't seen before. There's a lot more to see on the East side of the train tracks.

Reverse Graffiti

2006-09-14T08:04:00.000+08:00

In London, Paul Curtis, aka Moose, uses soap and water to create art out of the grime left by progress. He's taking a bit of heat from critics who say he's selling out by throwing up logos for X-Box and TV shows. Maybe he is.

Listen to the NPR story here. There's more at Moose's website here.

And there's actual moose graffiti at this site from Sweden. Believe it.

Plenty of dirt in Taiwan.

Tagging Taichung County

2006-09-10T00:35:00.000+08:00

SAME from 2005 next to some fresh paint by FAST & BOBO .

BASTR/BOBO? Not sure.

Daken Graffiti Wall

2006-09-09T01:21:00.000+08:00

If you take Wenshin Rd out to Daken, before you get to the Daken traffic circle, there's a lovely river with cement banks on which the Team Stinky Tofu graffiti crew has been practicing their art. Thanks to Teacher Bill for the heads up.

Apart from a lot of the paint being horribly weather-worn, it looks like some good stuff is going on out there. From the road, it looks as if Omen has been at work up here. Not so. I think it's called "homage."

The names I saw up here were DABU, FREE, and LGSD. I've seen DABU in Taipei, and I now recognize Free and LGSD's tags from around town here and there. I see that the Taichung graffiti scene is not limited to just 4Crew.

I'm not sure what the significance of the A is. Every Surface Counts. I dig that. Right on, TST, I'll keep an eye peeled for ya.

Oh, here's another leftover from Ximending.

Ximending Wrap Up

2006-09-09T00:59:00.000+08:00

This is the best of the rest, as it were. Had a great time in Taipei and we can't wait to have some free time to get back up there and check out the rest of the scene.

BBrother--Taipei, Taiwan

2006-09-09T00:20:00.000+08:00

This is the biggest and most intricate stencil I've seen in Taiwan. I will definitely be going back to Taipei to try to find more stuff by BBrother. Shazaam! This was on a wall very near Da-An Park on Chung Xiao East Rd.

Omen Up There

2006-09-07T00:42:00.000+08:00

This piece in Taipei's Ximending is unmistakably Omen even without the tag. I'm not sure about the blood, I think that may have been added later. I remember seeing the Curly tag in Taichung before, and DABS was all over the place in Ximending. Omen's work is understated and bold. He is a suitable counterpoint to the other guys in 4Crew whose work is usually pretty extravagant. Omen is grounded and damn near omnipresent.

Hsimending Stencils

2006-09-04T10:00:00.000+08:00

Here are some stencils by BBrother and Granix, in Taipei. Someone mentioned BBrother awhile back. I agree, this cat is awesome.

Taipei Hsimending

2006-09-01T01:19:00.000+08:00

I had this past Monday off , and since I've been hearing so much about the Taipei graffiti scene, I thought I'd head up there and see what was what. Soumen tipped me off that Xinmending would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stop off in Hsinchu on the way back to Taichung to have a look around. I had been looking forward to visiting the Burger King in front of the train station.
I found one in Taipei, anyway, so I got my fast food fix.

The graffiti action in Taipei, from the little I've seen, is a lot more hectic than in Taichung. In Taichung, 4Crew has the city pretty much to itself and doesn't have to put up with too much in the way pieces getting painted over, and the murals that go up stay unmolested until the weather gets the best of them.

Taipei's a bigger scene. Lots of places to paint, but everybody wants to put something up where the scene is , I guess. Following are some tags from the various writers working up there.

I've got lots more to work through in the next couple days, but it's too late to edit anything else tonight. Enjoy.

Close to Home

2006-08-27T20:03:00.000+08:00

Those Graffiti Guys struck again last night, this time within sight of my apartment. Actually, from the roof of my apartment block. Below on the left hand side of the picture, if you use your imagination, you can see the intersection of Kungyi Rd and DaTun Street. There's usually a KTV on the corner there, across from McDonald's, but it seems that this particular establishment is having a temporary shut down. See Picture 2.

This is Sam of Taichung Four Crew, and Taipei YIA.

Destruction of the Park--Long Live the Park

2006-08-21T21:58:00.000+08:00

This is the little park on Hua Mei Xi Jie, next to the pub that used to be Napoli years ago. There was never a lot of graffiti there in the past, but a few pieces have shown up during this de-/recon-/struction phase. I was there a few weeks ago to to see some of the pieces before they disappeared. These two showed up in the last two weeks, according to one of the construction workers there who was having a refresher at the end of the day.

This is credited to Omen, Fast, & Bobo of Taichung 4-Crew. Possibly one of Omen's last contributions before going on holiday?

Below, Bobo's piece, and then a few details that I enjoy playing around with. I've learned that YIA is a Taipei Graffiti crew that Bobo and Sam work with from time to time. I've got to find the time to get up to XinMenDing and see what's up.

Some (More) stuff I came across recently

2006-08-17T13:38:00.000+08:00

Sorry, time constraints and computer woes kept me from finishing this group of pictures last week. The ingenious piece above is adjacent to a ... ummm... no idea what it's called so I'll label it a "Disco Park." Sue me if there' s a better word for it. This is where folks from the neighborhood go every morning to have ballroom dancing classes. It is truly an experience. When I went to take pictures of 4Crew Live in Concert (sort of) there was an older man there practicing with a younger student. "Student" " ? " And so forth and so on. I thought it would be a nice shot to include them in front of this piece. I smiled and pointed to my camera. He smiled back and did his best to keep out of my way. (Af) fair enough.

Graffiti Machine - via infectious videos

2006-07-28T00:28:00.000+08:00

" This is a great vid of a graffiti machine - used I guess to ease the work load on the vandals! Although I can't see the kids taking to this contraption any time soon. "

I didn't see any vandals in the video, unless it was the white guy with his baseball cap on backwards, but he was just holding a video camera. Maybe the vandal was the guy who pressed Enter on the laptop. I find, sometimes, that I just don't know what people are talking about. I mean, for an act of vandalism, one would have to be very stupid, indeed, to put in all the time to set up this contraption, and to sit around and watch is do it's thing. I can't imagine it would be all that easy making a fast getaway when some "Good Citizen" notifies the fuzz that there's vandals about.

Anway, nice video over there. Groovy tool.

Meanwhile, On the North Side of the Island...

2006-07-19T23:08:00.000+08:00

Taipei's graffiti artists try to say it with paint

The Taipei Times had this story, pg 2, in their Sunday edition. There's mention of the graffiti park in Xinmending, and of a teacher who is working with artists thinking that "but graffiti artists that have been properly guided can be allowed to express themselves." A graffiti buxiban?

More importantly, there was this little nugget:

On Wednesday, the Taipei City Government's Bureau of Environmental Protection announced that in an effort to clean up the city, graffiti artists will now face fines of between NT$1,200 (US$37.50) to NT$6,000.

To collect, the city has set up a 24-hour "environmental protection hotline" to report illegal activity with a cash carrot for snitches. As much as I want it to, the article does not say that the pro-environment folks in the Taipei goverment are particulary concerned about litter, or unsightly real estate advertisements that are crudely affixed to light posts around the city, ads which leave spent adhesives up and down poles so that the visual unpleasantness can carry on.

Unless "Article 27 of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法), which prohibits the polluting of the ground, pools of water, drainage gutters, walls, beams or pillars, utility poles, trees, roadways, bridges and other structures" can be interpreted to include the fliers, handouts, and call-girl phone numbers that paper my scooter if it's parked outside for too long.

It's a shame the phone number wasn't given. I'd like to report some litterbugs.

As far as I know, Taichung writers are safe from arrest. I could be wrong. Maybe I'll go ask the cops.

Fresh Paint

2006-07-18T16:11:00.000+08:00

Before the rain on Monday, I drove around downtown and found this wall across from a KTV near the park. The representative of the KTV who saw me shooting arrived as I was changing lenses to express his displeasure at my taking pictures of a wall in an empty parking lot. I think he had privacy issues. I asked him if it would be ok to come back later when there were lots of cars in the parking lot. We seemed to be having communication problems. I think he was saying "Don't take pictures here," but the "Give me a good reason why" was lost on him.

Brent Nadin on "Taiwan Fun"

2006-06-30T12:01:00.000+08:00

Thanks INDIAC:

Late last night/early this morning on "Taiwan Fun" (Ch. 21,
http://www.travelandliving.com.tw/funtaiwan/index.shtml ), they talked
about graffiti and interviewed Brent Nadin -- the guy who does the
stencil graffiti of Boris Karloff(Zoiks!), Jimi Hendrix, etc. -- and a
Taiwanese guy who was somehow associated with him and/or the graffiti
artists that did the stuff in the Hua-mei St. canal and other places. I
got a little confused during parts of the show.

If you missed it, you're still in luck. It looks like it'll be
rebroadcast July 2 (Sunday) at 6 PM:
http://www.travelandliving.com.tw/funtaiwan/episodes/5/index.shtml

Here's the schedule for 7/2:
http://www.travelandliving.com.tw/_listings/index.shtml?schedule_date=20060702&amp;amp;channel_code=TATA&language_code=CCH&target_page=/_listings/index.shtml

Hua Mei St, June 1st

2006-06-01T21:59:00.000+08:00

I've seen a lot of new art around town that I've been meaning to go back and collect for postage. These are from the canal. Looks like there are a few new artists working in TC now, which is good, cause it looks like they've got skills.

A little something new

2006-05-19T11:05:00.000+08:00

Digital Scanner Brush

2006-05-06T19:37:00.000+08:00

The folks at MIT have come up with a tool that resembles one of those old shaving brushes which can scan colors & motion to be reproduced on a large computer screen. Check out this Quicktime video. Could be the next big thing in next big things.

NYC Graffiti Law

2006-04-26T14:29:00.000+08:00

“Graffiti is on the rise. It's becoming glorified again. We don't have the police we used to and those we have are concentrating on terrorism,” he said.

Yeah, so the folks up there are banning the sale of spray paint and thick markers to people under the age of 21.

As for Taichung, you can have my spray paint when you pry it from my cold, dead hand. That is, if I painted, which I don't. When paint is outlawed only outlaws will have paint.

When I was in high school, I grew a beard and bought beer and booze every weekend for my friends. I predict a trend towards more facial hair in NYC.

Taiphoon

2006-04-23T12:42:00.000+08:00

Taiphoon: "Graffiti makes the urban landscape more beautiful than the crappy, dirty, run-down concrete that developers with no humanitarian concerns serve up. Let's face it: we require a 'humane' habitat to live in. We have lived in a beautiful Eden for something on the order of 1,000,000 years, and only within the last 50 years or so have we been herded into these drab, grey, cement horrors called modern cities."

Tell it like it is, brother. Here's a link to some of what's going on in the world of graffiti in Taipei.

Tagging Air Force One

2006-04-21T05:03:00.000+08:00

StillFree.com

Fresh Paint Under the Highway

2006-04-19T08:17:00.000+08:00

"F" is a new tag that's been showing up this year. These are under the bridge on the scooter detour headed up towards Tunghai.

I may not be able to find art street, but I know what I like...

2006-04-18T01:06:00.000+08:00

Cheers to Poohhat for the heads up on this mural off Art Street near Tunghai University. It's a completely different style, but I love seeing this kind of personalisation on property here. It's like someone inside is marching to the beat of a different DJ... or something like that.The Resistance. Fill me in on the Resistance. What have I been missing?
Art Street is one of those neighborhoods in Taichung where you don't feel like you're in Taichung. I only saw one 7-11, no Starbucks, and the nearest McDonald's was miles away. I'd love to live up there, but it's so far from everything down in the city.

First Spotted First Posted

2006-04-18T00:36:00.000+08:00

I saw these revisions in the park a few days ago and returned with my camera this afternoon to pick them up. It might be intersting to compare to some earlier work here and here and here, too.

Under the Tracks

2006-04-03T23:09:00.000+08:00

A Side of the Tracks

2006-04-03T22:51:00.000+08:00

One side or the other or underneath the tracks. This is so groovy, how could it be wrong? Apologies to Omen for monkeying with the color on this one, but the shadows were not cooperative.

These pieces are all in a pedestrian underpass (except for this one just above) about a kilometer north of the train station in Taichung. Thanks to KatieKalie for pointing them out to me a few weeks ago.
I'm not gettting out as much as I would like to to find new bombs. If anyone has seen any new work in the Taichung area, please let me know so I can get out to record it. Thanks, you're beautiful, I mean it.

OMEN

2006-03-19T16:31:00.000+08:00

3D Painted Rooms - 2Loop.com

2006-02-15T16:49:00.000+08:00

Not grafitti, but I haven't been getting out much lately. Found this on BoingBoing. 3D Painted Rooms - 2Loop.com

LED Throwies

2006-02-15T16:43:00.000+08:00

Here's a link LED Throwies to a website that teaches you how to make grafitti with light for less than a dollar per light. The Quicktime movie shows you the application.

2005 Grafitti Wrap Up

2006-01-01T23:05:00.000+08:00

I've been too busy to keep up with the tags and bombs popping up around town, but I went to the quote unquote river yesterday at sunset and recorded the murals that weren't there before. And here they are:

Three Little Omens

2005-10-21T15:28:00.000+08:00

2005-10-21T15:27:00.000+08:00

Omen down by the river side.
Down by the river side
Down by the river side.

Extension of the Same

2005-10-21T15:26:00.000+08:00