Graffiti Godfather

Adrian Sandiford goes in search of ‘The Teacher’, a 55-year-old man who has painstakingly documented the emerging graffiti scene

If you think graffiti is only about boys in baggy jeans, forget it.

One of the most important figures in the capital’s graffiti scene is actually a smartly dressed 55-year-old man who works for a government-controlled magazine.

Yes, the main artists spraying walls around town – such as the Beijing Penzi crew led by the talented Li Qiuqiu – are mostly young men who adhere to the street art uniform of baseball cap, hoodie and dangling denim.

But while they’re the ones leading the current wave of graffiti in China, it is the elderly gentleman who goes by the name of Llys that’s making sure what gets painted on the city’s walls stays in the collective memory.

Grey-haired, softly spoken, charming and graffiti-obsessed, this remarkable man has made it his life’s mission to photograph every single piece of street art he comes across.

Indeed, upon speaking to the big players on the local scene, we soon discover that, when it comes to who knows what’s really going on with Beijing’s graffiti, everyone talks of Llys and his extensive collection of graffiti photos (a tiny fraction of which we reproduce here).

The Beijing Penzi collective refer to Llys as laoshi, or ‘teacher’, such is their respect for him. Expat artists such as Franky La Guepe (a member of France’s TT Crew and Graphic Syndicate), or Englishman Martin Barnes, who frequently collaborates with all of the aforementioned, also both enthusiastically talk of ‘the old Chinese photographer guy’ and his amazing dedication to recording their work – to recording any work put up on a Beijing wall, in fact.

‘His collection’s got almost everything,’ says La Guepe. ‘He’s actually got pictures of one of my stencils from four years ago that I thought no one saw; he seems to have documented it all,’ adds Barnes.

After an initial phone call, the man in question invites us to his apartment out west in Gongzhufen to see the results of four years spent searching out street art in Beijing.

He’s effusive, welcoming and wildly enthusiastic about graffiti. He’s happy to talk about anything and everything, except for his real name, which must remain a secret because of his day job. If his superiors found out what he does in his spare time, he tells us, he’d lose his job.

Llys, as we must call him, would soon be rumbled should his boss pop round – his apartment has bookshelves full of photo albums packed with the street art photos he’s taken, which must number more than 5,000 images.

And that’s just of the films he’s developed. Add his digital database to the equation and we’re talking more than 15,000 pictures. All of which raises the question: why do it?

‘The reason is quite simple,’ says Llys. ‘I like photography, and have a background in art. At the beginning, back in 2005, I was just taking pictures of Beijing’s streets. I became interested in the composition of bar signs in Sanlitun. I only took a picture of some graffiti because of the colours. Then, by chance, I saw Li Qiuqiu’s work in Baihua Hutong in Xinjiekou, which shocked me.’

It was, you could say, an awakening of sorts. ‘I wanted to find out more,’ he continues. ‘Initially, I didn’t know where I could find street art. I’d just go out looking for it. But then, in 2006, blogs became more popular, which gave me a chance to contact graffiti artists such as Wang Mo [Beijing Penzi], the KwanYin crew, and, of course, Li Qiuqiu.’

Llys’s curiosity, questioning and love for the art means he’s now an established part of the scene. Friends with many of those involved, they’ll often invite him along when hitting the streets with their spray cans, or call to let him know the location of finished work.

‘I usually develop photos of the work and send it to them,’ adds Llys. The ‘recorder’, as he refers to himself, also uploads his snaps to his own blog(blog.sina.com.cn/ppttyy), where he shares and comments on the new pieces he finds.

But this is about more than one man and his hobby. The reason why it’s all so important is that those putting up art on Beijing’s walls are working in a city where the authorities paint over it as fast as it’s created, or the buildings simply disappear because of the capital’s ridiculously rapid rate of transformation.

Sure, there are certain areas, such as the walls at 798, where graffiti goes up and stays up, but the majority of images in Llys’s extraordinary collection have disappeared, lost forever.

What this unsung hero is doing is single-handedly taking on the responsibility of documenting a developing, creative aspect of China’s modern culture that, without his presence, would otherwise be forgotten about in years to come, perhaps even presumed non-existent.

‘It’s a real shame there’s no art college or cultural organisation to record all this fantastic creativity,’ says Llys. ‘Work’s busy, and sometimes I don’t have enough time, but, since I’ve started, I think I’ve now got a responsibility to record Beijing’s graffiti.

If another younger person has the time to do this, that’d be better.’ But don’t think it’d be the end of the love affair. ‘Even then, I’d continue taking the pictures. Graffiti attracts me.’ Additional reporting by Gissing Liu

The ‘Patchwork’ street art show featuring China’s Beijing Penzi and France’s TT Crew is at The Piazza in The Village on Saturday 23.