Some (More) stuff I came across recently

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.

Ximending Wrap Up

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.

Omen in the East

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 4Crew In Person

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.

Q&A With FAST

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.

Back to Taiping

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.

Mural Behind the Station

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.