Name: Invasion Kit 4, Rubik Space
Brand: Invader
Rating: 4.9 (183 reviews)

Invasion Kit 4, Rubik Space
Ceramic

Invader

£9,500-£14,000 VALUE (EST.)

$17,000-$26,000 VALUE (EST.)

$16,000-$23,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥80,000-¥120,000 VALUE (EST.)

€11,000-€16,000 VALUE (EST.)

$90,000-$130,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥1,530,000-¥2,260,000 VALUE (EST.)

$11,500-$17,000 VALUE (EST.)

36% AAGR

This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

December 2022

Christie's Paris - France

Invasion Kit 4, Rubik Space - Ceramic

June 2021

Christie's Paris - France

Invasion Kit 4, Rubik Space - Ceramic

November 2018

Artcurial - France

Invasion Kit 4, Rubik Space - Ceramic

Meaning & Analysis

This ceramic mosaic from 2004 is a limited edition of 150 from Invader’s Invasion Kits series. The rectangular mosaic is composed of 63 small mosaic tiles and represents one of Invader’s iconic Space Invaders, the Japanese video game characters which Invader has disseminated across the globe. It depicts a white Space Invader laying against the background of a harlequinesque and colourful background, where Invader alternated red, yellow, blue and green mosaic tiles.

read more about Invasion Kit

As suggested by its title, this represents Invader’s fourth Invasion Kit, and thus attests to the early development of Invader’s artistic vocabulary, style and techniques. This Invasion Kit was released in 2004 in anticipation of Invader’s first Rubikcubism exhibition, Rubik Space, which was held at the Galerie Patricia Dorfmann, Paris, from 24th March - 7th May 2005. There, Invader presented for the first time to the public his new artistic style, Rubikcubism (see here for instance The Shining or Clockwork Orange), through which Invader recreates the pixelated texture of his usual Space Invaders through twisting dozens of different Rubik Cubes.

The Invasion Kit particularly references one of Invader’s earliest Rubikcubist artworks, Rubik Space, where Invader similarly portrayed a Space Invader against a colourful background. In this sense, the multicoloured array of tiles chosen by Invader can be seen as referencing the colour palette of the Rubik cubes, each tile echoing a face of the cube.

Vivaciously colourful, this Invasion Kit is then not only pleasant to the eye but also collocates itself within an early moment in Invader’s artistic development, bringing together his mosaic techniques and Space Invader characters with the colourfulness of his Rubik cubes artworks, which the Kit anticipates and references.