Posts Tagged ‘graffiti’

paris space invader sightings

Friday, August 19th, 2011

While in Paris I had four space invader sightings, which at the time I was really proud of, but after researching for this post I discovered that Paris has over 700 invaders! …that definitely bursted my bubble. For those who aren’t familiar with the Space Invader guerrilla artwork it’s by a French urban artist that refers to himself as “Invader” who creates tiled “space invaders” and other characters based on the 70s video games. These mosaics pop up all over Paris (and the world.) It was a fun game to try spot the little buggers around the city, but obviously I wasn’t very good at it! I already forsee a Paris round 2 mission to see as many as I can!

Space Invader official website // map of Paris marked with Invader locations // Invader on wiki

Another resource to find out more is to watch Exit through the Gift Shop, a documentary on street art that features Invader which I reviewed in this post

 

 

exit through the gift shop

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

Over the weekend I watched  Exit through the Gift Shop, a film documenting the inside story of street art. The film follows an amateur filmmaker Thierry Guetta who becomes obsessed with capturing the most famous street artists on film, only to have British stencil artist Banksy turn the camcorder back on Guetta with wildly unexpected results. I loved the movie. There is a mysterious lure to their rebellious artwork. A statement against society that fascinates and inspires me. With that said, after watching the movie I became obsessed with researching the main artists in the film. SPOILER ALERT: (Don’t read any further until you watch the film.) I found articles (here and here) claiming that the movie is a Banksy stunt. They went to the extent of stating that Guetta is actually Banksy. I’m not sure I agree with that but I do think the movie was a stunt. And here is one more article claiming to know the identity of Banksy. It is fascinating none the less, even if it is just a theory.

If you are interested in watching the movie it is available on Netflix watch instantly.

Links for other street artists featured in the film: Space Invader, Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Mr Brainwash