Saturday, March 13, 2010

DARE TWS..

I was sad to here that our friend and brother in the graffiti movement, Sigi von Koeding aka Dare passed away yesterday from his battle with cancer. I had the pleasure of meeting him in his home town of Basel, Switzerland in 2001. I read a post Mode made in regards to Dare and concerns with using spray paint.


"I can’t say I was a BIG fan of his style or his taste in music, but I DID hang out and paint with him in summer ‘91, then again in ‘95 in Ancona, Italy. He was a laid back and very nice guy, and for that alone he will be missed by those he was dear to.


What concerns me also here though, beyond the grief, is the illness that took him away from the culture, and the fact that this factor is not mentioned here by many of you…

We are, each and every one of us, physically different in one way or another, but we have all shared similar tools in our form of expression in this culture; namely the spray-can.


We already lost Iz The Wiz, who said at some point that he would have easily given back all that he had done for his health, but we still, many of us, carry on painting without adequate protection, and even giving our names to different colours in the palette of spray-paint cans; sadly true for our latest loss…


We each have a different reaction to whatever we choose to use or abuse in our lives, and we each have a different level of physical resistance to those substances. I started developing a sensitivity to spray paint in ‘97, after thirteen years of using it, often WITH a mask as well.


I am sorry to hear of the loss of another member of our very diverse culture, but I would also like to hear more debate regarding the long term effects that spray -paint can have on our health, and how little has been done by spray-paint manufacturers to make it any less toxic than it has been for all these years…


MAYBE Sigi’s cancer was totally unrelated to spray-paint, maybe I’m totally going off on the wrong tangent here, but I sincerely do not think that the toxins in every spray-can have no effect on weakening our general health in one way or another.


Rest In Peace, Sigi…"


-Mode2




Weather or not it was the cause of Dare's cancer using spray paint is that spray paint is highly toxic, Take precautions! For the recod I am and forever will be aBIG FAN of Dare TWS.