Critical Review
Led, a limited edition signed screen print, released in 2017, by French street artist Invader depicts his iconic Space invader character, which has become instantly recognisable as the artist ‘invades’ cities around the world by pasting this image on buildings in urban metropolises. Pixelated and retro, these characters embody the alienation caused by different media and the favoring of the virtual over reality.
Here, the character is a bright pink, set against a black drop upon which dots of various colours have been placed in a regular formation. Resembling an LED screen, as the title would suggest, the dots form a background image of mountains against a night sky. The image in its entirety mimics a retro video game screen, giving the sense that one is looking at a video game, rather than an artwork.
Rising to fame in the 90s, Invader has become famous globally for his pixelated video game characters which formed the basis of his street art works in Paris. These grafiti works have now ‘invaded’ cities all across the globe and have become a trademark for the artist.
