Lifestyle

You Have to See What This French Artist is Doing to Ugly Graffiti

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Tony Maples Photography

 

French artist Mathieu Tremblin has gone viral for his edits of street tags. Tremblin paints over sometimes illegible graffiti with what looks like perfectly typed text.

#MathieuTremblin

A photo posted by Kenny Verberckmoes (@kennyverberckmoes) on

But viewers shouldn’t assume that the artist is focused on covering up pieces of street art. In fact, Tremblin is a fascinating public artist himself who paints and installs thoughtful pieces wherever he sees fit.

His 2013 work called “Watermark” was a visual commentary on how he felt the city council of Mons, Belgium saw their city. He told City Lab, “Their view of the city’s identity is superficial and that they seem more obsessed with controlling their image than doing things right.” The piece itself was a large mural on an urban wall that looked like a watermark of the stock photography company “Getty Images.”

Tremblin’s work is backed with serious intention but has a playful quality as well. Also in 2013, he took a wad of parking tickets building up on a car and beautifully crafted them into a bouquet of flowers.

It’s important to consider what the artist had in mind when viewing their work. After the images of the famous re-rendered tags went viral, Tremblin took to his Facebook page to state that his work should not be misunderstood as “an anti-graffiti lampoon where it’s supposed to be the opposite, a tribute to local writers scene.”