BAPE, Proton, K-Swiss and Motorola are companies that manufacture completely different products — clothes, TVs, shoes and mobile phones — but all have worked with street artists to promote their wares.
In a world obsessed with cool and the next big thing, forward-thinking companies are desperate to impress trend-setting buyers. One of the easiest, and most successful, ways to do that is to associate their products with high-profile artists, and the cooler the better.
In Taipei, local street artists Reach and Ano tagged Proton TVs. UK legend She1 did a live painting for Royal Elastics in May. And K-Swiss flew out Fremantle and Grand High from France and the US respectively for K Spray 2 in April. Breaking away from this commercial trend, AMPM Gallery is taking back the street by hanging graffiti on its walls.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DBSK1
The appropriation of street art by company marketing machines sits awkwardly with an art form that is viewed as vandalism by authorities and the practitioners of which often break the law.
Despite its proliferation on the Internet, and use in slick PR campaigns, graffiti and stenciling retain a rebellious streak. Sharing that belief in rebelliousness, even if sometimes misplaced, like-minded artists have created grassroots communities.
DBSK1, a foreign graffiti artist living in Taipei, opened AMPM Gallery in March last year as a venue to showcase street art, free from the glare of authorities.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SARAH MCMASTER
DBSK1 and his old crew, Asia Nites, were frustrated with the availability and quality of places to display street art. They aimed to display less commercial forms of street art than big companies were using to market their products. "I'm not against [these corporate shows]," said DBSK1. "An artist, to a certain extent, has to support themselves and I understand doing crossover stuff. But it makes the scene more commercialized," and thus, "softer." What's lost, then, is the street edge or style. Through exhibiting work by local and foreign artists, AMPM aims to reconnect street art to unconformity, even if it is displayed in a gallery.
All of AMPM’s four shows so far have featured local talent. Love Hotel, the gallery’s first show, exhibited the work of 22 artists. The second, featured Beans & Bueller's twisted, yet cute, puppets roaming a post-apocalyptic city. AMPM’s last show displayed photography by Kent Dylan and finished yesterday.
So far, the shows have attracted a peculiar mix of foreigner party people, local graffiti kids, hipsters, and middle-aged spectators. "It's really cool; I really like [the mix we've got]," says DBSK1. "But it's not consistent. We want to hype" the venue and take it to the next level, to educate the general public about the art that's happening in their city.
AMPM’s Notebook exhibition starts Saturday and examines the artistic process. Over 20 artists' notebooks will be posted throughout the gallery, allowing viewers a rare glimpse into each individual's personal world and their creative process. Attendees are encouraged to take along their own sketches. The show of rough drafts, sketches, and random, spontaneous work provides a unique insight into members of Taipei’s art scene.
One of the biggest sore spots in Taiwan’s historical friendship with the US came in 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC) government so that the US could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan’s derecognition came purely at China’s insistence, and the US took the deal. Retired American diplomat John Tkacik, who for almost decade surrounding that schism, from 1974 to 1982, worked in embassies in Taipei and Beijing and at the Taiwan Desk in Washington DC, recently argued in the Taipei Times that “President Carter’s derecognition
JUNE 30 to JULY 6 After being routed by the Japanese in the bloody battle of Baguashan (八卦山), Hsu Hsiang (徐驤) and a handful of surviving Hakka fighters sped toward Tainan. There, he would meet with Liu Yung-fu (劉永福), leader of the Black Flag Army who had assumed control of the resisting Republic of Formosa after its president and vice-president fled to China. Hsu, who had been fighting non-stop for over two months from Taoyuan to Changhua, was reportedly injured and exhausted. As the story goes, Liu advised that Hsu take shelter in China to recover and regroup, but Hsu steadfastly
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
You can tell a lot about a generation from the contents of their cool box: nowadays the barbecue ice bucket is likely to be filled with hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beers and fluorescent BuzzBallz — a particular favorite among Gen Z. Two decades ago, it was WKD, Bacardi Breezers and the odd Smirnoff Ice bobbing in a puddle of melted ice. And while nostalgia may have brought back some alcopops, the new wave of ready-to-drink (RTD) options look and taste noticeably different. It is not just the drinks that have changed, but drinking habits too, driven in part by more health-conscious consumers and
RSS