The Crack Was the Idea (8 Photos)

September 28, 2026

By Vidar

Eight times the damage became the starting point

Most people see a crack in a wall and think of the repair bill. The artists here saw a river for a tiny canoe or the body of a dog, and kept the damage as part of the work.

🟧 Orange-and-Black Patch — By Ememem

Instead of hiding the chipped edge of the step, Ememem fills it with orange-and-black tiles that follow the break exactly. The anonymous Lyon artist calls this “flacking,” from the French flaque (puddle), and has spent years filling cracks and potholes with ceramic tiles.

💡 Nerd Fact: The first flacking appeared in February 2016 on Lyon’s Croix-Rousse plateau. In the city, Ememem is known as le chirurgien des trottoirs, “the sidewalk surgeon,” and the name itself refers to the sound of the artist’s moped.

More: Ememem’s Mosaic Repairs (10 Photos)

🔗 Visit Ememem’s website

🐕 Street Dog Heart — In Leipzig, Germany 🇩🇪

A few black lines turn two patches of missing plaster into a dog and a small long-legged figure. The rough gaps are the bodies; the artist added the legs, the tail and a heart above them.

❤️ I Love You — By Oakoak in Saint-Étienne, France 🇫🇷

The words I and YOU are painted on a red sidewalk, and a broken patch of brick and moss stands in for the heart. Oakoak’s own gallery lists the piece as I love you, made in Saint-Étienne in 2012.

💡 Artist Fact: Huck described Oakoak in 2015 as an office worker by day. In the same interview, he called Saint-Étienne, a former industrial and mining town, “a laboratory city where you can try what you want.”

More: Lovely by Oakoak (10 Photos)

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🛶 Crack-River Canoe — By David Zinn

Two tiny mice paddle a red canoe, and the crack behind them looks like a long, narrow river running across the sidewalk. Zinn, who is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, works in chalk, charcoal and found objects and leaves each drawing for the weather to wash away.

💡 Artist Fact: Zinn has also collected his vanishing drawings in books, including the crowdfunded Temporary Preserves in 2015, the Ann Arbor Observer notes. A recurring character is Sluggo, “the monster with an eye for trouble.”

More: David Zinn Made Us Smile Again (12 Photos)

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🧗 The Crack Climber — By JPS

A tiny figure climbs a crack in the concrete as if it were a rope, heading for the small plant that grows out of the top. JPS adds the climber and lets the real crack and greenery do the rest.

💡 Artist Fact: Behind the initials is Jamie Paul Scanlon, a self-taught stencil artist from Weston-super-Mare, England, who started painting after seeing Banksy’s 2009 show at Bristol Museum.

More: 40 Stunning Street Art By Creative Genius JPS

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🏭 The Factory — By Oakoak in France 🇫🇷

The patch of flaking paint already looked like smoke. Oakoak only needed to place a tiny factory underneath it. His gallery dates The Factory to 2012, the same year as the sidewalk heart above.

🔗 Visit Oakoak’s website

🩹 Bandages for the Road

In this black-and-white photo, a small child sits on the asphalt and lays bandages along a crack in the road, one strip at a time, as if the street had scraped its knee.

🪭 Red Tile Fan — By Ememem in Ankara, Türkiye 🇹🇷

A broken patch of pavement becomes a fan of red, white and patterned tiles. Ememem follows the space between a round utility cover and the curb, letting the edges of the damage decide where each curved row ends. The artist worked on Ankara’s sidewalks in June 2025 at the invitation of the French Institute, AFP reported, and the Institut Français de Turquie lists five of the pieces in the Çankaya district, around Kuğulu Park and Tunalı Hilmi Avenue.

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