BSM

Billy Hung is a graffiti artist also known as B.S.M, which stands for “Butterflies Send Messages”. Inspired by Zhuang Zhou’s “Dream of Butterflies” in “Zhuangzi: The Adjustment of Controversies”, it is a philosophical argument of how it is impossible for people to accurately distinguish between reality and illusion. Therefore, as long as we devote ourselves to everything, if it is a dream then it will be an interesting one. If it is reality, when we look back, we will have lived a wonderful and fulfilling life. Following this philosophy, Billy became an artist in constant transformation. Leaving a promising career in practice of law, he was inspired by the spirit of graffiti and made it his life-long objective to bring joy to the community through this art form.

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Billy’s journey with graffiti has gone through several stages, experimenting with differing techniques over the years to arrive at his own style. He is best known for his neon light-style and stencil graffiti. Stencil art is one of humanity’s oldest creative forms. Some of humanity’s first artists used stencil art techniques when they placed their hands on cave walls and blew ground minerals over them, leaving behind their ghostly palm prints. Nowadays, graffiti artists make use of stencils cut out of paper, cardboard, or other media to create their desired image. Paint is then sprayed across the stencil to form an image on the surface below.

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Billy’s works are created using this ancient technique combined with modern ideas. He painstakingly cuts out his designs in paper, creating many layers just millimeters thick to form a new depth to graffiti art. He plays with illusion, creating effects like that of electric neon light or digital art, when in fact it comes from the precision he uses with mediums as simple as paint and paper.