Vanishing art
As graffiti uses public space as its platform, it is often covered over or removed. With luck, a piece might survive for a few months, but ones painted in too conspicuous places might last only a couple days before being painted over by residents or removed by public cleaning crews. Because of this, some think of graffiti as a "vanishing art form" that's only seen occasionally on the street by chance and cannot be collected and displayed in a museum like a traditional art work.
After creating a stencil, Bbrother will usually only spray it four times in different places. "If it gets seen, great. If it doesn't, that's OK too," he says. Since graffiti art is removed from time to time, graffiti artists have more incentive to keep at their craft, he explains, and the cycle of painting and removing is a joy in and of itself.
Bbrother says that graffiti artists should be accepting of the fact that their works will disappear, but to him the regrettable thing is sometimes the cover-up job citizens do is uglier than the graffiti. The whole wall ends up a messy patchwork.
With more and more graffiti in Taipei, some have advocated that the government designate a special area in which graffiti is permitted, then crack down on graffiti outside of that area. As a graffiti artist, Bbrother says he'd prefer anti-graffiti policies--"At least that way they'd be sure to paint the walls clean regularly so we'd always have new space to spray." A government-designated special area for graffiti similar to those set aside for posting bills would not only be insulting to artists but would also represent how other areas were off-limits. To the graffiti artists, that would be a step backward.
Graffiti artists seek total artistic freedom. Perhaps such freedom infringes on others, but this minor infraction against the public order is part of the art's appeal. To outsiders, graffiti might look like a bunch of random daubing on walls, but the artists understand that there is a sort of unwritten code. For example, their painting represents the reclamation of public space and a challenge to the authorities, so it is natural that they would primarily target public buildings and avoid damaging private property. At times, however, the line between public and private is not so clear. It is hard to say, for example, whether a publicly owned, privately managed parking lot is a fair target.
Bbrother acts as a lone wolf, and is usually consumed with his own work. But most graffiti artists notice others' pieces, and some will even make "changes." One artist, for example, carelessly painted over part of someone else's piece. In revenge, the other artist painted Xs over all his works and even wrote "Banksy Toy" to their side--implying that the works were derivative of the English graffiti master Banksy's style. Bbrother's works are well-received by his peers, so occasionally someone will spray "Good!" next to them.
To keep their pieces from "disappearing" too quickly, graffiti artists sometimes choose hard-to-reach locations to work in. For example, Bbrother often climbs up onto the roof of a one-story building and paints on the second story of the one next door. Not only is the work then harder to paint over, it is also more visible from below. And when an effective work is in a visible spot, it often attracts more graffiti artists. In a parking lot in a crowded alley next to the National Taiwan University area branch of Eslite Books, there is a wall that's become known as the "Holy Wall" of graffiti. New works appear all the time.
The controversy over the Mountain Guerrillas of National Chengchi University was covered in the newspapers. Bbrother's mother noticed how he'd go out in the middle of every night and grew suspicious. One night, she finally confronted him, asking, "You aren't the one they reported about in the papers, are you?" When his family learned of his graffiti activities they were completely opposed to it, but with time they came to quietly accept it. They'd even come home after seeing his graffiti on the streets and complain, "What are you doing spraying graffiti all over the place?" They'd advise him, "Don't stay up all night every night--it's bad for your health!"