Graffiti Contest, Hamburg 1993
In spring 1993 I took part in a Graffiti contest in Hamburg at the "Kampnagel"-area. You had to apply for it by sending in sketches, from which 25 participants were chosen. I just tried it out and was surprised to receive an invitation. One week off from school and they paid for the journey and the stay and of course the spraycans. I knew I was going to enjoy it!
I met writers from Dresden, Itzehoe, Lüneburg, "Sener" from Bremerhaven and "Wow123" from Bremen that I knew before, but most participants came from Hamburg. I was a bit puzzled by few people that seemed to be so overambitious and at least one person even dared to say he would 'by all means' rank in the top 4 - before he even started to paint! Some of them were very disappointed when they heard the news in the middle of the week that "Daim" was going to take part as well...
I just did my work and enjoyed the scenery. I felt glad to get to know "Jase", who by that time was quite a famous oldschool Graffiti artist and Breakdancer from the crew "The Def Stars". He´s such a nice guy and we had a good time together. We decided to do a piece together at the "Treff" the next day, after we had finished our contest paintings.
A few weeks later I was very surprised to find out that I made the second prize - right after "Daim" and "Hesh" who won the first one. As a reward I got this commissioned work to do for the boutique "Meyer´s" at the "Gänsemarkt" in the centre of town. Even the radio and the newspapers were talking about it.
My “Fuck Off-Piece”
Yesterday I painted a wall together with a couple of old graffiti friends. It was quite spontaneous and I started freestyling with only a vague idea in mind. In the middle of work I felt that the shape of my letters didn´t really seem to fit my idea. I got so disappointed with it then that I decided to finish it quickly with just a bubble background and white outlines and call it the "Fuck Off Piece"! Sometimes I´m that type of guy that starts looking and thinking and re-thinking about my artwork and then go on with it until I brought it to a good end, but not really this time.
Hek wanted to convince me to at least work out my outlines in a better way and do something more with the 3D, but I was not in the mood anymore. So later he did it himself on my piece.
Here you can see the whole wall and the pieces of the others:
