Back to Taiping

I found myself with a day off in the middle of the week, so this morning I rode out to Taiping to see what the guys came up with in the end.

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.

Banksy at Disney

Banksy snuck into Disneyland and added a little something to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The article says that it took security 90 minutes to remove the item as a security precaution.

He was also quite naughty at some record stores across England. Here's a link to the Flickr stream showing what he did to Paris Hilton.

Omen in the East

This is a rather ham-fisted combination photo of a mural that must have been done a while back on Fuxing Rd on the other side of the train tracks.

Taichung East Side

I've been driving around town a little more than usual lately and I've come across quite a bit of 4Crew/YIA's stuff that I hadn't seen before. There's a lot more to see on the East side of the train tracks.