Osaka’s grey canvas

Osaka is a great backdrop for urban guerrilla artists

It is a problem for artists to find somewhere to show their art. The old adage in art schools is ‘make your own opportunities’, which is not always the easiest thing to do. Some will strive and sacrifice a lot to get their lucky break but for others, notoriety helps. London knows particularly well of this through the numerous acts by Banksy. Having started out as a graffiti artist spraying images of rats, policemen and maids in politically significant places, Banksy, whose real identity is still unknown, later even went as far as to smuggle and hang his works directly in museums and art galleries without the museum staff noticing. His brand of visual terrorism often proves entertaining to many people, a point which incited one local council to leave the decision of removing one of Banksy’s works to the community. The piece in question depicted a man and his scantily clothed wife looking out of a window while another man hung naked from the window ledge below. Sprayed onto the side of a sexual health clinic, it was so well liked, that 97 per cent of the community voted through an internet poll to leave it alone.

Creating your own opportunity is familiar to every graffiti artist but it is risky, as not all councils are as open-minded.

The landscape can be a very tempting canvas and grey canvases are particularly inviting, making Osaka something of a magnet. The hub of spray can activity is Amemura but as one artist notes, any gloomy, dark and quiet place will do.

This doesn’t mean that the graffiti artist is random and unpredictable like your opportunist thief. Far from it. Graffiti art is the product of lengthy and researched preparation worthy of any grand master, and having been active for 10 years, this is an apporoach in which local graffiti artist BUONE is very practiced.

Always keeping an eye open for ideal spots to paint, once he has selected a suitable place he will plan a sketch of the design and then its execution. Inspiration and ideas come in many forms yet he draws most heavily from film, music and video sources, something he attributes to his boyhood dreams of making films. In fact, doing graffiti didn’t appeal to him until he met another artist whilst at junior college in Kyoto. The artist known as CR influenced BUONE and several others, quickly forming a group and naming themselves KGT.

After college, many of the group quit graffiti in favour of more formal professions leaving only a few to carry the mantle, the most active of which being CR, BUONE and REC1. Asked about the meaning of his name, BUONE is quick to point out that it doesn’t actually mean anything, adding only that the meaning should be as anonymous as his identity.

However, the name does carry enough significance for him to use it in every piece of graffiti he does, a process more commonly known as ‘tagging’.

It was CR who bestowed the name upon him so each piece of his graffiti could therefore be seen as homage paid to a friend and an influence.

Using his given name as a motif, signature and symbol, BUONE paints almost every day under the cover of darkness, using paints of varying quality and price. The choice of paint depends much on the significance and positioning of the piece because the ¥200 sprays from your local DIY store begin to fade away after only a few weeks of wind and rain, thereby reserving the better quality paints for more high-impact locations where they would take longer to fade. Knowing that your work is going to disappear, either naturally or by being cleaned off encourages you to accept loss yet this doesn’t make BUONE shy away from effort, with some of the designs taking up to as long as three hours each depending on whether he gets caught. Having been caught many times before by the police, he believes that there is also an art to getting out of trouble equal to that of getting in it.

A simple but effective apology with a clear demonstration of guilt and regret coupled with a promise to never do it again will usually do the trick. If on private property though, punishment could be more likely and far more severe as landowners, parti- cularly train companies, look to make an example of those who are caught. One unfortunate artist was reportedly sued between one and two million yen for just the inconvenience caused to their property.

Such risks though don’t deter BUONE and others from what they see as their method of expression. That isn’t to say they don’t feel any guilt, as they knowingly select places in which to paint and are therefore aware of how it can be associated with vandalism. To BUONE though, vandalism is as much caused by those that remove his works from the wall as it is his creative output and something he wants more respect for. This is one of the reasons why he chooses also to exhibit his work in galleries; a context, which he feels is important to help make amends for the misunderstandings of graffiti on the streets.

If people see his work in a gallery space and then later on the street, he hopes that they would somehow connect the two spaces themselves and be more sympathetic to their plight. However, producing pieces for the gallery environment presents him with other challenges and dilemmas, most notably that of the background. When painting in situ, the background is already there; the concrete slab; the brick wall; the rusting garage door; all serve to complete the look of the piece of work. But when painting on panels or paper, even though he is still painting his given name, there is the challenge of creating something from nothing, on a surface almost too perfect and too pure to leave a mark on (this probably being all the more reason to spray it). These paintings then are arguably seen as substitutes of the street works that they allude to, but they are more than just copies: they have a resonance like that of a poet describing their lover in a letter.

The other significant difference of course is that the gallery works are permanent and unlike their street likenesses, run little risk of being cleaned off or even painted over by rival gangs (this happens frequently), allowing them to be purchased by admirers. This may sound like he is selling out, but after all, many of the graffiti artists are simply trying to find that niche which will make them famous. This in turn inevitably leads to making a living doing what they want to do and isn’t that what everyone is after?

Fame and fortune being that which BUONE seeks, then noto- riety is certainly one path to follow and with his name already growing in status, it might not be long before we see the roof of Osaka dome sprayed and tagged, as is his wish.

Wishful thinking it may be, but with darkness and some planning, anything is possible and no one would know until the morning.

Text: Gary McLeod U Images: Buone