Streets of Asia

 

 

 

As Beijing continues to develop rapidly, so too does its art scene, and one street artist taking advantage of the many demolished zones and construction sites is Robbbb.  His studies in Fine Arts at the China Central Academy of Drama, are perhaps reflected in the expressive faces that he depicts on broken walls around the city.

“Through their exaggerated facial expressions I’m expressing my thoughts on the city’s development and its reflection in life,” Robbbb says. “The rapid development of Beijing is making this ancient city appear and feel more and more young.”

 

Robbbb first became interested in graffitti after a trip to Europe. When he returned to Beijing, he also found inspiration in the street art at the 798 Art Zone, mostly done by foreign artists.  He soon developed his own style, predominantly using a stencil method.

 

However he does not profess to be making any particular statements with his art.

 

“I have never attempted to tie my artworks down with any definitive meanings.  Maybe ten people look at my works and will have ten kinds of different ideas.  When people are affected by and begin to think as a result of looking at one of my works, that’s the start of an exchange and that’s what gives meaning to my work.” 

 

He acknowledges though that people in China are not familiar with this type of art just yet.  

 

“Street art is still in an early stage of its development in today’s China, thus the majority of people still do not quite comprehend this kind of art.”

 

And Beijing can't be the easiest place to create street art, right?

 

“China has no laws against graffiti, but spraying in the streets does have a certain risk, because the police may consider graffiti as being architectural vandalism.” 

 

 

 

 

 

Colasa is an avant-garde artist known for his eerie actions and imaginations, presenting the melancholy of his inner soul. In addition to his stencil graffiti, Colasa also continuously experiments with new materials and substances to enhance his works.

 

Having studied art since childhood, Colasa insists on the defiance of traditional art forms and adopts a rather unconventional creative method-graffiti, with his very own unique style and Chinese ink inspired techniques.

 

Colasa was born in Taiwan and majored in art related fields through out his academic career. After graduating from high school, he fell in love with skateboarding and graffiti. At the time, the street subculture was still very new to Taiwan, so he had to look to the Internet to find anything related to graffiti art. After university, he found a job working in a tattoo parlour and has continued to master his craft as a professional artist ever since.

 

“When I started doing stencil graffiti, I was experimenting with a variety of different colors. However I’ve naturally gravitated towards using just black and white. I guess it’s sort of my way to showcase my own unique style. Audiences tend to think that my work is very dark and full of violence, but what I truly want to express is actually the lightness after the dark.”

 

In the past, Colasa’s work tended to focus on technique and objective meaning. However, he now tries to bring excitement to his work and sees his pieces as truly coming from the heart.

 

Colasa’s resume includes collaborations and exhibitions with the Espionage Gallery in Australia, Eslite Bookstore, MOCA Taipei, TBA Magazine, NIKE, CONVERSE, NIXON, WELLA, PROTON, TAIPEI 101, Agnes B, and adidas.

 

 

 

 

 

While not permanently based in Japan, Titi Freak (aka Hamilton Yokata) does have strong ties to the country and has completed a number of large projects there, including a mural on the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo.

 

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Titi Freak is a third generation Brazilian Japanese.  His wife is also Japanese, and they have family in Osaka. 

 

Titi Freak’s style fuses pop culture references from both East and West, and is informed by his Japanese heritage and his Brazilian upbringing.  One of his most characteristic images are Koi fish, which can be found throughout Japanese art history and are considered to be a symbol of long life, luck and fortune.

 

The artist produces graffiti art officially with permission from or at the request of municipalities or owners of buildings. He has also worked with many leading companies including NIKE, adidas, and CONVERSE. He has produced graffiti art at the invitation of numerous organisations around the world, and holds frequent exhibitions at galleries worldwide.

 

In 2011, Titi Freak was considering returning with his wife to live in Japan, when the major earthquake and resulting tsunami hit.  

 

“I really felt I had to do something to help those people.

At the end of March, my wife and I produced two block prints with the help of a gallery in Sao Paulo. We donated the sales to the Japanese Red Cross Society to support the recovery,” he explains.

 

Later in the same year, he made a trip to the Ishinomaki City, in Miyagi prefecture for a project involving the painting of some temporary dwellings with people in the community. 

 

The endeavor was meant to have an empowering effect for the residents and featured workshops for inhabitants, solo works by the graffiti artist, as well as collaboration murals.  In total, he produced 15 works in just 10 days.

 

“I believe that art can somehow change people. Since graffiti in particular is a street art and one of the forms of expression in which the artist has the most contact with people, I knew it could provide opportunities for communication. I also believed that this project could help boost people's pride because the colours in my work and the actual act of drawing can appeal to people's sensitivity.

 

 

 

 

 

One of Hong Kong's most prolific street artist crews, Graphic Airlines is the creative duo of Tat and Vi, known for their odd cartoonish characters, especially chubby-faced people that they claim celebrate the “aesthetics of ugliness”. 

 

“They were not that fat in the beginning, but they gradually became fatter and fatter. The fat face with big cheeks symbolizes ‘expanding’. We always want to expand everything, our wealth, our power, we buy more than we need while wasting many recyclable things. It represents ‘Greed’”, they explain. "Hong Kong people are so busy.  Street art gives us a chance to think about something other than making money. Graffiti and street art is like a platform of freedom, no boundaries, no approvals.”

 

The two joined forces in 2002 and began their sticker street art in 2005. 

 

“We started sticking some hand drawn stickers on the street and there we found our new creative life.  It allowed us to convey messages of our thoughts, which was great fun,” they explain. “Unintentionally, our stickers got bigger and bigger, until some were even taller than a regular adult.”

 

The two felt that public spaces in Hong Kong were very boring and tasteless, and full of advertising, and wanted to create a platform for people to communicate face to face. But they admit Hong Kong is not an easy place for street art.  

 

“Hong Kong is a rather wealthy city which is a problem, since graffiti usually happens in poorer cities and areas, where no one regulates it much.  It is relatively strict so you can easily bump into police or security guards just round the corner. But the greatest obstacle isn't police, but citizens own value of art, the ‘fast food’ culture of this city.” 

 

However they acknowledge that attitudes are changing and not everyone thinks of graffiti as just another form of vandalism. The duo has even moved on to have commercial success with their characters, producing their own design products since 2006.  Their work has been exhibited around the world, including in Paris, New York, Berlin, Tokyo, Shanghai, Taipei.

 

As for the meaning behind their name:

 

“Our aim is to enjoy the voyage! Doing creative work freely, flying to different realms of creativity – don’t worry about the results, just enjoy the process of creating.”

 

 

 

 

 

In the world of street artists, there is perhaps none more famous than the mysterious UK artist Banksy.  

 

Banksy got his start in the early 1990s with a Bristol graffiti crew, before moving on to the technique of stencilling.  This allowed him to create more complex pieces in less time, critical for a street artist painting unsolicited work.  In his book ‘Wall and Piece’, he noted that he moved to stencilling because very often he got caught doing the graffiti and couldn’t finish his works.

 

His art is known for its satire and tongue-in-cheek humour, but despite his fame, many works still get scrubbed off walls by cleaners, though not before fans manage to get snap shot.  

 

Some of his works have even been ‘stolen’. In February last year, one of his murals in North London was removed from a wall and soon appeared for sale in a fine arts auction catalogue in Miami. 

 

Since 2002 he has held numerous exhibitions and travelled the world leaving his artwork along the way.  In 2005, he painted nine images on the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder going up and over the wall.

 

Many of his art works have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at art auctions.

 

In 2010, Time magazine included him on their list of the world’s 100 most influential people.  In the same year his documentary film ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

Ever subversive, he once produced spoof British £10 notes substituting the picture of the Queen’s head with Princess Diana’s, and changing the text to “Banksy of England”.  Recently he made a fiberglass sculpture of a Ronald McDonald and a barefoot person in ragged clothes, shining the mascot’s shoes. The sculpture was unveiled in Queens in New York city and moved outside a different McDonald’s every day. He even succeeded in installing an image of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, complete with a smiley-face sticker.

 

While some authorities consider Banksy to be nothing more than a vandal, others consider his work a valuable addition to their city’s landscape.  Recently, one of Banksy’s works was painted over in Los Angeles and police in the city have charged the offender with vandalism.

 

In his last face-to-face interview in 2003 Banksy stated: 

 

“There’s a whole new audience out there, and it’s never been easier to sell [one’s art]… all you need now is a few ideas and a broadband connection. This is the first time the essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people. We need to make it count.”

 

 

 

 

 

Hong Kong’s original street artist is without a doubt Tsang Tsou-choi, who crowned himself the ‘King of Kowloon’.  

 

Tsang passed away in 2007 at the age of 85, but not before creating an estimated 55,000 outdoor pieces, all in his calligraphy graffiti style.

 

Migrating from Guangdong province when he was 16, he started writing on walls, postboxes, lamposts and anywhere else he could find in 1956, claiming in his work that  most of Kowloon belonged to his ancestors and that he was the rightful heir.  

 

His writings usually contained his name and title (King), his family tree of princes and princesses, and the exclamation ‘Down with the Queen of England’.  

 

Today, almost all of his works have been washed away, painted over or torn down by the authorities and real estate developers, despite assurances from the government that they would be protected and public outcry at their removal.  Examples remain at only four sites, including a single pillar now preserved at the old Star Ferry pier.  

 

In 2011, an exhibition was held to commemorate his legacy, and one of his works was recently sold at auction for HK$500,000.

 

 

 

 

The secretive French urban artist Invader has left his art in over 60 cities in 30 countries around the world as part of his ‘Invasion of the World’ project.  

 

Using ceramic tiles, he creates ‘pixelated’ images, often of popular 1980’s video game characters.  He plans his visits carefully, usually staying two to three weeks, and placing his works in specifically chosen locations.  He then photographs them, catalogues them and distributes ‘invasion maps’ in the city so people can hunt for the works.  

 

He considers his invasions a ‘gift’ to the city, making artwork accessible for all, not just those able to visit galleries.  

 

Just this year he invaded Hong Kong for a third time, leaving behind 48 works in what he called “probably my most accomplished city invasion wave.”  

 

Unfortunately, the government removed most of them soon after, creating quite a stir among the public and disappointing the artist, who responded in a written statement:

 

“I have never faced a situation where a public authority would systematically and rapidly remove the art from the streets…I am of course very saddened and affected by these removal actions…I hope these policies are part of the past as the city is now aspiring to become the cultural hub of Asia.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you are still questioning whether street art really is art, check out these amazing images. 3D street art, often known as 3D chalk art or anamorphic street painting, is 2-dimensional artwork drawn on the street creating a breathtakingly real 3-dimensional optical illusion when viewed from a certain perspective.

 

For the artist, it can take weeks of preparation and a day or two to create. For the passerby, you just have to get the angle right.  As the art is often done using chalk, it usually only lasts a day or two before it disappears, washed away by rain or walked away by pedestrians.