"Fuck the Buff": TA Wall Update

On the 20th and 21st of October I made a couple of quick runs to the TA Wall and Factory to see if there was any recent activity. It seems that the buffing is still in full effect. The upper wall area looks to have been maintained regularly having only a few hollow throw ups and tags. Towards the far west end a lone fill in by MEAT and a hollow done by LEGAL were the only hits that were up on the wall. The supports along the way are also equally as bare with only a few tags and throw ups. The above image is a pan shot of the buffed upper wall. Not the best pan shot put together but it does show you the extent of the buffing on the upper wall.

Alveno and Kode rocked a couple of burners on the support across from the junction box platform as well. Other than MEAT, ROCO and FIEFER bombed the area -FIEFER having tagged up most of the supports running from the west end down the service path leading to the lower wall. Repeatedly he wrote the message "Repeignez bande d'encules!" ("Paint over these fuckers' buff!) on almost every support column along the way.

I made my way to the lower wall area and found that it had also been recently buffed. It seemed, however, that the local writing community was not going to give this wall up as easily, evidenced by a good amount of tags, throw ups, and some pieces that had gone up recently. And they were not happy about it either. Numerous grievances scrawled in spray paint and marker on the wall and surrounding supports: "fuck buffing", "fuck the buff", "Beau pillage de fonds publics" ("Nice waste of public funds"), and another wrote "You suck, let this grey city have color on our walls, let us have art". "Fuck the buff" though seemed the most popular choice by many of the writers as it was pretty much up on the area from end to end. Clearly local writers were unimpressed and had decided to voice their discontent of the recent buffing of the TA Wall.

Although the upper wall has been maintained pretty regularly for the last while, the lower wall will not be silenced so easily. The importance of this spot to the local graffiti community has definitely been voiced to the city and MTQ. The TA Wall is an historical referent for local writers, years of painting have been put into this spot, it is a pillar when it comes to unofficial spots for painting. The comments and recent activity at the wall displays the outrage of writers to the buffing of this area and their resolve to fight for it. Keep posted, I'll be checking this spot as regularly as I can and keeping my ear to the rail for anything in the headlines.

I'll post my factory pics from the 21st soon.

Turcot is Killed (Dead)

So it's official folks, Turcot yards have been closed by Transport Quebec. Most access points have been fenced off and private security roams about picking up anyone who trespasses. Since 2003 Transport Quebec (MTQ) has owned the yards, however, up until recently they have not done much with it.

On my way into work the other morning I noticed several crews setting up camp on the service road area just under the Decarie exit. The trailers they had looked like the kind used by graffiti clean up crews. I was passing through this afternoon and noticed that they had buffed all the supports and were working towards the train tunnel area.

Firstly, this seems like a waste of money namely because of the plans we've all been hearing about concerning the redevelopment of the yards in the next few years. Turcot has been a painting area for a little while, why buff it now? Especially if the plan is to redevelop the area? Secondly, buffing the area only makes it a prime target for writers who have the balls to go in and hit up some fresh canvass. I forsee more graff going up there in the near future, even if only some quick throwies.

And this is not the only area buffed out, the MTQ (I assume it is the MTQ, however, Westmount or the borough of Ville-Marie might also be invovled -I am yet to locate something on that) seems to be on a crusade to remove graffiti from the highway system. Under the Ville-Marie expressway from Lucien-Lallier to De Courcelle has been mostly buffed, including the Upper TA Wall area. Again...waste of money? Within 2 days there were already some tags and outlines thrown up. Give it a month and the area is going to be soaked in paint again, as it has been for the last 15 years... And in the typical fashion they buffed only the areas visible from the highway and from the new condo developments across the street, leaving areas that are not visible (lower TA wall and factory as well as some other areas) which begs one to ask what was the real motivation behind the buffing?

Above pics: Upper TA Wall Area

In any case, the idea of Turcot as an open free-range painting area is dead with the choke hold that the MTQ seems to have on the area. The rest of the Ville-Marie expressway still appears to be mostly open (I was walking it just the other day without issue except for a few new fences) and the TA Wall should be back to its former colorful and lustrous state of layered paint in no time. It will be interesting, however, to see just how far the MTQ is going to go with this new program.

Stay posted.