The graffiti-style photos that Quo Ying Sheng first developedin Paris in 1975 were gloomy, experimental creations-first impressions arising from the young photographer's encounter with a faraway country and a new city. When he arrived for the first time in this land of great freedom, roaming the streets of Paris and stumbling on amazing chance encounters proved both shocking and provocative; not only did this open up new visual possibilities and experiential observations on this new place, but it also unraveled and released all of the intellectual desires and mental hardships to which he had been subject. Avant-guard thought, New Wave cinema, Surrealism, and Existential literature all piqued his curiosity and desire to explore.
First enlarging a series of black-and-white photographs, Quo Ying Sheng then used transparent and opaque watercolors, crayon, and pastels to paint the appearance of the city and his impressions of this foreign place directly onto the photos. The lighting in the photos combines with the colors of the paintings, weaving the pre-existing photo and the imaginative new color applications into a single tapestry. An undulating, "musical" quality pervades these "graffiti works," whose streaking brushstrokes willfully spill over the borders. The tracings waver and slide. Sullen drifts and bold ink smears and washes abound. Every brushstroke and pointillist dot has its own unique sentiment.
The colors are both Quo's impressions of this new land as well as images from the heart; they are portrayals of his life when he first arrived in Europe and they evoke both the distance and affective perception of this foreign place. This series of graffiti works allows the viewer to visualize this faraway place not only by referencing real-life, concrete forms, but also by triggering associations to matters of cultural density and artistic trends.
When we revisit Quo Ying Sheng's 1975 graffiti works, in addition to seeing the individualistic fervor of a contemporary artist in the pursuit of artistic creation, as well as this independent youth's life abroad, we are also led back to a certain period in Taiwan's history marked by the existence of spiritual beliefs and the glory of idealism. Therefore, writing about this era is worthwhile insofar as it gives us that sense that comes when, after walking through a deep valley, we look back through the unfathomable darkness and see a ray of indelible light.
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