Critical Review
Invasion Guide 07, New Mosaic Of Ravenna is a screen print produced by the renowned French street artist Invader in 2017. Coming in an edition size of 1500, the print shows rows of golden stars rendered against a purple backdrop. Interspersed between the stars Invader adds two aliens inspired by the characters from the popular arcade game, Space Invaders. At the top left of the composition, Invader writes the title of the print in white, block capitals.
The print can be seen alongside Invader’s ground-breaking installation project, the Space Invaders project, which the artist started in 1998. The project involves Invader travelling to cities all over the world and adorning the streets with mosaic aliens. The aliens are created during the night so Invader can preserve his anonymity and maintain his status as an ‘Unidentified Free Artist’, a title which is a pun on the acronym UFO, ‘Unidentified Flying Object.’
Invader has produced various Invasion Guides which provide detailed information regarding the location of the mosaics he has erected. Invader typically aims to install around 20 to 50 mosaics per ‘invasion wave’ and the artist has developed a points system meaning he can rank each invasion wave in order of success.
