Category Archives: hong kong photos

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.

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.

historic vandalism

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went up to the jubilee (shing mun) reservoir on a hong kong history walk/tour/talk with jason wordie and found an example of some of the older hong kong graffiti you’ll find.

historic hong kong graffiti

this marking was left by the victorious japanese army under colonel doi teishichi when they defeated the british battalion stationed here in 1941. unfortunately no one is lining up to preserve the complex, interconnected network of tunnels that once helped to hold off the japanese forces.

if you do make it out to the tunnels (i highly suggest going with wordie and hearing all the background from him), you’ll see that the tunnels were named after london streets to help the middlesex regiment manning the site to better get their bearings.

the fall of the shing mun redoubt/jubilee reservoir and its surrounding areas — which cut hong kong’s water supplies — paved the way for the japanese to take over the rest of kowloon.

a couple of more photos from the tunnels:

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.

 

we don’t need no education

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was walking in sheung wan & it turned, more or less, into a hunt for start from zero’s work. guessing the sfz guys are pink floyd fans — those first three wheatpaste picts were dotted along queen’s road. the fourth pict of the empty space was interesting since it looked like one of the construction logo knock-off (image 5, from tin hau) used to be there.

if you look behind the space in image four, you’ll see a ribbon. got a close up it — a sfz calling card.

had to include the final pict of a pawn shop that i shot near one of the odes to floyd. with the shadows across it, it seemed like something that you’d see in an old hong kong film.

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.