There is nothing like the smell of aerosol in the evening.
Liz and I headed to the city last week to get something for the apartment. On our way home, waiting for the elevator that takes you down to the car park, I grabbed one of those free newspapers. I flipped through it when we got back home and came across a small note about a graffiti contest called ‘tag’ hosted at Dowse bar.
Graffiti has always fascinated me. It is something with the style and the culture behind it; and that I wish I could draw something better than stick-figures. Being creative with GIMP or Inkscape, no problems at all; with a pencil or a spray can, now that spells disaster.
We showed up a few minutes earlier, so I managed to take some nice photos of the setup before it got covered in paint, and people. I thought I would be going there alone, but Liz wanted to come too and experience it; which meant we could take the car.
Little did I know I would still be walking home.
After 2pm people started to come and Dowse bar was almost packed. The competition did not start until about 3pm, but it is the first time the guys behind this does something like this, so I didn’t really mind. It is always nice to have a schedule to follow though, so you don’t end up like Liz and I, sitting for an hour tapping our fingers.
Instantly when they started spraying you could smell the aerosol, even if they had a big industrial fan to try to keep the smell and paint away from the crowd.
The artists were given a theme before they started painting and then they had 20 minutes to finish their piece. I am not sure how I feel about the theme concept, as some of the artwork I saw was not really the type of graffiti I have seen around; it was very different. I guess that is what happens when you limit an artist.
We only had time to see the first spray-off as Liz was meeting up with a friend from school and she hates driving in Brisbane. After a lot of sighing from my part we speed of so I could quickly drop her off, and walk back… [...]
[...] When I got back I had missed spray-off two and three, but just in time to see the end result of four.
It was still packed and people seemed to be having a good time.
They were passing around a piece of cardboard to tag on, but I politely declined as I have no tag; after leaving I regret it as I came to think about a tag that might have been a bit funny. Oh well, maybe next time?
It was interesting listening in on people talking about their “war stories”, but I will leave those stories for another time; some of them are a bit too “colourful” for even me to consider publishing them.
Ten artists had signed up for the contest. When they all had finished their artwork they picked two for a semifinal. A bit surprising to have a semifinal in a competition like this, but it made it more exciting for sure.
2nd place.
1st place.
As I see it, this is one step in the right direction. Graffiti is mostly done illegally, but it is still an art form that needs to finally become recognised. Some graffiti artists are extremely creative. Of course, it helps to have no boundaries, but what they created were amazing.
Hopefully a competition like this will be hosted again as it is great to see graffiti being created in a setting where the artist does not have to fear for their life.
I don’t know if Brisbane has any legal walls, but I hope they do.
Graffiti is not a crime!
