Category Archives: graffiti

the man behind “fei”

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spent the day in ngau tau kok (牛頭角) & kwun tong (觀塘區) with the guys from secret tours hk checking out some of the local artists who moved into the area’s abandoned factories. while we were walking around we found some great pieces by start from zero (which has a studio in the area), graphic airlines & 308 tattoo workshop.

the first two images were by the 308 (imagine what their tats looks like) on how ming street. the second one was hidden in the corner of a parking lot on tai yip street by hidden agenda. the last image on the top row is of fei from graphic airlines.

we stop into the graphic airlines studio & meet with tat who explained that he created fei (“fat”) to represent hong kong’s overconsumption. something to think about next time you see this image on a random wall around the city.

although the studio was a lot of fun to poke around with a ton of great pieces on just about every surface in there, my favorite thing there was the bike-cum-panda suit (image six).

the final picts are just two quick ones from the walk today — not exactly the glass & steel you see in central.

macau graffiti: round 2

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had to take some guests from out of town to macau & managed to find a who new set of graffiti there (click to see macau graffiti from my last trip). i left them to take picts of the church while i went & snapped these by beco de roma.

all children of the ’80s have to love the ode to gameboy, & i’m a big fan of the skeleton. take a closer look at the details on that one, it’s pretty cool. (& yes, at least that one is a start from zero work. who knew they did more than hong kong graffiti?)

urban inspiration

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i walk by this hong kong graffiti quote almost every day outside a construction site between king’s & electric road in tin hau. thankfully i finally remembered to stop & get a picture.

hong kong graffiti in tin hau

not sure if this completely qualifies as graffiti (well, neither did my last hong kong graffiti post), but love it anyway. the quotation marks around “beat” always remind me to visit one of my favorite — and truly nerdy — websites, the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks.

king’s road revival

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although it’s fun to catch art around the city (or asia), also good to see tin hau getting some hong kong graffiti love. caught this one across king’s road. if you weren’t sure this wheatpaste was a start from zero piece by looking at it, they also signed it (see the close up).

         

no idea how these guys managed to put this up on such a busy road, but happy this is there though since the cheeky take on the hong kong construction logo that used to be in that spot (image below) faded a while ago.

 

magic eye

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magic eye graffiti in central

feel like someone’s watching you in central? might be more than the person on the next bar stool.

to the races

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to avoid the crowds when walking from causeway bay to happy valley i ducked behind a row of houses & found these (cheeky) free-style hong kong graffiti pictures.

to go back to “sesame street” days & play “which one’s not like the others”, the last image here only belongs with the set due to geography: it’s done on what looks like a kind of paste & the image is pretty complex, it looks almost painted on.

graffiti playground

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although a quick walk from my office to the taco truck (a lunch staple since it soft opened a few weeks ago in central), it’s relaxing to take a few minutes in what i’ve dubbed “the playground” — that random area between pottinger st. & wo on lane/lkf — to see if any new hong kong graffiti has popped up.

there’s a ton there that has been up for a while but these relatively new/less old ones caught my eye. i particularly love the man sitting done on wheatpaste.

discovery in db

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Discovery Bay Hong Kong - Hong Kong graffiti

went to discovery bay to visit some friends, & almost walked right past this koala in hiding on the boardwalk. there was remarkably little tagging out there (& sadly no laundry detergent boxes in the windows either), so this was a pretty nice surprise amidst the perfectly manicured flowerbeds.

spray your world

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“spray your world” has popped up around tin hau & causeway bay lately. noticed the first tag & stencil-freestyle piece on the harbour frontage road next to victoria park. the next images were taken in victoria park, a space generally free of graffiti.

the last “break your camera” shot on caroline rd is missing the tag, but it does share the same stencil so figured it rounded out the set. as for the car, just thought it was a fun one.

lamma stencils

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lamma (南丫島) feels like worlds away from hong kong, perfect for a quick day trip. someone with a spray can & a few new stencils to test out beat me there though, leaving an anti-consumerism message (photo 1), mao bust & a tasteful nude to line the walk to the beach. i’m a fan of how photo 5 turned out, our shadows somehow work into the shot perfectly. wonder when we’ll see these stencils popping up in central.

although i generally stick to graffiti photos, couldn’t help including a couple from our day out there, we couldn’t have asked for better weather. check out photo 9: a local man (maybe in his 70s or 80s) who has a small vegetable farm/patch & grows all his produce organically (minus the certification). you can buy veggies from him as you pass, but if you don’t make it you’ll probably get a taste anyway since some of the local restaurants buy from him as well.