A quick 48 hours in London to catch up with some old friends and reacquaint ourselves with the old city.
Tacita Dean @ Tate Modern
Man I wish I had made it to see Fiona Banner at Tate Britain though.
Brick Lane Graffiti
Tag: Graffiti
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London Graf
Walking from the V&A Post-Modernism exhibition to central London. 
View down the Thames – the city scape evolving. Would be good to hire someone without Foster or Rogers for once, eh? 
Reflecting, as usual. 
Tacita Dean filling the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern … not quite as arresting or immediately accessible as previous years, but I was happy to see motion media being employed. 
Twisting and distorting film by hand 
This is what I call a real art space – one that kids can run through and enjoy 
View from behind 
Stairs 
Ai Weiwei … would have loved to have seen the original piece, but they had a few million on display for the visitors. 
Too cool for art 
Enjoying the street art along Brick Lane. 
Space Invader! 
Locals also enjoying it. 
Characters 
Old geezers – hey was that the same guy? 
HUH? 
I wonder how much the local authorities tolerate / encourage the work? 
Bright colours 
Seems that portraits are pretty edgy right now. -
Hong Kong Welcoming Comittee
After a taxing week in Shanghai on business, I busted down on a whim to visit Tanja and Michael in Hong Kong, who had moved a few days earlier. A perfect blend of hanging out on boats, swigging beer, munching great food and generally catching up, I look forward to the coming months and having the guys a bit more local – I’ll be there in time for dinner!
Yes, Taipei has a bit of scooter fume pollution – but we happily lack the haze drifting over from Chinese factories. Perhaps one happy side effect of the economic slow down is an improvement in air quality there.
Michael strutting off.
Would you trust this tailor?
Matching the trends I am seeing in Taipei regarding Chinese character grafitti … calligraphy with a spray can. -
Lil’ Sis in Town
One of the advantages of my sister Eleanor’s job is that she has relatively regular travel to Asia, and I was lucky enough to host her third trip to the island a week or so ago, which was just awesome. On top of just hanging out and shooting the shit, we managed to squeeze some hot spring action in, and a trip down to the pottery town of Yingge. After literally flying around the world visiting clients and suppliers, my plans of flying out to one of the islands or training it down to Taroko perhaps were not ideal. The weather remained perfect in Taipei for once, so who cares?!
Ele and I at my favourite restaurant, avec vin, du pain but no Boursain.
The Taiwanese do love their concrete – no idea what these blocks are supposed to do, but some enterprising artist made their own decision.
On the train to Yinge
An actually rather nice spot looking out over the valley.
Colourful seats on the way home
And Jemima enjoys a hot spring ….. mascot for Ele’s latest product launch, and quite well travelled! -
We Come in Peace
OK – one for Thomas in Berlin at Stylewalker, following up the last Grafitti Taipei post …
Not sure about the quality, but for once there is certainly a political message and I am pleased to see an Asian theme. To fill everyone in, last year the Chinese government offered Taiwan their most precious of gifts – the gift of the great big cute Panda. Taiwan did not accept it, which is just as well really. Taipei Zoo is not a good place for… well… anything.
WE COME IN PEACE
Bunny wabbits -
Mathematical Graffiti
I spotted these calculations outside a building site in the south of Taipei. Obviously, some brickies needed some quick sums doing on their construction work, so they picked the panel on the gate to the site, leaving a great photo op’ for me.
And spot also the sprayed-on warning sign in Chinese. If only all tags were this attractive!
Graffiti exams -
Grafitti in Taipei
For me, Grafitti is not simply defacement of public property, but an intrisic part of urban culture – a reflection of the city, and a barometer for its political climate, sense of humour, tolerance and a thousand other things that people feel the need to express when paint hits wall.
One of the things that I miss in Taipei is having this barometer. The kids simply do not seem to want to express themselves in the ways I am used to. However, it seems the times they are a-changing, and quality artwork is appearing on the streets. Moreover, it seems to have a style not completely borrowed from New York, London, Berlin or Melbourne – and is developing in a subtly Asian way.
The highest quality work has been, without a doubt, the stencil work. Though not up to the standards of Banksy, it is pleasant, and infinitely preferable to visual pollution in the form of adverts, neon and the further commercial hijacking of our environment.
Tree frogs appearing to brighten up the concrete
Rather nice flowers – definitely asian style.Also, one of the things I really love, is the municipal stencil work – I just spent a few minutes looking for some photos – but these will have to wait for next time.