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September 7, 2010

The Daily Swank >Article > Wall Street Arts

For decades, Graffiti has been a movement in many countries in the world. Throughout the year, more and more Graffiti is found decorating walls everywhere we look, and more people are actually trying to do it. Many Graffiti writers in the world are starting to get recognition from the art world as artist. From that point on, Graffiti is considered one of the forms of street arts, and the best one there is. The limitation of time and the adrenaline rush is part of the charm, due to the fact that in some part of the world graffiti is considered illegal. To be able to get the best location, highest places, and moving objects is one of their proudest achievements as a graffiti artist. All that little things that complement the graffiti movement is what makes them more enticing and interesting to do.

Curator Alia Swastika is one of the people who put interest in the street art and graffiti movement. On July 10th the Salihara Gallery in Jakarta exhibits a different type of art work. From 13 different Graffiti heavyweights hailing from Indonesia, France and New York, comes a unique art experience. Swastika presents seven local graffiti artists such as Nsane5, Darbotz, Tutu, Wormo, Popo, Kims, and Bujangan Urban whose artwork has been decorating the walls of Jakarta since late 1990's and has been known all over the world for their own fresh style.

Alia Swastika also invited 6 artists from France and 1 from New York. Graffiti heavyweights such as Sonic, Lazoo, Kongo, Ceet, Gilbert, and Colors visited Indonesia for the exhibition and to do several amazing mural collaboration with the local artist for the promotion of the exhibition. For those of you whose been doing graffiti (or knows someone who's interested), you should know about these group of graffiti artists - get to know their signature styles, the stories that they're telling and their soul in every line, stroke and spray when you visit their displayed works.
The exhibition is jaw dropping. Their canvases speak for each one of them and their different style and each of them stands out like nothing else you've regularly see. When you visit the gallery you might find yourself standing in front of one of their artwork and feeling amazed by the result of their work. The gallery is filled with canvases made by the artists, displayed wonderfully in the gallery's round wall. Cans of spray paint, oil drums, crates, and ladders are found decorating the gallery to give you the street feel and video's of them painting is playing so you can see how they did it and the whole process. You might find yourself stopping at each of every canvas just to see what they did and wondering how they did it.

All of their talent is put to a test when they did a mural painting in front of Cilandak Town Square, the walls of Galeri Salihara, and in Senayan. In order to write this article, I decided that it would be best to come and see for myself when they are painting on the streets, just to get the feeling of it. As it turns out the result is amazing and it was fun to be there and witness one of the biggest collaboration in Jakarta.

I have been lucky and fortunate enough to spend a couple of day with all of them and get to know them personally. For me it is such an honor to meet them in person and chat with them to know their perspective in the whole graffiti movement and most of them have been doing it even before I was born that for them it is just an everyday thing to do graffiti. One of them started in the 70's and the others started in the 80's and late 90's, which for me I think they are the pioneer of the graffiti scene in the world. As it is with any different type of art, when you talk about graffiti, you are talking about the artists who created them. They have become what they are - and what they are is the pioneer of a different world.

 

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