At Taipei’s Xi Men Ding MRT exit, in natural herd mentality manner, we gravitated towards a huge crowd quietly gathering and watching intently at what we thought was a typical street performance. The act was entertaining, to say the least!
Check out his video that we found on YouTube: 西門町的藝術~胡亞圖 烤漆作畫
胡亞圖 (Hu Ya Tu), was switching between cans and cans of spray paints, each swift stroke on his paper was so spot-on, you can’t help but be mesmerized with the entire process. In the video, one piece of work is completed within the time a freshly lit cigarette burns off !
He uses just about a dozen cans of spray paint, a burner to dry off the fresh sprays paints, and templates. He produces a piece, about a quarter larger than an A4 sized paper, every 5 minutes, clips it unto a clipboard, flicks it onto his space within the imaginary boundary, right in front of the crowd that has formed a half circle, and moves on to the next piece. If you like this piece, pick up the clipboard, drop NTD100 (USD3.40! what a bargain!) into the wooden box, and he will sign on the back of the work immediately, slip on a plastic sheet for protection, and hand you your new freshly produced piece of art!
Alternatively, you can browse through his other pieces which are neatly stacked up at the side – take your time, there is no hurry unless you get other people peeping over your shoulder.
The novelty really lies in that you are physically there watching this painting being created – it is all part of a great experience – the paint and the burner and the on-lookers’ going “oooh… “, “ahh…”, “waaaahhhh…”….
Definitely worth the trip, and the purchase. Imagine the story you could tell when asked about the beautiful piece hanging on your wall!
ArtQulture 