The Street Has Other Plans (8 Photos)

November 5, 2026

By Vidar

Street art puts everyday objects to work

Phone boxes become dominoes, a bench becomes a crab, and a post box ties itself in a knot. These eight works bend, repaint or repurpose familiar street fixtures.

📮 “Alphabetti Spaghetti” — By Alex Chinneck in London, England 🇬🇧

The cap and black base look ordinary. Everything between them has tied itself in a knot. Chinneck’s Alphabetti Spaghetti stands at Caxton Works in Canning Town. It is a sculpture, so save your letters for another box.

More: Alex Chinneck’s Architectural Illusions

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📷 Photo: The wub / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Resized; cropped in the cover.

💡 “(fos)” — By Susana Piquer, Eleni Karpatsi and Julio Calvo in Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

A wall lamp appears to cast a solid yellow beam over a doorway, café furniture and pavement. The 2013 installation at Rayen restaurant used yellow tape and painted objects to make the light visible in daylight.

📷 Image courtesy of (fos).

More: More Views of (fos) in Madrid

☎️ “Out of Order” — By David Mach in Kingston upon Thames, England 🇬🇧

Twelve red telephone boxes lean into one another along Old London Road, like dominoes stopped mid-fall. David Mach’s Out of Order arrived in 1989.

💡 Phone Fact: Mach got the retired boxes from British Telecom. For the work’s 30th birthday in 2019, they were cleaned up and repainted cherry red.

🔗 Follow David Mach on Instagram

📷 Photo: Loco Steve / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). Cropped in the cover.

🦀 Crab Bench — By Tom Bob in Dubai, United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪

Tom Bob turned this bench at La Mer into a bright red crab. Its eyes sit on the seat, while its legs and oversized claws spread across the decking.

More: Tom Bob’s Clever Street Art

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🚸 Moving the Crosswalk — By OakOak

Little white figures get to work at the ends of a worn crosswalk. OakOak makes the stripes look as though they are being moved by hand. The chipped paint gives his tiny crew something to struggle with.

More: OakOak’s Street Surprises

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🪨 “Stone Bench” — By Michael Beitz in Jerusalem

A boulder occupies the middle of a park bench, leaving a seat on either side. Michael Beitz made Stone Bench for HaMiffal as part of ArtBnB Jerusalem in 2018.

More: Michael Beitz’s Stone Bench

👒 “La Corniche des Chapeaux” — By Benedetto Bufalino and Victor Vieillard in Marseille, France 🇫🇷

Giant hats provided shade above the concrete seats on Marseille’s Corniche Kennedy. Bufalino and Vieillard made the temporary installation for June 6–7, 2007.

💡 Bench Fact: The seats belong to a bench about 3 kilometers long, installed along the Corniche in 1965 and often described as the longest bench in the world, though it has several breaks.

🔗 Follow Benedetto Bufalino on Instagram

🟡 “Stadtmöbel DN_100” — By Oliver Schau in Hamburg, Germany 🇩🇪

Loops of yellow drainage pipe turn a railing into a seat for two. Schau’s temporary street furniture uses the city’s existing structures for support. Hamburg’s University of Fine Arts awarded the project a first prize in 2011.