A street artist’s year-long graffiti battle ends awesomely
An anonymous British graffiti artist who goes by the name MOBSTR had a year-long graffiti battle with the city, and the results are brilliant. MOBSTR runs a website that “documents images of work found on streets and other locations by persons unknown,” but this time, the person unknown was MOBSTR himself. Or herself.
“The Curious Frontier of Red” was really more of an experiment than a battle. It took place over an entire year and involved a lot of pressure washing, minuscule amounts of graffiti and a lot of time and effort — by everyone involved. And it’s fantastically epic.
MOBSTR explained the project: “I cycled past this wall on the way to work for years. I noticed that graffiti painted within the red area was ‘buffed’ with red paint. However, graffiti outside of the red area would be removed via pressure washing. This prompted the start of an experiment. Unlike other works, I was very uncertain as to what results it would yield. Below is what transpired over the course of a year.”
The experiment consisted of tagging the wall with the word “RED” to see if it would get washed or buffed. It was buffed. So MOBSTR tagged the word “RED” again, but higher. Again, it was buffed. MOBSTR moved “RED” all the way up the red wall until it hit a brick wall — just above the red wall. The “RED” was pressure washed off the brick instead of buffed. But MOBSTR couldn’t figure out the purpose behind the two different types of washing, so naturally, the experiment continued. MOBSTR then tagged “PRESSURE WASH” on the brick and “PAINT RED” on the red wall, but only the “PAINT RED” was removed.
You guys, it gets better and even more hilarious, but I don’t want to spoil the ending. You really just need to check out the photos for yourself to understand the amazingness behind this graffiti battle.
MOBSTR kindly gave us permission to run the entire photo series, which includes a lot of photos, but keep in mind — this back and forth went on for an entire year. Trust us, it’s totally worth the scrolling.
Featured images via MOBSTR
Related:
Amazing street art is covering this Indian city
Jilly Ballistic continues to prove street art isn’t just for dudes
