Creative use of pressure washer creates ‘reverse graffiti’ art.
A new term is emerging, ‘reverse graffiti’. Here is an approved art installment featuring the pressure washing technique, with beautiful results.
Artists were commissioned by De Invasie and STUK Arts Centre in Belgium to create designs on concrete walls, etched into moss and algae using a pressure washer.
The commissioned art was part of a larger exhibition on sustainable living. Leading into the STUK Arts Centre, a wall along a staircase was covered with moss and algal growth. Artist, Strook, used this surface as his canvas. Using a pressure washer, the artist etched his designs into the living coating of moss and algae. No chemicals, paint or cleaning chemicals were used in this process.
The artist describes his work on this unique site, “More and more, we are dictated by technology. That intrigues me. And so do the cities we live in. That’s why I populate my drawings with humanoids – robots with a human shape – and cyborgs – physical merges of man and machine.”
Descriptions of the artist in action explain that Strook’s designs were created freehand in a spontaneous process. The theme of his work is the intersection where man meets machine. The reverse graffiti is an innovative example of this theme and how a pressure washing machine helped the artist create living art.