New Zealand’s graffiti world champions have been excluded from this year’s competition leaving them unable to defend their title.
The two-time winners, the TMD crew, have been named world graffiti champions at the annual Write4Gold competition in Europe in 2006 and 2008 respectively.
But this year organisers say there is just not enough money to bring the artists back to Europe. Instead they have made the competition a Europe-based event only.
German-based Write4Gold organiser Rene Kaestner blames the economic downturn and geographical location as the reasons why TMD members were left out this year.
“The fact TMD are not here in Germany to compete is very disappointing to us.
“But the air fares of bringing them here is almost the same budget as doing six to eight events in Europe,” says Kaestner.
He also says the decline in essential sponsorship affected the size of the event.
“Important sponsors declined this year because of the economic crisis so we only have our main sponsor which is not enough to cover all expenses.
“It’s simply about financial issues,” he says.
As defending champions, members of TMD won airfares back to Europe to compete in this year’s Write4Gold competition.
TMD member Askew remains hopeful that his crew will one day get their airfare prizes.
“It was definitely promised to us. Time will tell,” says Askew.
Askew now hopes their prize will be transferred to next year so they can compete in the 2010 final.
This is not the first time TMD have won airfares to the competition and not received them.
In 2007 they faced a similar problem and were also told the competition would be Europe only.
However, the following year TMD were invited back with paid airfares.
“They made good on that in the end,” he says.
The airfares provided by the organisers are never enough to cover the cost for the whole team so TMD had already been fundraising by designing and selling t-shirts.
“We started fundraising again this year well in advance because we planned for our return trip to defend, but unfortunately it was all a bit in vain,” he says.
TMD has been together over 10 years which has proven to be a winning formula.
Askew felt this year’s international competition was likely to be their third and final attempt at the title, however he is now unsure.
“We certainly felt like we’d be very lucky to win three times so we did approach it like it would probably be the last.
“If we managed to win it three times and retire undefeated it would definitely be an accolade, something we would feel was a real achievement,” says Askew.
The over 20 member strong TMD crew have been together for over 10 years and are predominately based in Auckland.
The letters TMD are an acronym for The Most Dedicated, a clear indicator of how passionate they are about graffiti art.
Write4Gold is a reputable competiton and is considered the most popular graffiti art contest in the world since it begun in 2003.
While the European heats are taking place at the moment TMD can only watch from afar.
Askew and the rest of the TMD crew will have to wait until next year before they know if they can finally compete in the 2010 competition and continue their unbeaten record.
If the organisers do find a way to get TMD back to compete next year Askew says they will build a secure strategy and fundraise early. He also plans to take as many members as possible.
Sarah Murray is a journalism student at AUT.
source: newshub archive
