Terrible graffiti spotted in Da Nang, Vietnam

Da Nang has very little in the way of quality street-art. I have said in the past that I feel as though this is because of the government, which is probably a good thing. The penalties for vandalism, even if a lot of people think that it looks good leads to not a great deal of street art unless it is authorized by the owner, or commissioned. I've been told that even then it is subjected to some sort of morality laws so nothing can be controversial or at all political if directed towards the Vietnamese government or even towards a nation they are friendly towards.

Basically almost no one ever even tries to do it. What we end up with is some of the worst spray work I have seen anywhere I have ever traveled and it all appears to have been done in a great rush presumably to avoid authorities.

Take this garbage for example.

This is clearly just a tag and not a very good one at that. I realize from having tried to learn the skill myself that spray work is by no means easy and no, not just anyone can do it. It is definitely a skill that takes a great deal of time and practice and I believe there is a certain genetic aspect to it. Either you were born for it, or you weren't.

Now whoever these people that did this are, they clearly did it in a hurry because one night it wasn't there and the next it was. It's also on some temporary fencing on a vacant lot so the owners of it aren't going to be too terribly fussed about someone vandalizing the property. The numbers on there are some sort of taxi phone numbers or something but you can see "BD with a phone number" written all over the city so this must be allowed. I'm just presuming it is for taxis although I don't really have any idea. I've never called any of them.

This next one is just more of the same and it's actually quite common to see stuff like this all around. It is sad to me that finding actual good street-art is extremely rare in Da Nang, but at the same time I do like the community's commitment to preventing destruction of property.

I love street art, I hate vandalism. There is a very real difference between the two and these two pieces of crap are definitely in the 2nd category.

I wonder at times what compels people to even do them. They aren't nice, they aren't noteworthy, and they are hardly even worth the photo.

Another reason why we rarely see this sort of stuff happening is because spray paint is quite difficult to get your hands on here and I can only guess that the reason for this is to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening.

If you are one of the people out there that is doing stuff like this.... just stop it. Maybe whitewash a wall on your own property and practice your skills there instead. Nobody wants to see this.