“SWAT Team! Put your hands in the air now!” But don’t worry, it has nothing to do with the Special Weapons and Tactics squad. This SWAT stands for the Saigon Writing Artists Team, a team of eight young Saigonese graff artists (www.peaceunit.com.vn). Huy, the leader takes us in a tour of the graffiti world in Saigon.
The Saigonese graffiti artists (or "writers" as they prefer to call themselves) are passionate, skilled, community-oriented, and socially conscious. “Graffiti art is exploding”, Huy says. “There are more and more graffitis on the streets. But we don’t want to go that way anymore. What we want is to promote it as a real art form , not as vandalism. We graff places where it is permitted so it is well perceived by the people.” Huy is an 18 year-old chubby schoolboy. “When we bomb out there, we always ask for permission to the owner or neighborhood. I know it sounds strange as in the West, bombing has to be something illegal by nature, which makes it fun. Bombing a well-known place, under police surveillance is the challenge there. We don’t do that. It is not what we are looking for”.
Graffiti as an art form
Graffiti has a long history in the US and in Europe, where the subculture surrounding graffiti has existed for several decades. Bombing has started in the 1960s in New York. The style of graffiti which is now appearing in Vietnam is the kind that uses spraycans. As Huy says, it started a little bit like vandalism here. But the community of writers took it seriously as the rest of the world now does. For instance, Banksy, a well-known British contemporary artist promotes bombing as a true street art. The "guerilla artist" has become a household name in England, and his work is now scattered across the globe. While some see his work as vandalism, he has managed to win over many in the art world. His pieces are always much in demand at auctions and collected by celebrities and art lovers alike. He held his first solo exhibition in May 2008 in Hong Kong. The pieces included a cross section of Banksy’s works including his remixed British ten-pound notes (featuring a portrait of Diana instead of the Queen) doors with monkeys on them, rat characters, Kate Moss as Marilyn Monroe (a nod to Warhol) and various other canvases.
“Our themes are not subversive”, Huy says. “We are young you know. The last combo (graffiti in which many artists of the same crew participate) we did, it was about Batman, as the last episod was released in movie theaters. We put it combos on websites like graffitivn.com and we discuss them with the graff artists community”, he explains.
Graffiti social impact
Surprisingly, Vietnamese graff art can also benefit to the community. In one area in Go Vap district, where the SWAT Team bombed a 50 meters long wall, the people there are actually enjoying a safer neighborhood. “When we arrived here in this area in Quang Trung Street, Huy explains, heroine dealers and users were squatting the place. We started cleaning the street and putting away the needles. The eight of us, we were then bombing the wall entire days for a whole month. The drug addicts did not have any opportunity to come back to this place. The neighborhood has been very supportive, bringing us ice tea when it was hot or letting us inside their homes when it was raining.”
Mr. Huu Tri sells ice cream in this street and he is grateful to the SWAT Team, even though he was skeptical when he first saw them bombing. “They came asking all the families on this street for the permission to paint the wall in front of our houses”, Mr. Huu Tri says. “Behind this wall, there is an cimetery. So we gave them permission, not really knowing what would happen next. Now I can see the result and I think it is quite nice. They did not disturb us at all, and they were not noisy nor turbulent. And drawing on the wall is better than doing drugs.” Mr Huu Tri also wanted to have the SWAT Team working on the decoration of her sister’s restaurant. “I wanted to hire them to paint the rooms. But their rate was to high, 150,000 dongs per square meters”.
Graffiti and business
Huy rides a customized Honda Cub that he bombed himself. “I tested graffing on my motorbike and I was happy with the result”, Huy says. “We are trying to make a living out of graffiti. With my friends, we want to set up a paint shop for motorbikes, helmets, tee shirts, wall painting, and decoration. We are currently working with a fashion shop in Go Vap district and also Dexori, a teen fashion shop. We designed for them a collection, limited edition, of original tee shirts and jeans. In parallel we also paint motorbikes according to clients request. Most of these clients being in our group of friends but we hope that we can soon find more customers. ”
Graffiti and hip hop
In Vietnam, graffiti is also booming thanks to the growing popularity of hip hop music. In Saigon, nightclubs like Corner, MGM, Volcano and now Bounce and Velvet are (or were) playing hip hop music regularly. Graffiti is usually considered one of the four elements of hip hop (along with emceeing, DJing, and B-Boying). Graffiti represents the visual, emceeing and DJ produces the music, and B-Boying is the dance. At the last hip hop party in Benh Thanh theater (Mac Dinh Chi street, district 1) last July organised by 19 year-old Tran (www.darapclub.vn), you could see Huy’s huge graffittis on stage on a wall while the DJ spinned and scratched, the MC raved up the crowd, and the B-boys were battling each other on the dance floor, in front of a 600-teenager crowd. “I did not expect to have so many people. We only advertised on hip hop websites but I guess the hip hop community is growing up every day!”, Tran says.
Huy got a call from Dam Sen park as they will soon open a playground for skate boarding and hip hop dance classes. Huy is still talking with them the possibility to graff the walls there. “I would like to do something new for Dam Sen. We already did a lot of things, Bubble, 3D or Wild style. I will look on internet and try to get inspiration from what is done overseas or by the crews in Hanoi.”
Graffiti in Hanoi
In Hanoi last year, well-known graffiti groups including famous LinkFish and Street Jockey crews gathered to compete in the 3rd A.R.T. festival. Local residents watched with wonder and admiration the young artists at work. The graffiti works created during the contest were of different styles but only one theme: War and Peace. Before the contest, the A.R.T participants had never dreamt of being able to paint with freedom on such an ideally large wall space as the H5 street without any angry reaction. But they did, in broad daylight, under the very eyes of the “wall owners”.
Local support is a very special award for graffiti writers, who are often scolded or chased away by local residents who don’t like the look of graffiti on their walls. The future of graffiti in Vietnam may well lie in the acceptance and tolerance of the public and on the behaviour of graph artists. “Art is our weapon” Huy says. “And we will keep on fighting”.
