Working anonymously under the name Invader, the Paris-based artist has spent more than two decades building one of the most recognisable projects in contemporary urban art. His Space Invaders project began in Paris in 1998, when he started translating the pixelated language of early video games into ceramic mosaics installed throughout the city. What began locally soon developed into a worldwide network of interventions, with each installation recorded as an “invasion” and incorporated into an ongoing system of maps, locations and scores. At the centre of Invader’s practice is the relationship between the digital and physical worlds. Ceramic tiles provide a natural analogue for pixels, allowing imagery associated with screens and video games to move into streets, buildings and public space. While the original Space Invaders characters provided an early reference point, his visual language has expanded far beyond them, incorporating figures, symbols and imagery drawn from popular culture while retaining the distinctive low-resolution aesthetic that defines his work. Invader’s practice extends beyond his street installations into studio works, editions, sculpture, film and other forms of experimentation. In 2005 he developed Rubikcubism, using Rubik’s Cubes as individual units of colour to construct images that often appear almost abstract at close range before resolving when viewed from a distance. This same fascination with pixels, repetition and visual perception runs throughout his wider practice. Although rooted in the street, Invader has consistently moved between public space and galleries and museums, describing the two as complementary parts of his practice. His work has been exhibited internationally for more than two decades, while the ongoing Space Invaders project continues to expand around the world.
