Under cover of a dark, windy night, he finds a slab of wall and begins his work. Halfway through, the sound of police sirens lets him know he’s been sprung, his piece half-finished. Such is a typical night for graffiti artist Bounce, or rather it used to be. Today, his works can be found hanging both in galleries and high above the streets.

 

Behind every successful product nowadays is a story, and who doesn’t love a good story? This one is about the birth of a dark rabbit. Not your traditional cutesy, cuddly bunny, this rabbit is missing both front paws, his eyes empty, with huge, long ears with speakers built into them. In pursuit of his dreams, he hops from the forest to the city, drawn to the sound and music of the streets.

Wherever he appears, the atmosphere is filled with a feeling of flow, a rich rhythm of bold, rough images, intense colors, and complex, layered lines. Coupled with the trademark bunny-turned-sound-system symbol, the work absorbs audiences for seconds, seemingly blasting them with booming music from right off the wall.

At the invitation of the General Association of Chinese Culture, Bounce painted a graffiti mural on the wall of their premises on Taipei’s Chongqing South Road. (courtesy of BOUNCE)

This outlet for a well-known sportswear brand, near to Ximending’s Red House, boasts a cool, vibrant mural in which Bounce made use of bold colors and geometric shapes to create a tribute to Michael Jordan.

This massive mural brings together Bounce’s creative style with the local culture of Dongshi, including iconic tung blossoms, a mystical dragon-horse, and locally grown persimmons. (courtesy of BOUNCE)

Injecting local life

The creator of this coney is Bounce, whose story starts as a teen who loved skateboarding. A graduate of Fu-Hsin Trade and Arts School, he was well trained in classical artistic techniques, but after he was introduced to graffiti art and traded his brushes for a spray can, he found he no longer had to draft his works ahead of time. Images leapt out from his mind fully formed, coming to life unbidden when given the right place and time. “I never do drafts. At most, I write down a few keywords or simple elements,” he says. “When I get to the site, the surroundings tell me what to paint, what will fit in best. If it’s a commercial collaboration, I might go there ahead of time and take a few photos for reference, then go back later and paint.”

For example, at the invitation of the General Association of Chinese Culture, at their premises in Tai­pei’s Zhong­zheng District Bounce painted an image of a young boy wearing a fashionable cap and mirror shades paired with a traditional Taiwanese Opera costume adorned with Hakka floral patterns, to symbolize cultures old and new combining and clashing. On the side of a well-known sportswear brand’s location in Xi­men­ding, Tai­pei, he used an abstract, deconstructed, cubist style to depict classic elements associated with NBA stars and merchandise. In Dong­shi, Tai­chung, he referenced the local culture, painting tung flowers, persimmons, and a mythical “dragon horse” on the wall of a restaurant. Massive graffiti on the outsides of vents from the Tai­pei Metro and images that inject new life into old communities have also come to life from his mind.

Painting outdoors is more of a challenge than doing it indoors, with all kinds of variables that can test the adaptability of any artist, from searing sunshine and heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic to setting up the site, working with the available angles, and dealing with time constraints. “It seems difficult before painting, but after it’s done it seems much easier.” Laughing, Bounce remarks that given how often he does graffiti high up on the sides of buildings, he’s even had to get himself a cherry picker operating license.

International graffiti

Graffiti has given Bounce opportunities to experience a life unlike most, meeting unusual people and visiting all corners of the globe. For example, when Tom Cruise came to Taiwan to promote a new film, Bounce was commissioned to do a graffiti poster for the event. The Taiwanese cartoonist Duncan, a good friend of Bounce’s, showed the poster to Cruise, who not only signed it, but was effusive in his praise for it. Bounce also took part in the Tong­chuan ­International Graffiti Invitational in ­Shaanxi, China, creating a unique piece that combined characters from Star Wars with the famous terracotta warriors, while also getting to see the wealth of resources local governments in China invest into graffiti art. His artwork has also earned attention from further afield, seeing him travel to France and immerse himself in the natural and cultural environment there, inspiring works unlike those he has produced in Taiwan.

The thing that has inspired him to stick at his art for 12 years so far, he says, is a desire to show Taiwanese society the positive side of graffiti art, and that it can be more than just a diversion for idle youth. He leaps at ­every opportunity that presents itself, because the more of his works are out on the streets, the more visible they are, and the more visible they are, the more visible he is.

And by incorporating elements of local culture, even if only symbolically, Bounce is able to make his works feel more familiar even to audiences who don’t get graffiti normally, and through that help them better understand the form.

Over the past 12 years, Bounce has worked to create a brand for himself and earn recognition as an artist.

A mole from the graffiti world

Over the past 12 years, Bounce has worked to create a brand for himself and earn recognition as an artist. While he could simply work on specifically laid out commercial demands, though, he remains insistent that “I do what I do to get people to come to me because they like my work, so I always have a strong sense of my own brand in my work and don’t let anyone dictate every last detail to me.” Jokingly, he comments that graffiti is a “parasitic” art, relying on walls, clothing, events and the like as hosts. “I’m like a graffiti mole, sneaking myself into worlds that the underground artists can’t get into.”

From American hip-hop style to Japanese ukiyo-e, graffiti art comes in many flavors. Even the streets of Cairo in the wake of the Arab Spring featured protest graffiti that imitated ancient murals. So what makes for iconic graffiti in multicultural Taiwan? Right now, there’s still no real common denominator. Culture is the sum of human lifestyles, and Bounce says that with Taiwan’s absorption of a variety of different cultures, no truly symbolic visual style has yet emerged in the graffiti world, so it’s hard to accurately define what makes Taiwanese graffiti Taiwanese.

The essence of creation

Bounce draws inspiration for his creations from every­thing around him, but while current affairs and issues can draw attention and resonate with audiences, he ultimately had to give up such political work. “Everyone has their own perspective on things and nothing is purely one-sided. I don’t want to have too much influence on how people interpret my graffiti, because then ideas start taking precedence over the images themselves.” He adds: “I prefer to inject some of myself into pieces and to put the focus on the visual side. Because I’ve studied art history and been more heavily influenced by traditional art, when I create I try to give expression to my soul in the most authentic and pure way, just as artists like Da Vinci and Van Gogh did.”

Bounce created a trademark bunny character, complete with its own backstory.

To assert their identities and existence, some graffiti artists will take to soaring spots above busy streets to tag towering buildings, while others will cover dilapidated buildings with spray paint, and still others will paint over works by previous artists. Bounce’s works have not avoided such treatment. As a veteran graffiti artist, Bounce fully understands the drive for expression in other artists; it doesn’t matter whether it’s beautiful or ugly, the most important thing is to show respect. “A lot of people in the graffiti world complain that Taiwan lacks cultural literacy and doesn’t care about graffiti art, but many miss that to earn the respect of others, you have to first respect others, respect their environments, and respect the hard work they’ve invested in their pieces.”

Back in 2005, as he started out on his artistic career, Bounce would head out at midnight with friends and have fun drawing and making graffiti, enjoying the city by night and catching the first bus back home in the morning to sleep. All these years later, his dreams are unchanged, and he still wants to show off his work to as many people as he can. Like that bunny rabbit that started all of this, Bounce continues to push forward, following his own tune and cultivating that same energy that always drove him on. Hopefully that bunny will keep inspiring others to find their own voices too!