Invader

Over the Influence is thrilled to present Camouflages & Devils Tower, an exhibition of new works from the internationally renowned French artist known as Invader. The exhibition features a new body of work including the artist’s iconic mosaics alongside a presentation of Rubik’s Cube works.

Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential contemporary artists of his generation, Invader has consistently challenged convention. Bursting into the scene in 1998, he quickly gained popularity worldwide for his ‘invasions’ that use guerilla tactics to place pixelated video game characters and pop culture archetypes composed of square ceramic tiles in highly visible yet just-out-of-reach spaces. Invader often uses ceramic tiles as physical representations of computer pixels, bringing a tangible materiality to the virtual form. Each of Invader’s idiosyncratic mosaics is one of many fragments that make up a sprawling, monumental, long-term, and global installation. Conceptualized to exist beyond the gallery, Invader’s work sparks a dialogue within the city and its inhabitants. In 2005, the artist started a new project called “Rubikcubism” which uses Rubik’s Cubes to compose astonishing pieces of art; he explains, “What interests me in Rubikcubism is the possibility of revisiting an iconic and ludo-scientific object and turning it into an artistic medium.”

Camouflages & Devils Tower highlights Invader’s studio practice while celebrating his monumental impact on the history of art.

“For this exhibition, I created a series of mosaics on the theme of camouflage because it is a fundamental principle in my urban practice for which I always try to blend into the environment.”

The exhibition includes Invader’s newest series of mosaics, in which he hides his iconic space invaders figure amongst camouflage patterns. This idea of concealment versus visibility has long been implicit in his work, which often takes the form of urban interventions that both stand out from and blend into their environments. Examined through the lens of art history and pop culture, and drawing references from fashion, design, and art giants including Picasso and Warhol, Invader continues a tradition of concealing imagery within artwork — in other words, within plain sight. This latest body of work deepens his mosaic practice, embracing a variety of shapes, colors, and scales. Invader classifies this new collection of mosaics as Pixel-Pieces, his term for unique works created on wooden panels (in contrast to his Aliases, which are doubles of urban installations that he has previously installed on city walls).

“Just like the protagonists of Steven Spielberg's film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I was attracted and fascinated by Devils Tower, the mountain where the mothership from space lands. I, as well, obsessively represented it from different angles, in different lights and in different formats using my Rubikcubist technique.”

Concomitant with the camouflage mosaic series, Invader presents a new series of rubikcubist works inspired by Devils Tower, a national monument in northeastern Wyoming best known for its distinct butte shape. A recognizable landmark in the spectacular landscape of the American West, Devils Tower also plays a central role as the landing area for an alien mothership in Steven Spielberg’s movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The monument becomes an obsessive fixation for one of the film’s protagonists, who has visions about its iconic silhouette, and finds himself unconsciously forming the shape in his daily life, such as in his mashed potatoes at dinner. Inspired by this stylistic obsession, Invader represents the monument from varying angles and under different lighting conditions by manipulating and assembling thousands of Rubik’s cubes into Devils Tower’s images. This work is a continuation of his lifelong fascination with examining the relationship between the digital and physical worlds, and pushing the boundaries between pop culture and fine art.

Invader (b. 1969) is one of the most enigmatic and radical artists of our time. He has been “invading” cities around the world since 1998 by skillfully placing his mosaic pieces in the most incongruous of places. By drawing attention to the increasing role of technology in our daily lives, Invader encourages the public to reflect on the implications of this digital invasion. Invader’s creative dexterity knows no boundaries, with the artist having sent his work into outer space as well as having anchored it to the bottom of Cancun Bay. Whether he’s embellishing the Hollywood sign, invading the Louvre, designing the most innovative pair of trainers or using the Rubik’s Cube as an artistic medium, Invader has left an undeniable mark both on the world’s landscapes and on contemporary art.

Invader has been exhibited at MIMA Museum, Brussels, Belgium; Musée en Herbe, Paris, France; HOCA Foundation, Hong Kong; MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria; MoCA, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA; Daejeon Museum of Arts, Daejon, South Korea; Musée Ingres et Musée du Louvre, Montauban, France; Borusan Center for Culture and Arts, Istanbul, Turkey; Mjelby Konstgard Museum, Halmstad, Sweden; and the Biennale d’art contemporain, Lyon, France.