Critical Review
This ceramic mosaic from 2009 is a limited edition of 150 from Invader’s Invasion Kits series. The mosaic depicts one of Invader’s Space Invaders, through which the artist has reached world fame, intent on looking suspiciously to the right. The mosaic, along with its title, verges on the nuances of blue, with the Space Invader composed of turquoise tiles on a dark blue background.
This Invasion Kit quotes a series of other artworks that Invader released with the same title. The first, Blue Space Invader, was one of Invader’s characteristic mosaics on panel, which he made in 2007. Following the mosaic, Invader also released a print in collaboration with POW (Picture on Walls), a London-based gallery dedicated to promoting Street Art through the dissemination of prints.
Later in 2011, the artist enacted a Blue Invasion at MOCA, Los Angeles, on the occasion of the gallery’s seminal exhibition Art in the Streets. The exhibition surveyed the origins and history of the movement and traced its influences around the globe. In that context, Invader’s Blue Invasion referred both to the blue-coloured Space Invaders he disseminated across LA and to the street artist Blu, whose antiwar mural was whitewashed from the front of the MOCA's Geffen building in the lead-up to the show, somewhat tarnishing its credibility. In conjunction with this Invasion, the artist also released a Map Of The Blue Invasion, illustrating the locations of Invader pieces planted around the exhibition. Clicking on the icons on the map opens a video that seems to show the artist placing one of his blue-tiled mosaics somewhere in the scaffolding above the "Art in the Street" galleries, as security guards walk by beneath.
Thus, this Invasion Kit collocates itself within a genealogy of artworks made by the artist and pays tribute to both his printed works as well as to his famous ceramic works.
