Reverse graffiti
Reverse graffiti (freely translated: "reverse graffiti") is a special form of graffiti . The picture is created by z. B. a street, a tunnel wall or street furniture can be partially cleaned.
Some artists create pictures by painting walls and the like. a. Clean with rags and brushes in combination with detergents and solvents . In the simplest case, the fingers are used to draw in the dust on windows, vehicles, etc. that are dirty or covered by a thin layer of snow.
The process is also increasingly used in advertising , where it is also called street branding . In this case, the term is derived from the English term branding , which was originally used for the use of brands on animals. Here the image is usually created using a stencil and a high-pressure cleaner. Environmental initiatives and other groups also use street branding to present their content, because it can draw attention to pollution from traffic and the creation of the images is environmentally friendly at the same time, as only water is used.
The effect lasts between six weeks and six months, depending on the degree of pollution and renewed accumulation of fine dust particles.
Since the surface is not painted or otherwise changed, but only partially cleaned, reverse graffiti is usually considered legal. However, this question has not been finally clarified. In April 2014, the city of Cologne declared that it would report to the public prosecutor's office any reverse graffito in which the author was identified . This was preceded by an expensive cleaning, according to the city administration, of two areas on which advertising reverse graffiti had been affixed.
Concrete walls that are well reached by rainwater and that are not too strongly illuminated by the sun are covered with lichen over the years . The resulting dark coating can be easily removed with the sharp water jet of a high-pressure cleaner and therefore also provides a basis for reverse graffiti.
Artist
Artists who use reverse graffiti to apply large-scale works of art to dirty walls mostly use the stencil technique. Patterns, shapes or versatile collages are cut into foil or wood, which serve as a kind of negative film . With the help of z. B. high-pressure cleaners, images of these templates can now be transferred to the wall.
Well-known reverse graffiti artists are the Briton Paul Curtis, the Brazilian Alexandre Orion, the French street artist ZEVS and the Germans Klaus Dauven and Oliver Bienkowski.
Web links
- Artist Draws 'Clean' Graffiti from Dirty Walls , NPR , July 15, 2004
- Video: Tunnel designed by Paul "Moose" Curtis
- Video: Tunnel designed by Alexandre Orion
- Video: WestArt contribution about the work of Klaus Dauven
- Video: The reverse graffiti by German artist Oliver Bienkowski | euromaxx | German wave
Individual evidence
- ↑ pressetext.at, June 18, 2008 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Benjamin Weber: Repression against reverse graffiti - Our village should stay dirty. In: Taz.de . April 15, 2014, accessed April 16, 2014 .
- ↑ Anna Lampert: Reverse Graffiti in Cologne - Whoever cleans walls is displayed. In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger . April 16, 2014, accessed April 16, 2014 .
- ^ Artists from Brazil use the city as a canvas , welt.de
- ^ Gerhard Finckh , Toke Lykeberg: still on and non the wiser: an exhibition with selected urban artists. 1st edition, Publikat Verlag, Mainaschaff 2008, ISBN 3-939566-20-9 (exhibition catalog).
