Writing's on the gallery wall for graffiti

Group 13 moves graffiti from the street into the gallery. The curator takes scrawls in an alley and passes them off as legitimate works of art. It's a transformation that has already happened elsewhere but has found a home of sorts in Taipei, at AMPM.

The Canadian aerosol artist Dbsk1 founded the gallery in Ximending at the beginning of the year and it has held a number of graffiti and photography exhibitions, including installations.

The route from avant-garde to mainstream, from the underground to overground, is a well-trodden one and the only surprise is established gallery owners here have not capitalized on it sooner.

"We show the low-brow and underground because no-one else is doing that here. At home [Montreal] there's plenty of shows," says Dbsk1, who uses a number of aliases and is usually photographed with a face mask.

"I have to protect myself. I still do a lot of street stuff and it also keeps the mysterious street scene vibe goin', as opposed to the commercial scene."

Writing graffiti in Taipei is a public order offence under the category of defacing public property and offenders are subject to fines of NT$4,500.

In practice, however, the authorities are fairly lenient and Taipei seems liberal compared with some Western countries. Dbsk1 says he has been pulled a couple of times for tagging but was not fined.

In the UK, former prime minister Tony Blair signed a charter saying, "Graffiti is not art, it's crime," New York set up an anti-graffiti task force and Chicago fines perpetrators US$500.

"It's more easygoing than back in Canada. There's places here where you can do stuff legally - like the levee walls - and where it's kinda accepted," Dbsk1 says.

You can check graffiti out for yourself at sites like the Jianguo Beer Factory, Huashan Culture Park, all around Ximending (especially Cinema Park) and the East Side shopping district around Zhongxiao East Road.

CityStalker is possibly the most famous/infamous local graffiti artist and has been working since 2000, when tags in New Zealand inspired him. He was caught once in Ximending.

"I was working on a piece and this guy was watching me, but I paid no attention. Then the police turned up and it turned out the guy watching was a community officer," CityStalker says.

"They started writing me a red ticket when the [community officer] says, 'Why don't you let him finish the piece, it will look better if he does.'"

Despite the gallery, Dbsk1 emphasizes the "close-to-the-edge" buzz of illegal graffiti work. He admits to walking a "blurry line" between sellout and commercial artist.

Though he has done work for Philips, the city's MRT company and worked as a graphic artist on games, the credibility factor is important to him.

CityStalker, on the other hand, seems more comfortable with the transition. He studied art at college and calls himself a "new school artist," working primarily with stencils and spray paint.

He sees the AMPM show as a way to move out of the shadows and into the spotlight, where he can make a living doing what he's good at.

From its anti-establishment roots in 1970s New York, graffiti has moved from the underpass into the art arena where it is commoditized.

It mirrors the history of art production, which often begins with outsiders and the critics saying, 'That's not art,' then it becomes the norm.