Being quite a fan of graffiti and street art and it’s diversity and impact on a city, it was hard for me to arrive in Hong Kong and to see almost no graffiti on the walls and buildings around the city.
Maybe the laws on graffiti are especially strict or the people of this great city just get too much visual stimulation anyway in the form of advertisement particularly in areas like Mong Kok and Hong Kong Island but recently, on one of many explorations into the streets and back alleys of Hong Kong, I came across what was like a shrine to graffiti located in the hip shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui on Kowloon. Austin Avenue is special because of it’s incredible concentration and density of street art along a short stretch of alley, maybe only just 100 metres long, which would lead me to believe it was the result of an organized event aimed at encouraging the freedom and opportunity to create art on a decent level instead of overflowing as a exercise in vandalism around the city. Look out for an article soon on street art and it’s effect and influence on the urban environment.
