pixelated aliens, colourful tiles and a worldwide game of hide and seek.
invader, paris invasion, centre pompidou
one of the things i love about paris is that you never quite know what you'll find around the next corner.
a brilliant neighbourhood restaurant, a stellar record shop, incredible timeless architecture. and, if you're very lucky, a little pixelated alien stuck to the side of it.
i've been to paris a number of times, and spotting invader's work around the city is how i first got interested in collecting his art. and once you start noticing them, you realise they are everywhere.
i love the colours and the simplicity of the graphics and how this enables the little characters to pop against age old brickwork and stone. there's also something appealing for me in the fact that they've been put there under the cover of darkness. no grand unveiling or gallery opening, just an instagram post with the location. it's a kind of treasure hunt i guess. and who doesn’t like a treasure hunt?
a little bit about invader
what you looking at fool? invader, mr t, paris invasion
invader is the pseudonym of an anonymous french street artist who began installing his pixelated ceramic mosaics in paris in 1998. inspired by the early video game space invaders, his work takes those clunky, old-school graphics and turns them into something physical, placing them on walls and buildings in cities around the world.
i grew up with atari, spectrum and commodore 64 games, so the imagery resonates strongly with me. pixels, limited colours, the unsophisticated (compared to nowadays) graphics. there’s a lovely nostalgia to it, yet the work doesn't feel dated. if anything, the simplicity makes it stand out even more in a world where everything seems to be getting more complicated and overly designed.
a worldwide invasion
invader, clockwork orange, london invasion
invader calls his installations invasions, which seems about right given the covert nature by which they appear. since starting in paris, he's placed thousands of mosaics across cities around the world, from london and new york to tokyo and hong kong. he then documents the works and maps their locations, turning the whole project into an ongoing global mission.
invader, hudson river, new york invasion
i love the scale of his invasion. imagine spending years quietly placing little pieces of yourself into the fabric of cities around the planet. it's an extraordinary undertaking, and one that feels very different from the usual way we think about making and exhibiting art.
the pleasure of spotting something
what’s up doc? invader, bugs bunny, paris invasion
i think one of the reasons i enjoy invader so much is that his art rewards curiosity.
you can appreciate the mosaics as colourful little objects in their own right, but the real pleasure comes from finding them. they're often tucked into the architecture, sometimes in plain sight and sometimes somewhere you wouldn't necessarily think to look.
and there's something rather satisfying about recognising one. those simple graphics are so distinctive that you don't need to see the artist's name. you know immediately what you're looking at.
i've got masses of photographs of invader’s invasions of paris, london, new york and rome and looking back through them reminds me that discovering art doesn't have to mean walking into a gallery. sometimes it just means paying a little more attention to the city around you.
and seeing invader's work everywhere in paris was the catalyst for me to start collecting it.
the kits
invader invasion kit, ik #18, 2018
invader produces prints and original mosaic works known as aliases for galleries, but for me, his invasion kits are a particularly interesting part of the story.
the original idea behind the kits was to make the invasion something other people could participate in, with small, pre-assembled mosaics that could be installed in peoples' homes beyond the artist's own street project.
i like this idea but what appeals to me most is how closely the kits relate to the original street works. they use the same visual language of pixelated graphics and chunky ceramic tiles and so feel very close to the spirit of the street art. they’re a part of the invasion that you can own and live with, rather than simply a printed image of it.
i've got a number of invader’s prints available at luck contemporary (including a collaboration with damien hirst, invadhirst, 2025) as well as a lovely invader kit, ik #18.
explore invader at luck contemporary.
and finally…
invader, tottenham court road, london invasion
if you're familiar with invader’s mosaics and have spotted them in paris, london or somewhere else in the world, you’ll no doubt understand the appeal. if you haven't, next time you're walking around a city, look up, you never know whether the next building will have been invaded!