175
Invader
Alias HK_43
- Estimate
- HK$450,000 - 650,000€49,000 - 70,800$57,700 - 83,300
HK$1,250,000
Lot Details
ceramic tiles on perspex panel and laminated ID card
inscribed with the artist’s signature, title and date ‘“HK_43” Invader 2015’ on the reverse
52.4 x 61.9 cm. (20 5/8 x 24 3/8 in.)
Executed in 2015, this work is accompanied by an ID card issued by the artist.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
"I just want to put something in the landscape that people can smile about it. It's something positive. My goal is to produce art for everybody in the city and create some beautiful things." Invader
The present lot as seen on Upper Albert Road, Hong Kong in January 2014.
French urban artist, Invader, is internationally celebrated for his pixelated ceramic mosaics that are found over the walls of cities across the globe. Working under a pseudonym inspired by the widely popular 1978 Space Invader arcade game, the artist's instantly recognisable practice yields rich, nostalgic interpretations of our digital world. Drawing directly from the universal language of popular culture cartoons and video games, the artist attributes the Space Invader titular aliens, as depicted in Alias HK_43, as being 'the perfect icons of our time, a time where digital technologies are the heartbeat of our world'. (Invader quoted on his website).
After initiating his 'invasion' practices in the late 1990s, by discretely installing his now trademark mosaic compositions in predetermined urban locations, the artist came to realise 'this is the most addictive game I have ever played.' (Invader quoted in Maluka Dunbar, 'Space Invader', Format Magazine, 17 August 2008, online). Although Invader is undoubtedly considered to be among the most respected street artists around the world, his legendary oeuvre has been brought inside to numerous prominent venues that have honoured the artist with solo exhibitions, including Wipe Out at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Foundation in 2015. The exhibition showcased the mosaic compositions by Invader that had survived the artist’s third ‘invasion’ of the city, after authorities controversially cleared the majority of them away. Originally installed in January 2014 on a concrete pillar located at Upper Albany Road in Central, Alias HK_43 was one of the unique preserved works that remained.
The present lot as seen on Upper Albert Road, Hong Kong in January 2014.
French urban artist, Invader, is internationally celebrated for his pixelated ceramic mosaics that are found over the walls of cities across the globe. Working under a pseudonym inspired by the widely popular 1978 Space Invader arcade game, the artist's instantly recognisable practice yields rich, nostalgic interpretations of our digital world. Drawing directly from the universal language of popular culture cartoons and video games, the artist attributes the Space Invader titular aliens, as depicted in Alias HK_43, as being 'the perfect icons of our time, a time where digital technologies are the heartbeat of our world'. (Invader quoted on his website).
After initiating his 'invasion' practices in the late 1990s, by discretely installing his now trademark mosaic compositions in predetermined urban locations, the artist came to realise 'this is the most addictive game I have ever played.' (Invader quoted in Maluka Dunbar, 'Space Invader', Format Magazine, 17 August 2008, online). Although Invader is undoubtedly considered to be among the most respected street artists around the world, his legendary oeuvre has been brought inside to numerous prominent venues that have honoured the artist with solo exhibitions, including Wipe Out at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Foundation in 2015. The exhibition showcased the mosaic compositions by Invader that had survived the artist’s third ‘invasion’ of the city, after authorities controversially cleared the majority of them away. Originally installed in January 2014 on a concrete pillar located at Upper Albany Road in Central, Alias HK_43 was one of the unique preserved works that remained.
Provenance