You really don’t see an awful lot of graffiti in Thailand, not compared to the US and much of Europe, for instance. And, if you do, it’s usually a quick tag, or a simple spray paint drawing — rarely anything elaborate like western graffiti artists produce. So, it was interesting to see the graffiti contest at Bangkok’s Siam Center on June 22nd, with graffiti displays staying up at the shopping center for shoppers to admire for days after the event.
The Siam Center event was put on by Isuzu and was a competition to see which Thai graffiti artists would represent Thailand in the Wall Lords Asia 2012 graffiti contest in Taiwan at the end of the year.
Thai graffiti artists, for the most part, aren’t as progressive as their western counterparts, with much of what they do quite similar to graffiti in the west from years ago. It would be nice, I think, to see more traditional Thai art incorporated in graffiti in Thailand, as that really is beautiful and far more unusual then the generic western style.
It would also be interesting if the Thai government or an arts organization put some money into graffiti art, as there are thousands of dirty walls around Bangkok that could definitely do with some brightening up.
As for the Wall Lords Thailand 2012 competition, Thai graffiti artist, DSF Crew Funky Fa, was the winner. He won 20,000 baht, 50 cans of spray paint and two round trip air tickets from Bangkok to Taipei. He’ll be heading to Taiwan in December to represent Thailand in Asia’s biggest graffiti competition. Congratulations, and nice work!