Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird

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On our few remaining days in Taiwan in November 2012, we decided that we’d get the most out of the little time we had left to scope out the capital Taipei for all of it’s street art worth.

Having done a little online research it seemed that there was an arts community near the centre called ‘Taipei Artist Village’ where we should be able to amble about taking a few photos and maybe grabbing a coffee at the in-house cafe/souvenir shop.

Thankfully, we always walk to our locations rather than taking a taxi or the bus.

Why are we thankful? Because we discover fantastic street art like this:

Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (1)
Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (2)
Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (3)

An Off The Path Discovery

As we venture across an open park near to our destination we could see from the distance a single building standing at the very end of the field, abandoned from all appearances with grass covering a lot of the building. The windows are boarded up, some filled in with bricks, but almost every wall is white.

As we approach we can see that each window is filled with a different piece of street art, but they’re all connected by the same sketch, all part of the same large scale piece.

Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (4)

Franca was the first to notice the name that was attached to the pieces, the name is ‘Candy Bird and after researching when returned to our Couchsurfing hosts house, we learnt that he’s a Taiwanese artist that has pieces all over Taipei.

NOTE – you can see more of his work via his personal flickr account, or you can follow his profile on Facebook

Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (5)

As I edged around the building and Franca kept taking more shots, I found that each side had a different piece that pulled together are one giant piece of the jigsaw, that it all tells a tale, much like a storyboard for a brand new film or the latest cartoon

Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (6)
Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (7)
Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (8)
Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (9)
Storyboard Street Art in Taipei ft. Candy Bird (10)

Together the jigsaw could represent any number of different meanings, to me personally I read that it’s a portrayal of humanities destructive nature, that we find it so easy to destroy, that it’s instinctive and leaves us with nothing outstanding, nothing worthwhile, that we’ll be left with nothing but the rotation of life, work, die.

Perhaps it even tells a tale of Taiwan’s building of industry, that it’s built off the back of others, built off the destruction of the what should really be preserved.

Watching the Magic Happen

Also during our research we came upon some Youtube videos on the man behind the paint brush. There are a number to view, but having been back to the videos a view times I found myself really enjoying watching the creative process and watching Candy Bird work.

Here’s one more recent short video of Candy Bird at work that is really worth a watch.

Are you a fan of Candy Bird’s work?

14 Comments

    • Dale on August 21, 2013 at 11:03

      Same thing here for us, it’s always our chief hope that we’re going to find something spectacular.

  3. Simone Anne on July 19, 2013 at 23:43

    I love it! This is some really great street art. Although I love pretty much all street art, I must admit. haha.

    • Dale on July 16, 2013 at 18:37

      I’d love to be able to replicate the very same idea of making art appear out of nowhere on something or someplace that we walk past every day, no longer notice and just take for granted.

      I guess thats part of the mass appeal of street art, not only for fans but for the artists themselves.

    • Dale on July 5, 2013 at 11:43

      Wow Derek, that’s quite the collection of graffiti in your post, really must have been interesting to see people working on their latest pieces.