Clean tagging, or reverse graffiti, follows a very simple principle: clean in order to draw. We’ve all done that on a dirty car (yes, Wash me!!!). So is this environmental activism, art or vandalism? Alexandre Orion’s ‘wall of skulls’ in Sao Paulo is both stunning and very disturbing. It’s a beautiful piece of street-art that instantly reminds drivers of the impact their emissions are having on the environment by revealing the dirtiness of the tunnel. Authorities find themselves in a troubling dilemma: so far there’s no law to prevent you from cleaning a wall… In Sao Paulo they were so embarrassed that they ended up cleaning every other tunnel in the city.
Paul Curtis (UK), better known as Moose, explains “All I’m really doing is cleaning. Surely people can’t have a problem with that?” Actually they do have a problem and Moose was ordered to clean up his clean act. The irony is it only takes a few days for pollution to “naturally” cover it.
Posted by Mathilde Salvert
Tags: environment, graffiti, street art
