Found: Downtown, Horton Plaza (x2), 1st & F, 4th & C, 6th & C
One of the most prominent cult-followed examples of street art in downtown San Diego is hands down the 21 Space Invaders that take over the town, created by French Street Artist Invader during the summer of 2010. Invader worked alone to put these 21 8-bit themed tile creations up within the city. Though now some of those 21 pieces have been taken down, there is no denying that these pieces help define the culture of the San Diego Street art scene.
The most obvious aspect of this street art that separates it from the rest of the works I had seen would be that the invaders show a different element of street art placement and medium unseen (for me), at least on this blog. Where the works of graffiti like tags or bombs tends to be more of a fast paced, do it and go art form, the fact that tiles are used to create the works fascinate me. Rather than seek a spot, tag your name, plant your sticker/poster/whatever and go, here we're working with taking the time to get to a desirable spot and create a dimensional work of art secured on with industrial cement (per the artist's FAQ). I find that with works like this, the public may find them more desirable as works of art in comparison to, say, a bomb across a wall, and then the piece will likely stay up longer than other pieces of different medium because they are viewed as a piece of art, rather than a vandalized wall. Additionally, Invader notes that in the FAQ these Invaders are a pretty big pain the get off a wall... likely adding to their security in placement, as well.
Thus, a comment regarding these works in correlation with the state of graffiti and street art in SD may come through as if it looks "desirable", or even "nice" (subjectively, of course), the piece may have a better and longer chance thriving time in its spot. I would compare this to the Encinitas piece in earlier posts, as the piece is painted, seemingly more artistic than a bomb or a throwie up on a side wall. While some of the invaders have been taken down and removed, it seems that a majority of them have stayed.
Continually, I feel like a large thematic element coming from these pieces is the idea of celebrating and representing pop culture. In a city like San Diego, where we're most known for Comic-Con each summer, we've now (even if unintentionally) opened up this great element of gamer culture by having these classic space invaders adorning the streets of downtown, for interested parties to come and seek, while at the same time, opening up their knowledge of the San Diego area through this. In Wollans' NYT article "Graffiti's Cozy, Feminine Side", the author notes that the nod towards pop culture (in this case, Sayeg's yarn bombings) brings the artist more prominence and awareness in the art world. Undoubtedly, this has done the same for Invader, as his works are now featured on dive different continents and 35 different cities.
Overall, these space invaders to me are the perfect representation of using street art "vandalism" to open up references of pop culture and contemporary fusion while gaining acceptance and following of otherwise unlikely interested parties in street art and graffiti.
Sources:
1. http://www.space-invaders.com/ (For any factual Invader information)
2. Malia Wollan, "Graffiti's Cozy, Feminine Side"
No comments:
Post a Comment