When is cleaning the sidewalks a crime? When you’re doing it to create art. Obviously. A number of street artists around the world have taken to expressing themselves through an innovative practice known as Reverse Graffiti. Taking a cue from the “Wash Me” messages scrawled on the back of delivery trucks, they seek out soot covered surfaces and inscribe them with images, tags, and even advertising slogans using scrub brushes, scrapers and pressure hoses.
The UK’s Paul Curtis, better known as “Moose,” is one of the technique’s pioneers. Operating around Leeds and London, he has been commissioned by a number of brands, such as Smirnoff, who want to convey a sense of “clean” in an innovative way.
On a more overtly environmental bent, Brazilian Alexandre Orion, turned one of Sao Paolo’s transport tunnels into a stunning mural last summer. The mural, comprised of a series of skulls, very succinctly reminds drivers of the impact their emissions are having on the planet.
The practice puts authorities in a definite moral quandary. According to Moose, “Once you do this, you make people confront whether or not they like people cleaning walls or if they really have a problem with personal expression.” The Leeds City Council decided to lead their attack with an hilariously nonsensical position:
“Leeds residents want to live in clean and attractive neighborhoods, and expect their streets to be free of graffiti and illegal advertising. We also view this kind of rogue advertising as environmental damage and will take strong action against any advertisers carrying out such campaigns without the relevant permission.”
What action was taken against the advertisers is unknown. What is known is that Moose was charged under the very scary sounding Anti-Social Behaviour Act and ordered to clean up his clean act. I’m not exactly sure how he managed to did this. By making it dirty again?
The Brazilian artist’s work came to a happier resolution. The authorities were certainly miffed but could find nothing to charge him with. They had no other recourse but to clean the tunnel — but only the parts Alexandre had already cleaned. The artist merely continued his campaign on the other side of traffic. The utterly flummoxed city officials then decided to take drastic action. Not only did they clean the entire tunnel but also every other tunnel in Sao Paulo.
Bravo!
via BLDBLG
[...] Following an interesting post on Inhabitat about ‘reverse graffiti‘, where the artist cleans an area to create his image, I found the work of Alexandre Orion. First, Alexandre creates an image, then waits with his camera and captures passers-by interacting with the image, often unknowingly. Take a minute to view his gallery- it’s fascinating. [...]
Nice work!! Keep me posted. Thanx
This is absolutely fabulous because iit’s so thoroughly radical but so simple and so obvious.
The city fines homeowners who leave graffiti up on the sides of their houses where I live, They say that’s encouraging gang behaviour. (Taggin’ your territory.)
I wonder what they’d say to this and I’d be tempted to countersue for the cost of washing the sludge from the diesel buses buses that chug up the hill and spew nightmares all toxic grime over the side of my house.
Any chance I could use some of these photographs in a local newspaper that is much read but impoverished, because it’s so thoroughly radical?
Splendiferous, brilliantissimo, fabulosouza; THIS IS ART. —Ann Garrison, San Francisco
i gave a speech about how to do this for a class. The teacher gave me a C on the speech and wrote on my evaluation page that he had some “moral issues” with the topic i chose. btw, i go to an art school in georgia.
respect!
Well, the art is art and should stay up; the ads are ads and should come down. ‘Moose’ is not very true to the cause if he works for f’ing Smirnoff!
[...] Who is the big bad graffito — all of those automobile tailpipes or the guy scrubbing soot off the wall of this tunnel in Sao Paulo? A Streetsblog tipster sends along news about a cool new urban art form: [...]
So art stops being art when its commissioned?
I love how this confronts the establishment with just how dirty modern life is.
This shows just how ridiculous it is to ban smoking in bars when you stand on street corners with cars and buses flying by spewing toxic emissions.
wonderful! thanks!!!
urban art never can stop. It s wonderfull! Original gardener-France
Wow, I’ve always wanted to do that!
A quarter century ago, I was a professional dishwasher, and one of the nifty gadgets in my arsenal was a “Jet Spray” — a machine that would pump water mixed with cleaning stuff through a hose at high pressure. The nozzle made the stuff squirt out in a fan shape, and the visual effect it had on the concrete floor was like an inverse airbrush.
I often wondered if one set up next to a graffiti-festooned wall and selectively cleaned it in a way similar to your linked graphic, would that count as vandalism? I mean, it would be selective removal of stuff.
(crosspoted from Apostropher)
Wow, one time where even if it was permanent it would be ok (in my book, anyway).
Way better than that coloured scribble.
SEE NPR STORY
Artist Draws ‘Clean’ Graffiti from Dirty Walls
Some British Officials See Moose’s Handiwork as Vandalism
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3379017
[...] But another blogger Andrew Brown pointed me in the direction of another challenge to how you would police a ‘broken windows’ approach: Reverse Graffiti sees the art (or vandlism) creating by cleaning grime from public buildings – a hyper version of the ‘clean me’ scrawl on white vans. Take a look at inhabit for some fab photos and the simple challenge: When is cleaning the sidewalks a crime? When you’re doing it to create art. Obviously. In some cities the only response from the authorities has been to clean the place up – de-grime it. I wonder how long it will be before we see taggers buying solvent, so they can reverse tag by creating clean patterns in other people’s graffiti? Broken window? [...]
[...] More pictures and more to read on Inhabitant or BLDGBLOG. [...]
[...] Heard of reverse graffiti? Basically you find a really dirty public space and you clean it artfully — the strategic removal of dirt to create images. You’ve probably done it if you’ve ever written “Clean Me” on a dirty car. [...]
Brilliant! I have been considering the moral dilemas of graffitti latley- And I have come to the conclusion that if we can be completely bombarded with images and words through advertising- then we might as well say what we want as well. Hearing the voice of the public is important and keeps a community alive. I would stress that I appreciate the athestics of Moose’s work, and that quality is important. I LOVE that he doesn’t use any harmful solvents. I have been busy ‘beautifying’ my area as well- do what you can to make the world a better place everyone! Clean, plant, restore, decorate, speak out!
[...] Link: Inhabitat–Reverse Graffiti [...]
[...] I came across this article a few months ago about a group of artists in the UK doing reverse graffiti. Artists find grimy walls to clean their artwork into. Here’s the link… http://inhabitat.com/2007/01/11/reverse-graffiti/#more-2426 [...]
It’s genius. JUST PURE GENIUS.
I wish my city was dirty enough to practice this.
what a great, even somewhat poetic, idea! love this!
Well, I think we do need to come up with some kind of legislature that differentiates between crap, blatant vandalism and actual street art. This will no doubt be very difficult to do, as art by it’s very definition is so open to individual interpretation. My point being that these wankers whom utterly destroy people’s walls or street signs with inane and juvinile tags (messy, uncreative, nasty scrawl of a ‘signature’) have disrespectful intentions behind their actions. The inverse is that there is incredible street art out there, such as it showcased on this blog page… utter genius in the works. I also remember incredible illustration / graphic design in the Amsterdam parks and also here, in Cape Town (since deleted). This creativity should be encouraged as it wins IMHO hands-down versus a plain white wall which has little to say for itself… as long as it’s not on some individual’s personal property (or, once again, blatant vandalism). I think more thought should go into better supporting valid graffiti / street art by local municipalities: to encourage it within certain areas reserved for this use. But it’s difficult to enforce what does have merit and should be allowed, and what should not. Seems some whom wreck anything possible with a spraycan and no talent spoil it for the rest whom really spent time, energy and dedication on such a project.
Wonderful work and Leed’s council’s atitude just typical of their moronic stance when it’s something they don’t like, but can’t think up a logical reason for or against it!
“Art is not eternal.” Wash/sandblast the damn walls and penalize taggers.
That cleaning equals vandalism is the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Hah! This is a very cool!! Much better than a original type of grafitti!
awesome idea! so easy, so powerfull, so hortative.
Very nice!!! It takes much more talent to create images using this type of medium vs colors. Skill is certainly required in getting the shading to look good. Besides the fact that the only way to remove it is to actually CLEAN it. What a concept!
Wow! Such simplistic idea,yet so effective! Everyone (well most people have at some point in there lives) usually does little doodles on car windows etc when they are condensated or write things on the sides of cars when they’re dirty, but i’d never have thought of taking it further and making my little doodles into something so spectacular!
I respect the artists greatly.
Zoe, Norwich, Uk
I’ve just had a “I wish I’d thought of that” moment. Awesome and then some.
That is so funny! I have been meaning to ask the local police department whether it would technically be graffiti to powerwash my name into the side of a building. I asked everyone I know and don’t have an answer yet… but this would be an interesting example when I go talk to the authoriteies!
[...] Inhabitat » REVERSE GRAFFITI: Clean Green Street Art (tags: funny graffiti urban art) [...]
this is awesome!!!, maybe i should try it, my rez is sooo dirty!!
Wicked! I live in Leeds n am gonna make n effort to go find the graffiti! Great idea
wow, thats pretty cool… My city gives out free muraling permits to artists… and as long as they have permission by the owner, have the permit when they start and thier work is considered a mural, the city wont take it down…
But this is a pretty cool idea.
I thinks this is sick!! =)
Whyy is it considered bad if its cleaning??!
I thnk graffii is good and bad because if its something that is art and has put work into i think it is absolutly great but if its jus somethng theve writtin with swear word and insults to other people that is wrong and nasty
Exciting pictures!
I always worry about cities that imagine themselves “clean”. Remember streets in the nineteen century where full of mud, shit and garbages! The main pollution comes from advertising!
Ain’t no half steppin,writers will burn every wall.
Peace!
Aroon.
F’in brilliant!
I think this is brilliant! Everyone should be allowed to show off their artwork, even if it’s graffiti.
Yes there are bad points as well as good points of this type of art, but if it’s purpose is to make people look and go “WOW!”.
Graffiti is only vandalism unless “that person” allows them to place their artwork on “that person’s” property.
In response to the person who added comment about who would object to this form of expression- its prolly the same people who throughout time have supressed free thought and speech to gain control in our world! I tip my hat to the people who wont give in to our increasingly facist world and find creative means to deliver the much needed truth to the masses !
This is baloney. If the artists want to do something good & green, they can just clean the dirty walls. The great unwashed would appreciate that more than the pretense of art.
Well done guys! I am quite the fan of graff and “illegal” advertising. I don’t have a say in which advertisements meet my eyes and are burnt into my subconscious when I walk down the street so it is good to know that we keep the peaceful fight going. On that note, I have to mention that I am REALLY pissed off by the graff on trees I have seen recently in my current city, Odessa, Ukraine. The trees have done nothing, target the corporations. Keep up the Green Graff guys! I will support you all the way! It is good to know that a lot of us are still doing it for the right reasons and not just for ego advancement!
[...] So sieht es aus! [...]
Hi,
Love what you’re doing. I’ve been trying the same technique with a high pressure washer and series of steel stencils. I am piloting the scheme with the Design Iniative and have been washing all kiinds of grime of walls – hence “Partners in Grime” is born. Check out my site at http://www.unitedcreatives.com. 10% finders fee to anyone who can find me a commission (listed buildings not considered) . . . ‘-)
yo my name is michael im 14 years old and im tryin to lurn street graffiti ritin im doin a hip hop street dance and break dance at durngate in northampton on the saturday 14th may i hope you can give me advice for graffiti ritin i hope you get this message
from michaelashley
To vandalize is to destroy, and there’s nothing destructive about cleaning (except maybe to the dirt and grime). The effects that the reverse graffiti have on its society are very interesting. Those who believe that it’s wrong don’t realize how dirty their community has been. Obviously, they see pictures or phrases they find offensive and want them removed, completely missing the fact it’s written on FILTH. Furthermore, the fact that the community is only cleaning the area that has pictures on it proves that the poor conditions of the area aren’t the main concern. We need to do something. We need to make reverse graffiti an epidemic and address the cause. Why should we get in trouble for improving our community and making others aware of the issues in an artistic way?
True they are not actually marking on the walls but I would imagine this would still cost something to “clean off”. When a wall is painted, the paint obviously has to be removed but when grime is cleaned off in a pattern, the only way to get rid of it would be to wash the entire wall. The moral issue comes up in whether this is vandalism. I don’t think the artists are the ones at fault, they are just bringing the problem to the attention of everybody else.
I think if an artist is so called CLEANING a wall, so be it.. Let ART be.. its a beautiful thing. To walk around a trashed out part of a city and then come across the vibrant colors and beautiful images of an ARTIST, it just makes the whole site worth seeing… I love Art and I believe if it is in good taste and creative, it should be expressed… One Luv,,,, NiK
Awesome idea… I think it is awesome that you can take an eyesore and make art out of it. If all these street cleaning artists succeed in doing is getting the city to clean up the mess in which gave them a canvas to work with, then they still have done a great service. Criminal charges for reverse vandalism, especially in good taste, is just stupid. Get the point and clean the area up. Otherwise shut up and be thankful someone with raw talent and excessive creativity can take what you neglected to do (and probably still won’t for that matter) and make something that is appealing to the general public. Its like taking a city dump and turning it into a city park. They made great what was previously disgusting and a disgrace to a town. Keep up the good work!!!
y r u using a stencel??
Street cleaning Graffiti! Who’d thought it? Unbelievable. That is a top novel idea deserving some kind of award no?
amazing! i love the idea of restoring by art.
i think some graffiti is actually pretty cool … im working on photo collection of graffiti in different cities … but i think this idea is fabulous.
Guys this is a great idea!
I used to decorate rubbish with stickers a while ago.
Be sure the city will be more beutyful.
And on the other hand rubbish come more public.
Martin
Awesome awesome. I’m no hugger and I think this is the bomb-diggity. City doesn’t like how you cleaned the sidewalk? They can clean it themselves, right? AWESOME!
[...] Pics on Inhabitat [...]
Some people think writing looks dirty when all it is is paint. in a lot of cases, most of the time the paint from the aerosol art is covering up the dirt and crap from the fuel emissions too.
aerosol writing since way back in the late 1960s has always been an outlet for ghetto youth to come out of that dirty inner city and express themselves — to get their names up and not just be another damned statistic. escaping routine, rejecting convention, resisting the constraints of a repressive society, and have an alternative to being in a gang. compare this with the paint used to write their names covering dirty city walls, symbolically they’re coming up out of that environment saying, “these are my surroundings.”, “I exist.”, and “we shouldn’t be overlooked”.
You can’t have the common man putting out messages to the people now as this is to be the domain of the governers of the system.
I very much doubt ‘their’ arguments against expression like this are for any reason other than they must not allow people to express powerful messages to others, as this threatens their control, as it attacks their monopoly on the dissemination of information.
[...] visiting a blog called Inhabitat, I was directed to a very interesting case of “clean” graffiti. Instead of using spray paint to actually damage public property, these graffiti artists have [...]
[...] This graffiti was created in reverse – by cleaning grimy city surfaces. It’s sort of a lift-and-scrub technique in which the dark areas are old, crusted pollutants. Authorities didn’t know how to charge the Brazilian graffiti artist responsible, Alexandre Orion: The authorities were certainly miffed but could find nothing to charge him with. They had no other recourse but to clean the tunnel — but only the parts Alexandre had already cleaned. The artist merely continued his campaign on the other side of traffic. The utterly flummoxed city officials then decided to take drastic action. Not only did they clean the entire tunnel but also every other tunnel in Sao Paulo. (Inhabitat) [...]
It’s funny how the graffiti world is turning back to powerful messages. Look at Banksy and Dolk two of the leading stencil artists. I posted a bunch of pictures from one of them here it’s worth a peek.
The problem is where they put it.
http://marcozna.wordpress.com/2007/03/11/more-and-more-dolk-and-more-again/
[...] a bit about culture jamming and guerilla advertising, but here’s a pretty sweet and ingenious article about some. Instead of spraypainting on walls, some artists are cleaning up soot and rust on walls, in the [...]
[...] Link: Inhabitat–Reverse Graffiti [...]
[...] visiting a blog called Inhabitat, I was directed to a very interesting case of “clean” graffiti. Instead of using spray paint to actually damage public property, these graffiti artists have chosen [...]
[...] too is the fact that one must wonder: is there a kind of post-modern irony at play? There must be. Surely its creators realized how obvious and unoriginal their scribblings were. [...]
we would like to email or speak with mr curtis. we have some work for him here in south florida
Yo crazy graffiti is good is not crime or ”Vandillism” its a for of art or a form of a message and if you dont like it then you dont know the true meaning!!
[...] June 19, 2007 Filed under: misc — himbly @ 7:33 am It says here that there are “graffiti” artists that are managing to “paint” murals by [...]
[...] einer der Begründer dieses witzigen wie intelligenten Stadteingriffes gilt. Laut der Internetseite Inhabitat.com wurde er von der Stadt verurteilt, die betreffenden Stellen wieder zu säubern. Sie berief sich [...]
[...] einer der Begründer dieses witzigen wie intelligenten Stadteingriffes gilt. Laut der Internetseite Inhabitat.com wurde er von der Stadt verurteilt, die betreffenden Stellen wieder zu säubern. Sie berief sich [...]
[...] Moose se dedica al Street art y a la publicidad, pero de una forma un tanto peculiar, en vez de utilizar tinta o pintura como hace el resto de gente que pinta en la calle, él utiliza materiales de limpieza para dejar su marca. Via Inhabitat [...]
[...] July 23, 2007 · Filed under Blogroll http://inhabitat.com/2007/01/11/reverse-graffiti/#more-2426 [...]
[...] link leads to a related story about graffiti which involves water. And soap, too… These icons [...]
i live in são paulo (yes that is how we write it) and i’ve seen alexandre’s work, it really blows oyu mind, i didn’t know it was reverse graffiti untill i saw this
it’s incredible if seen personaly, and i think this is a kind of street art that creates a certain conciousness of how dirty the place is by knowing that your looking at a clean spot
[...] So, following a crazy sidebar link from Aaron’s blog, I found this awesome stuff. [...]
[...] Reverse Graffiti. I’ve talked about this, and other contemporary street art activities in the past. But I’d like to draw attention to a particular artist: Ossario. [...]
[...] 2007 Filed under: art, globalization — Kim Dionne @ 4:57 pm A friend pointed me to a blog post about reverse graffiti, and yesterday on my stroll back from the Farmer’s market, I saw an [...]
[...] and the reverse graffiti this blog is talking about http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/01/11/reverse-graffiti/ [...]
[...] pictures and more to read on Inhabitant or [...]
This and the live-green graffiti are making me feel really excited about art… street art… the green movement… Wow, this is so awesome. What a silly city council statement though!
[...] covered reverse graffiti in the past on Inhabitat – a practice which involves creating street art by cleaning soot covered [...]
these are some excellent examples — this technique is very similar to that known as “selective buffing”, removing select parts of another, damaged graffiti piece or stencil, in order to create a new artwork.
clearly the authorities here have completely missed the point of the works, but it had the desired effect to some extent nonetheless.
[...] en: Inhabitat, [...]
[...] site equated this form of advertising to writing a message with your finger on the back of a dirty truck. Interesting [...]
METRO OTB ROCKS SHIT!
graffiti is alright if u do it in a place where you are aloud,and it is bad for the envoirment aswell so STOP DOING GRAFFITI AND RESPECT FOR OTHERS!!!
[...] course you can get more elaborate stuff like this. It’s innovative but it’s more fragile than an egg wheatpasted to a [...]
This is brilliant!
A top-notch idea I wish I had thought of myself.
arrt is the best
when you look at the broader picture, at how polluted our cities are, its bassically a match made in heaven, using art for protest, yet without the use of aerosoles, solvents or the like, yet showing the people how much more unpleasent, our own ignorance can be when painted on a wall.
Just be careful when you do this kind of graffiti! All that soot is very toxic and not good to breathe in — so do like Moose and wear a mask and gloves! I totally approve! I think it’s wonderful to pose such a paradox.
hi i was just woundering where one could get one of these jet cleaning pistlols, for a cheap price or anywhere .?
Go to http://www.bright.tv/series/de-ban-van-het-ding-aflevering-4 for an item on Alexandre Orion (fast-forward to 10:14 min).
[...] Via Inhabitat [...]
[...] this month, Inhabitat reported on a unique form of street art known as “Reverse Graffiti”, where, rather than [...]
[...] Source and Photo: Inhabitat [...]
[...] grit to leave a lasting impression. You may remember Paul Curtis aka “Moose” from our coverage of Reverse Graffiti in the UK last year; we’re excited to announce that the Reverse Graffiti team recently teamed up with [...]
Shouldn’t be doing them for advertising. Art is art. Ads and marketing are toxic…
Its awesome! So simple, so in your face!
Im sure every city has a lot of issues to solve, and cleaning street art shouldn’t be among them. You cant fight it! Unfortunately, people and officials dont wanna see the difference between vandalism and art. Much easier to call it all illegal. And spend tax money on cleaning it, Its been decades and centuries already, they still havent learned the lesson. Street art will always be there!
[...] READ MORE > REVERSE GRAFFITI: Clean Green Street Art When is cleaning the sidewalks a crime? When you’re doing it to create art. Obviously. A number of street artists around the world have taken to expressing themselves through an innovative practice known as Reverse Graffiti. Taking a cue from the “Wash Me” messages scrawled on the back of delivery trucks, they seek out soot [...] [...]