I really like street art but I absolutely loathe vandalism. Most of the tags that we have anywhere in the world is garbage tags, probably gang (real or imagined), and are just lazy as hell and make the area look terrible. On the flip side there are some truly talented street artists out there that can seriously beautify an area with their work. I admire this skill because it is one that is extremely difficult to master. I tried my hand at it years ago with a teacher that was a bit of a master and I never advanced very far despite having wonderful oversight. It truly is a skill and I admire the hell out of it.
Vietnam is a pretty obedient country, so you don't often see any quality street art. Most of it is quickly done trash that is likely done very quickly to avoid the authorities. The only quality stuff you see the people doing it likely had permission to do so and were able to take their time.
Quite near my condo some new stuff ended up on this shortcut side street and they basically epitomize the difference between art and vandalism.
Let's start with the good stuff. Even though I generally don't like tags even if they are well done, this one is special to me because I witnessed it being done by the artist. He had dozens of cans with him and I stopped to talk to him for a little while. I asked if I could take a picture of him doing the work but he asked me not to.... I didn't press the issue but he did tell me that he had permission from the owner to do this piece because that wall is slated to be torn down in the next year anyway.
This one right next to it is what I would consider decent, but not really all that fantastic. It's still a lot better than most of the garbage that we see here in Da Nang. The guy who was doing the first one said the other two that were right next to his were done by other people that he doesn't know but the fact that they were there inspired him to seek out the owner of the land and ask if he could add one more.
This last one is sub-par but still miles ahead of most of the tags we get in this part of town. The reason why I don't really rate it is because I think the artist got a bit lazy towards the end or ran out of paint. It would have been a lot better if he/she/they had filled the letters in properly or done some shading. To me it seems like such a waste to do all the outline work and then stop right at the end.
Now let's get to the garbage stuff that is in the exact same area.
This has the makings of something that could have been good and I appreciate the yellow "poo guy" in the bottom but the outline tag above it is just lazy trash, probably done very quickly to avoid being caught. This is quite common any time you see temporary steel fencing around almost anything in this city. I saved the worst for last
If you live here and pay attention at all you will see this same tag all over the place. It is always the same as well. Just lazy black only paint with just a callsign. I absolutely hate this sort of thing and do not consider it art at all. People that do stuff like this, I sincerely hope that they get caught and are punished. I find it kind of amusing that the talented artists are the ones that ask for permission but the talentless hacks are the ones who have their stuff all over town.
I love street art, but if you have no talent and are just marking you spot with some shite signature of sorts, you are no better than a dog pissing on a fire hydrant. The only difference is the piss goes away after it rains.