FAST

FAST

FAST

FAST

New/Old Graffiti by the Wuer HSR Station

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.

Four Crew Spring 08

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

New For You

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.

Top Center

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.)

Hua Mei St

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?

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.

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.

Fresh Paint

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.

2005 Grafitti Wrap Up

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:

FAST Bold

This wall, and most of the walls that follow, is along the river/sewer/drainage ditch between Taichungkang Rd and HsiangShang Rd. It's an open-air gallery, but the smell...Oh Good Gawd, I'd rather huff spray paint.

FAST, Props

I can barely write my own name and this dude does this with a paint can.