This piece is not new, but I only stumbled upon it recently and it seemed too interesting not to share. “Reverse graffiti” is the act of leaving a mark/tag/image by selectively cleaning a surface rather than applying paint. The video above shows Alexandre Orion dealing with São Paulo police who couldn’t make a case when they realized that all he had done was creatively whip away grime. In order to buff his work, the city had to resort to cleaning the whole bridge – a job which clearly needed to be done anyway.
The website Environmental Graffiti posted their top 35 greatest works of reverse graffiti, covering everything from more elaborate versions of writing “clean me” on a dirty car to the large-scale murals of Paul Curtis. Very cool way for street artists and graffiti writers to get their hands dirty (bad pun) without necessarily violating the law.
Photos by Alexandre Orion