Installation view of K-NARF ＆ SHOKO "PHOTOGRAFFITI"
About ten years ago, French artist K-NARF was living in Singapore. Traveling between Paris and Singapore, one of the cleanest cities in the world, the difference between the environments was a big shock for the artist. He was especially amazed by delivery trucks fully covered in graffiti in Paris. He started to document the trucks in countless photos.
Graffitiing trucks became a very big trend, and at one point they were everywhere in the French capital – it was even rare to see an immaculate white truck. Then the government decided to stop it and the police became tough on graffiti artists.
Most Parisians (especially truck owners!) disliked this art form. K-NARF looked at the trucks with a different perspective and considered them as beautiful city art exhibitions – the same way pigeons (also disliked and found everywhere in Paris) can be seen as beautiful birds.
At the same time, K-NARF was practicing street art with his PHOTOGRAFFITI, his contemporary version of traditional street photography. He used a special technique to transfer this graffiti truck series onto paper and exhibited it in Paris, New York, Milan and Singapore – but never in Japan.
While graffiti is strictly prohibited in Japan, we invite you to freely practice this art form on real Japanese delivery trucks at the exhibition: Tomica trucks … they are slightly smaller than the ones in Paris, but have fun!
