Letter from the Editor

From the Desk

Perspectives

Top Ten Uses for Coca-Cola

Preston's Random Tops of the Pops

A Tale of Two Cities

Looks Aren't Everything When You're the American Spelling Bee Champion

The Brief Life of Edward Sowles

Graffiti Art in Taiwan

Bitter Espresso

Bling Bling

Workin' Up a Sweat

Pop Porn

Cherry Poppin'

Against Their Will

Most graffiti artists agree that contemporary graffiti art started in the mid to late ‘60s in Philadelphia, PA, USA. The first known graffiti writers who bombed a city (spray painted in many different locations) were Cornbread and Cool Earl. They gained some media attention and, by the early ‘70s, graffiti art had made its way to the Manhattan district of New York City.

Taki 183 and Julio 204 are widely credited as the first graffiti artists in New York. Many of the early New York artists used their name or a nickname and the street they lived on as their tag. For example, Taki was his nickname and he lived on 183rd street, hence Taki 183.

In the early ‘70s graffiti spread from walls to subways. For many early artists, it was a matter of getting your tag on as many walls and subways as possible in order to gain fame. But before long there were so many tags around the city that artists needed to do something different to stand out from the crowd. They started using different scripts, fonts, and calligraphic styles and then later increased the size and thickness of their letters, outlining them with different colours. Writers found that using caps (spray can tips) from various aerosol products produced different spray paint lines and effects. This discovery led to the first modern graffiti "masterpieces".

As graffiti art evolved, style and originality became more important. This led to new lettering, such as block letters, leaning letters, blockbusters, 3-D letters and softie (bubble) letters. All of these innovations would lay the groundwork for the future.

In the ‘80s, due to increased security, it became harder to paint on subways and many shops kept spray paint locked up and refused to sell it to minors. Anti-graffiti city workers painted over graffiti art regularly, effectively discouraging subway graffiti

During the ‘80s, graffiti became recognized as a legitimate form of art and many artists developed intricate masterpieces and held exhibitions in well-known art galleries.

At the same time as graffiti artists began touring European art galleries, hip-hop started getting popular in Europe and many young Europeans began to write graffiti. Today, many of the world's most famous artists hail from European countries such as Germany, France, and England.

In the end of the '80s, hip-hop music and its culture gained

popularity throughout the rest of the world, as did graffiti art, which brings us to the Taiwan graffiti art scene. The first graffiti in Taiwan was a picture of a Pink Floydesque man-dog hybrid spotted by local media in Taipei in '89.

Xpat magazine recently interviewed Ryan, purportedly the first graffiti artist in Taiwan (who was responsible for the original man-beast painting) and Easy, a well-known professional graffiti artist from Kaohsiung. They gave us the low-down on the graffiti scene in Taiwan and life as a graffiti artist in Taiwan.

Ryan

Xpat: We heard that you were probably the first graffiti artist in Taiwan. When did you start? Ryan: When I was 18 years old - 1989.

X: Where did you do your first work?
R: On Min Sen E. Rd in Taipei.

X: What was it?
R: It was a man crossed with a dog. I saw it on MTV; a Pink Floyd video. It was funny, because a magazine found it and wrote about it, but they didn't know who did it, so they said it was probably a Pilipino worker.

X: Just blame it on the Philipino's, eh?
R: Yeah. Always blame the Pilipino, or the Thai. Then my mom saw the picture in the newspaper.

X: Uh oh. Did she spank you?
R: No.

X: Did you ever get in trouble for your graffiti?
R: Sometimes the police come in and say, "Why you do this?" But we always only graffiti old place. No people go there, so no trouble.

X: Where did you paint mostly?
R: Old factories.

X: What did you paint?
R: Cartoons.

X: What first gave you the idea to graffiti?
R: I studied design in high school. I liked skate t-shirts and skateboard art – punk style. I learned about graffiti from MTV and skate magazines.

X: Do you still graffiti?
R: Not much. Now I do design: posters, stickers, and clothes.

X: When did graffiti get popular in Taiwan?
R: 3 or 4 years ago. First was the skate, then hip-hop, then graffiti.

X: Is it still pretty popular?
R: No. It was popular for a short time. Now there’s more stencil and poster style. I think is like pop graffiti.

X: What kind of art are you into?
R: I like pop art.

X: Who are some of your favorite artists?
R: Banky from the UK and Obey from America

Xpat: When did you start writing?
EASY: I started in 2001.

X: What motivated you to become a graffiti artist?
E: I always liked to paint when I was growing up. Then, Tribal clothing was very popular in early 2000 and many of the shirts had graffiti pieces on them. I thought this was very cool, so I began to do graffiti art on the roof of my house and then on walls around Kaohsiung city.

X: Can you make money as a professional graffiti artist in Taiwan?
E: Yes. After a while, our crew began to make money from painting graffiti murals for businesses in various cities around the island, as well as at government-sponsored art shows. Now, I still paint wall murals, but I also do graphic design and teach graffiti art classes at Shu-Te University in Kaohsiung County.

X: How do Taiwanese view graffiti art?
E: Well, I feel that Taiwanese people think of graffiti as an art form, even though it is difficult to paint in the city because there are no legal walls and very few places to spray graffiti where there are not many people. In Taipei it is much easier to get an artist ID so you can paint at different government-owned locations. It is very hard to get an artist ID in Kaohsiung. We used to paint at Pier 2 when it was managed by Shu-Te University, but now it is managed by the government and we need cultural permission to paint there, which is difficult to get.