Vermibus’ Ad Busting Art In Berlin Reveals An Ugly Truth
Vermibus‘ ad busting street art has taken Berlin by storm. The Spanish artist has been busy subverting fashion advertisements on billboards – transforming them into a ghastly, horrific, ugly reflection of beauty – using nothing more than petrol, thinner and acetone. Here’s what Florence Reidenbach of Berlin Art Link has to say about his work:
The gesture of erasing the images with solvent is similar to the gesture of painting, but it is painting counter action. The process is the same, but it is not adding colours on a canvas to create an image, it is removing the colors of an existing photographic image to create a new image and new characters. The models of the adverts have mutated. Some look like ghosts or mummies, some are reminiscent of Francis Bacon’s paintings, some of tribal make-up.
This process evokes voodoo art which uses human elements like hair, or teeth to create anthropomorphic sculptures. In this context, Vermibus uses “glossy paper” as his flesh to manipulate. There is something very organic about the emaciated creatures that emanate from the billboards. The impersonal and sanitized perfect bodies have turned into shadows or mummies that have much more presence and singularity.
It’s well worth your while watching the video of him in action.
Via Empty Kingdom
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