Invaded Hypnosis

Invaded Hypnosis, a woodcut print on fabric released in 2011 in an edition of 50, is executed in a style similar to that of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch. The imagery and style immediately brings to mind the artist’s infamous Anxiety (1894), the people populating the bottom half of the print taken directly from Munch’s original painting. Yet, Invader leaves his signature mark on the print by including the imagery of his infamous Space Invaders in the sky above. In a formation of two rows of eight, these characters embody the alienation caused by different media in a digital, modern age and represent the favoring of the virtual over reality. These anxieties and grievances regarding the modern age are similar to those purported by Munch in his artwork. The despaired faces and dark shadows of Munch’s figures in Anxiety aptly reflect the anxiety brought forth by Invader’s video game characters.

Invader Hypnosis takes an art historical masterpiece and reinvents it in a contemporary idiom. Invader plays on a sense of collective despair embodied in the crowd of people moving towards the viewer. Executed in a style far different from the street artist’s typical graffiti works, Invader Hypnosis, a woodcut on fabric, demonstrates the artist’s creative versatility.