Transparent Street Signs

June 8, 2006 11:31 PM

Cayetano Ferrer is a Chicago based artist whose work involves (among other styles) painting street signs with the images of the items immediately behind them, to give the illusion of transparency (depending on what angle you're viewing from). The latest campaign by Amnesty International seems inspired by his work.
posted by jonson (14 comments total)

Those are really neat. Well not the Amnesty ones, those are pretty harsh...
posted by Windopaene at 11:46 PM on June 8, 2006 [1 favorite]

Nice! Thanks, jonson. much appreciated.
posted by shoepal at 12:12 AM on June 9, 2006

My favourite image from the Amnesty set shows 16 year old Mohamed Moallim exacting some justice on his father's killer. I'm more concerned about getting a ticket when I park in a loading zone where the sign is obscured by this graffiti. Perhaps Ferrer has taken care to avoid obliterating possibly useful signage?
posted by econous at 12:32 AM on June 9, 2006

Thanks jonson, these are really lovely. And they remind me of two features of Chicago that I've slowly forgotten since I've moved away: flatness and flammability. These photos seem to reflect the archetypal Chris Ware landscape.
posted by maryh at 12:40 AM on June 9, 2006

oops.
posted by maryh at 12:40 AM on June 9, 2006

I'm tired of graffiti, and I want urban art to be clever; I love these.
posted by taz at 1:22 AM on June 9, 2006

this ^^
posted by NinjaTadpole at 1:54 AM on June 9, 2006

I love these, especially this one.

The Amnesty signs are disturbing - I think they'd be a lot more effective if they were a little more subtle.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:22 AM on June 9, 2006

His stuff would look kinda strange when not looked head on no?
posted by stratastar at 5:26 AM on June 9, 2006

I like the Julian Beever street chalking better, but these are nice too.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 6:15 AM on June 9, 2006

Those are cool, but part of me is pissed off that he'd think it's ok to totally deface a sign. Signs have rights too!
posted by Citizen Premier at 6:51 AM on June 9, 2006

Citizen Premier, on a few of them, you can see that he's not painting the sign, but an adhesive covering the sign. As a matter of fact, he even states as much that they aren't paintings, but photographs:

A series of photographs pasted onto three "No Parking" signs throughout Chicago, the images were made to fit as perfectly as possible with the background from a particular vantage point. I left the "City of Chicago" stamp from the actual signs in the corner of the images. One piece also has other elements of the sign reintroduced into photograph. [emphasis mine]
posted by NationalKato at 7:04 AM on June 9, 2006

Great idea, and great execution. ++

And frankly I think the Amnesty posters are visually alarming and go a long way to promote thought.

What if there really WAS a policeman bullying an innocent citizen 15 feet in front of you? You would be powerless, but you would sure hope SOMEONE would do something.
posted by Ynoxas at 7:44 AM on June 9, 2006

I went to one of his shows and painted "$0.99" over all his price tags.
posted by HTuttle at 3:26 PM on June 9, 2006