Subscribe to RSSLocal Train Graffiti Artists Show Off - Video
Kiwi graffiti artists are releasing a 75-minute DVD of their work on NZ trains.
From the preview (below), it seems mostly Wellington trains are involved but their myspace page says the “live painting missions” go from 1998-2009 and include “20+ whole cars and Aotearoa’s first running whole train.”
The work seems more graffiti art than meaningless tags although there is a shot of them doing something inside the carriage. (Has anyone noticed how scratched the inside windows of Auckland trains are getting? I have because it’s now impossible to take photos through the scratched windows!).
The trains were “taken out of service and cleaned within hours of being painted. This movie is a collection of trains with graffiti on them, caught on film before being buffed clean.”
Here’s their trailer:
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22 Comments
The proceeds from the sale of their DVDs can go towards the cost of cleaning up the mess.
I reckon they make the trains look better than the sad state of their existing paint jobs.
This is NOT graffiti art but bombing and simple vandalism. The culprits should be located and prosecuted. As far as scratching on windows is concerned products are available to protect windows and i suggest should be applied to windows of all public transport vehicles. I sincerely hope the new electric rolling stock will be protected from tagging.
The squiggle scrawl is tagging and the larger efforts shown are bombing. Graffiti art is an art form and can be dramatic and colourful , a form of mural. Graffiti is a form of message, usually political, painted on a wall and has been around for centuries. Tagging, the scrawlers signature, originated in the Bronx in America.
There is a simple answer to tagging and bombing……get rid of it the same day, the trains certainly should not have been used in that filthy state, they look like the subway in USA circa 1970′s. How did they manage to get so close to the trains anyway?
It should be illegal to sell a DVD glorifying criminal activity, are they not censored?
The railway corridors around Auckland are a mess and most of the damage is on adjacent private property. The owners should be asked to clean it up and Ontrack likewise. There is little tagging in my part of town simply because there are three council supported “Wipeout” crews and residents clean it off. A tag is lucky to last more than a couple of days.
Lets be proud of our towns and cities wipe out the tags and let the scum know they are not wanted
I thought the shark one looked kinda cool to be honest except for covering the windows.
Yea, I think they have some trains legally done with graffiti art, some of it looked really cool.
I think Belgium was where I’ve seen the most graffiti bombed trains, in Brussels the station was full of trains completely covered in graffiti.
Surely the best solution is to better secure the stabling facilities for the trains, without easy access people won’t do it.
The shark one was cool, but the rest are just plain valdalism
Why are these people being described as artists? They are vandels.
@Cam Their own DVD rating wording is: ” Warning contains explicit language and graffiti vandalism.”!
So why are you advertising this, Jon?
You can be sure they will be thankful that this gets nicely spread and publicised. “Whoo, mad props. Let us do a video of our vandalism too!”.
Great.
@Ingolfson. I’m not advertising it and telling you where to buy it. It’s hardly at your local JBHiFi! And they’re already working on their next anyway. There appears to be a ready market for those who are into “train art.”
The trailer is the first time I have seen who is actually involved in doing this on our rail corridor - and their actual movie, which I have now seen, shows groups working in Auckland.
What I find interesting is how they can so easily do their work without detection, including even hitching a ride on the front or back of trains they have tagged while the train is at a stop and the train has then started moving - and even film of them working on trains parked in railyards at night after cutting through a fence. There seems to be no CCTV in sight most times or noone obviously checking later. Mind you their faces are often hidden.
My stand on this graffiti issue is well documented in precious posts.
I know your stand - buut I still think it is wrong to publicise it. This gives them “stret cred”, so to speak.
@Ingolfson They have street cred amongst their own movement.
But I understand your position. It is one I considered before sharing the video.
I am going to great lengths lately to try not to show the tagging when I publish photos of the rail work - but it’s getting difficult. It’s everywhere.
Kiwirail etc need to get some security guards that have a nice big rottweiler, doberman etc at the end of the leash or failing that just put some speakers up that play classical music very loudly, it apprantly works
Yip I agree taggers are scum.
Here’s the But, sometimes you see something that is good, interesting, engaging and worth a second look. But not very often.
Maybe they should run a competition for the “Artists” and do a vinyl rap on a loco, carriage or set and let it run for a number of months, Mobile art. Get some corporate to sponsor it. Maybe the first new trains off the rank, Wellington and Auckland. Great way to add some visual interest to the rails. Theme the comp to promote rail usage etc…
Why not?
I like the idea of security guards with dogs… remember the stand by me movie? Sick balls Chopper…. That should stop the taggers reproducing, the railways could look great with out the tags, they ruin it.
I wonder what theyd do if they stopped cleaning the graffiti off the trains. Theyd have no clean canvases to work with..
“I wonder what theyd do if they stopped cleaning the graffiti off the trains. Theyd have no clean canvases to work with..”
Despite the costs involved, it has been shown that quick clean-up is a good way of reducing tagging. Google “Broken windows theoy”, or “Fixing broken windows” for the concept.
I think graffiti writers would take more time and consideration into doing a piece if there wasn’t such a risk involved in doing it and if the trains weren’t buffed so quickly, You people don’t realize most of the people who are involved in this video would be more than capable of doing an artistic piece on the side of the train or wall if there wasn’t the chance of a security guard bashing you with a club or been chased over razor wire fences.
@GraffitiWise, You’re talking about “doing a piece” on things belonging to people that DON’T want their stuff tagged.
How about looking for people who DO want you to do artistic pieces on things they own - some to the point that they’d pay you to do it?
Commissioned works - like the wall at Kingsland Station that will need redoing once the platform widening is completed.
If you can’t find anywhere else, do a piece on something you own yourself - say your car or house (not a rented one - bad idea).
I think that graffiti artists should only do things that belongs to them not things that doesn’t belong to them.
wat u can do is ask people do u want some art work on u wall if they say yes they pay for u.
youre all missing the point,
this movie is about showing off there art that no one else otherwise would have seen.
this movie pays homage to some of new zealands best train and yard writers.
and yes its vandalism and yes it is art.
if you read the meaning of art i think you would have a better understanding
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect.
i rest my case…
props to BML and RBK crews.
respect.