Graffiti artists ponder fall of the wall
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Shanghai Daily, August 2, 2011
A city wall where graffiti art is tolerated will soon be demolished.
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Tin.G, one of few female graffiti artists in China, ponders in front of her work "Changsha" in an event in the capital city of Hunan Province. [Shanghai Daily] |
Now, the graffiti artist and freelance illustrator paints about once a month for fun, mostly on a spot along the 600-meter legal graffiti wall on Moganshan Road, near the M50 creative hub. She also occasionally paints commissioned pieces for clients including clubs, cafés, street brands and events.
"The M50 graffiti wall plays a very significant part in the local graffiti scene because it is the 100-percent safe spot, a place where you don't worry about getting disturbed, caught or kicked out," says Tin.G, one of very few female graffiti writers in China.
It's almost like the epicenter of Shanghai graffiti. But by the end of the year, this stretch of street art will be gone as the wall is due to be demolished to make way for property development, taking with it one of the staples of the city's graffiti scene.
"When I first came to paint on Moganshan Road (about 4 years ago), there was nothing, it was almost bare," says Dezio, a French native and one of Shanghai's most prolific painters. "There were just a couple scribbles."
But in the last year or two, he says, the scene has exploded - thanks in large part to prominent out-of-town "writers" (the preferred term for a graffiti artist) visiting the wall.
"They really brought interest in their graffiti because for once the Chinese people were actually seeing what really good graffiti actually looks like in real life and not just on the Internet," Dezio says. "That kind of changed their perspective on what graffiti was."
According to local freelance designer and graffiti writer Hurri, that's also part of the reason the wall has become a social and artistic exchange hub for graffiti artists in the city, both local and foreign.
Hurri, like many Shanghai writers, has not only formed friendships via the spot, but has used the open space to display his work and learn from fellow graffitists.
"The wall has recorded, in large part, the short but evolving history of graffiti in Shanghai, for the last five to six years, from zero to one of the most vivid in China," he says. "The greatest pity about losing the M50 wall is losing such a platform. I don't think there will ever be another wall like this one."
Even graffiti heavyweight Dezio says that's one aspect he'll miss when the wall comes down.
"Moganshan Road was nice because it has a very long wall. You meet people that you'd never meet otherwise and you get an interaction," he says. "That's going to be missed once they take it down. It's going to be a real shame."
But Shanghai's writers are determined not to let that mean the end of Shanghai graffiti. Instead, the wall's destruction could bring a much-needed push in a new direction.
"We are not really worried," Hurri says about the consequences of losing the wall. "There are quite many in the city, and we have written on walls all over the city.
"M50 was never the only spot. It is just the safe spot, but graffiti naturally involves elements of danger and adventure, so it is not such a big deal," he adds.
Which is the same sentiment echoed by Storm, a French native who has been living and painting in Shanghai for almost five years. In fact, he considers the bulldozing a good riddance for Shanghai's graffiti scene; in his opinion, it perpetuated laziness among local artists.
"When graffiti was born, it was not legal," Storm says. And now he hopes the demise of the Moganshan Road wall will motivate more writers to get back to graffiti's roots and take to the streets. Specifically, he says, local Chinese artists.
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