Graffiti artists ponder fall of the wall
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Shanghai Daily, August 2, 2011
"That's how graffiti should be done. Not only to get a contract and money." Or to paint a pretty picture, which both Dezio and fellow foreign writer Yemen say is characteristic of Shanghai graffiti.
Yemen, Dezio and Storm all say they were first exposed to graffiti - which originated in New York in the 1960s and began to spread around the world in the early 1980s - when they were kids. As teens they were drawn into the scene by other artists.
But here, this form of graffiti is still so young that local artists have had an entirely different introduction to the subculture.
Like many local graffiti writers, Tin.G says she was first drawn in by hip-hop music and the underground culture surrounding it. For her, that included dance, fashion, extreme sports and, eventually, the types of graffiti that show up in music videos.
Even Hurri says his first introduction was through media and a Chinese Internet forum, which is typical for young local writers. Many of them just grabbed cans of spraypaint and painted on nearby walls for the first time, before getting increasingly more attracted by "this very sizeable and free form of expression."
"You couldn't really learn it in any way except to find pictures, information and videos online," he says.
Before the scene started catching on around the country, the Internet played host to the main network of Chinese graffiti artists.
Now, Shanghai has one of the most active graffiti scenes on the Chinese mainland.
"But it's still only six to seven years old, a child compared with many other countries," says Tin.G. "But we have been learning quickly, developing our own styles. And we don't necessarily have to copy-and-paste everything that foreign graffiti artists do or follow."
This is what Canadian graffiti writer Nine has noticed, too.
"Styles take a long time to grow, so it's going to take a little bit of time for these people here to develop their own," he says. In the seven years he's been here, Nine says he's seen huge changes in Shanghai's graffiti artists.
"There are a lot of local kids that are close (to developing a style of their own). That's another reason why that whole legal wall coming down is going to be a big thing ... Every time I walk down that wall I'm like 'Woah! He or she's really improved in these areas and these areas'."
The foreign artists also love to see more Chinese writers painting Chinese characters, as Tin.G and her friends have been trying.
"But it is a lot more difficult than just spraying English letters, because the shape of Chinese characters are not made for easy reshaping, and it is hard to get the same tension when you spray in Chinese," says Tin.G.
Even away from Moganshan Road, the city itself is more tolerant of graffiti than most would expect. None of the artists Shanghai Daily interviewed have found themselves in serious trouble here, which may have to do with the fact that there are no actual laws or regulations against graffiti in Shanghai. The only applicable ruling refers to destruction of public belongings.
"The urban management officers, rather than the cops, are the most troublesome for us," says another local writer, Shier.
He and the foreign writers all say they've never had any serious repercussions from painting in the streets. "Usually we are just asked to wash off the paint or to pay a fine. The most I've gotten fined was 500 yuan (US$77.68)."
Storm and Nine both say they've noticed far more acceptance of graffiti here than in the West.
"People here are more interested in it than they are against it, which is cool," Nine says. "It's an art form, it's one of the fastest-growing art forms in the world."
Shier admits he once sprayed on a cargo train in Hangzhou, capital city of neighboring Zhejiang Province, soon after he started graffiti, an act trying to get closer to the origin of the subculture.
