Art in Strange Places

While on vacation, I always have my eyes open for art. It comes in all kinds of ways. It may be architecture, sculpture, textile, painting, ceramics etc. While out wandering the streets near our apartment in Lisbon, Portugal, where many of the surrounding buildings are being renovated, we discovered some art that was out of the ordinary and in a very unexpected place.

We almost missed it completely, because it was dusk but also because there was a lot of construction in the area. On retracing our steps back to the apartment we looked up and then did a double take.

We thought this was just a construction barrier, which, of course it was, but looking closer we noticed some identifiable shapes. An artist had used a drill and possibly other tools to scrape of the top layer of plaster from some plaster board to create his art. In the photo above you can see how we missed it. Unless you were standing right in front of it, you couldn't see the images clearly. Below are some of the other images.

The signature of the artist was "vhils". Googling this signature, we found that the artist's real name is Alexandre Farto who is a Portugese artist who was born in 1987. His art is called bas-relief carving technique which literally "scratches the surface". He has had exhibitions around the world in both indoor and outdoor settings. His art reflects identity, and life in contemporary urban societies and their saturated environments. He was particularly inspired by the way the city walls absorb the social and historical changes that take place around them. And there is a wealth of history in this city as well as MANY walls.