TAG SPOTLIGHT #3 – BENCHING DELTA

TAG SPOTLIGHT is a new publication series accompanying the international TAG Conference. For the 2023 edition, which will take place in Hamburg from 29th June till 1st July, the first four volumes have been published, each one having a specific topic of the writing culture in focus.

In the 2010s European graffiti pioneer DELTA from Amsterdam all of a sudden started to paint the not so popular Falns 121 freight train model. With the use of exclusively white paint and black spray paint he transformed the cars into giant sketchpads to exercise variations of his name. Seemingly hundreds of DELTA pieces started to circulate around Europe and usually a common boring brownish Falns row does carry at least one work from him.

For ‘BENCHING DELTA’ – Photographs by Sascha Blasche, the freight spotter browsed through his archive and put together captured pieces by the Dutch master. To fit the narrow concept of the publication series, all chosen photos have been taken at the same spot at Westhafen in Berlin. The featured pieces are far away from being freshly painted. Every work shows traces and scars of the industrial life of the ‘OH’ wagons. Whether it’s repainted numbers or faded white paint that uncovers older pieces underneath: each DELTA carries an unique beauty of an aging ephermal artwork.

40 pages, 14,8 cm x 21 cm
Photographs: Sascha Blasche
Editor: Javier Abarca 

Release date: June 2023

Publisher: URBANARIO & Hitzerot