artworks & murals

 

Using spray cans, Dige paints photo realistic portraits on canvas and walls. Due to it's similar technique some refer to it as graffiti.

Without the use of stencils or air brushes, the rough strokes of spray cans remind of street-art and contemporary youth culture. This technique as well as the consistent dimensions of his canvas are Dige's visual tag.

Graffiti today

Our urban and virtual landscapes are shaped by branded lifestyles and high gloss imagery. We are pestered by thousands of advertisements every day. It is through this daily dose of propaganda that we shape our minds and behaviour.

The visual stimulation around us led to extreme forms of innovation in graphic design and ways of corporate communication. Does is come as a surprise that graffiti originates in New York, one of the advertising hot-spots in the world? Graffiti is undoubtedly a by-product of a society inundated with advertising. Both - advertising and graffiti - evoke emotional reactions, positive or negative and often go unnoticed. They cover large amounts of public space and encourage engagement. And yet, their reason for being couldn't differ more. Graffiti, an expression of self-affirmation opposes surrounding social structures whilst advertisement proclaims its existence through images that dissemble our very desires.

This was the case, at least until the early 90's. Arguably graffiti writers shape their environment and at the same time merely imitate it. Street art today is more than a spray-painted mural - good or bad - it can vary from paper stickers to mere destruction. Scratched windows as well as highly priced Banksy stencils go under the term graffiti. Graffiti moved away from trains into popular culture and now has a wider reach, gaining acceptance not only in boardrooms of advertising agencies but even in museums. It lost its edge Since 'street-art' can be found in the most respectable art-galleries such as Tate Modern and Art Basel. Ads on TV and billboards in the street feature some of the scene's finest artists.

Like any form of art that becomes mainstream, graffiti is threatened to loose its character and the credibility of it being an unbiased artistic expression. An agency called 'Reversed Graffiti' uses high-pressure water spray on dirty pavements to create stencil adverts in high footfall areas. Since yesterday's form of 'culture jamming' seems to be dying slowly, the b-boys and b-girls are on the lookout for new material to turn heads.