Invader : Prints on Paper

For the very first time, Invader’s exhibition Prints on Paper at the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC) in Ljubljana offers viewers the chance to experience the fragmentary nature, the diffuseness, and, from a global and conceptual perspective, the precise formulation of his artistic idea through his works on paper, by which he playfully and wittily weaves his web around the world. The exhibition was curated by Božidar Zrinski.

In 2006, at the invitation of the International Centre of Graphic Arts, he first exhibited in Ljubljana as part of the group show Street Art: Stencils, Posters, and Stickers – A Low-Tech Re-action. He presented photographs and a large world map that showed all the places he had so far “invaded” with his distinctive mosaics. This was also when he “invaded” Ljubljana. An interesting aspect of this particular action was the way his occupation of the city’s urban space included the interior of Tivoli Mansion, where MGLC is based. A few of his mosaics are still visible today in the centre’s offices and public areas. Now, after almost fifteen years, he has returned for a retrospective of his prints, which reflect his ongoing creative interests and distilled artistic expression. His prints allow him to disseminate his ideas and images, if only in limited copies, through a variety of social channels and exhibition spaces. The mosaics are indeed public monuments, markers intended for anyone and everyone, but they are static works tied to a particular place. While prints may reach only a limited number of people, they inhabit a different kind of exhibition space, which may be either public or private—a gallery, a museum, or a private home.

Invader’s prints are for the most part self-published works made in conjunction with different exhibitions and actions. But it is important to note that from 2005 to 2015 he collaborated with the acclaimed London publisher and printer Pictures on Walls (POW).

Invader’s work expresses his interest in the beginnings of the digital world’s pixelated visualization and the gradual acceptance of the different devices that have radically changed our reality. Most of his prints reflect this concern and are connected to his study of the basic types of the main figures and characters from the early period of video games and visual representation in the digital world. In connection with Invader’s revival of these popular characters, we cannot but notice his interest in pixels and a lo-fi aesthetic, whose retro look takes us nostalgically back to the history and beginnings of digital imagery design.

His “Rubikcubist” prints are in a particular category. Using a palette limited to the colours of the well-known Rubik’s cube, they present his work on iconic images from famous album covers (Rubik Low Fidelity), which are joined by works based on the world of art history (Rubik Masterpieces) and carefully selected frames of villainous characters (Rubik Bad Men).

The last major category of prints include those in which Invader applies his general concept of invading different kinds of spaces, both physical and mental. This can mean placing characters into famous artworks. Here we can also place prints in which Invader’s characters are hidden in an apparently abstract binary image. When he places his characters into an already existing visual image, this act of piracy changes the content of the original message in a way that makes it more vivid, direct, and clear: This is an invasion.

The installation of the mosaics in a new city is sometimes followed by the creation and printing of a special city map on which all their locations are marked. These “invasion maps” are individually designed limited-edition art publications and also offers a unique visual presentation of the city or region under invasion.

The books Invader creates, in which he presents and explains his work in greater detail, occupy a special place in his art practice. They include both catalogues, which reveal his exhibition and studio work, and “Invasion Guides,” which represent the final act in his invasion of particular cities. These works contain documents, lists, stories, memories, maps, and carefully selected photographs of all the installed mosaics. The guides are especially noteworthy, as they were conceived in their entirety by Invader himself. For this reason they can be considered both documentation and, as he himself says, “pieces of art.”

A special place in the artist’s oeuvre is occupied by original art books in which Invader presents and explains his work in detail. The catalogue Prints on Paper is such a book, offering a visual presentation of the artist’s works on paper and a comprehensive account of them.