The Sidewalk Has a Sense of Humor (9 Photos)

The sidewalk is in on the joke

Phone boxes fall like dominoes, a wall lamp spills solid yellow light, and three concrete barriers turn into arcade ghosts. Most of these artists didn’t have to bring the main prop. It was already standing on the street. When David Mach did bring his own, he brought twelve phone boxes.

These nine works borrow bollards, bike racks, cables, fire pipes and poles, then give each one a second role.

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

A wall lamp outside Rayén restaurant appears to throw a solid yellow beam over the door, a café table, a stool, a folding chair and the sidewalk. In daylight, the light is made of yellow tape and painted objects.

💡 Word Fact: The team chose the name because fos means light in Greek and melted in Catalan.

📷 Image courtesy of (fos).

More: More Views of (fos) in Madrid

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👻 Ghosts in the Square — By OakOak

Three rounded concrete barriers already had the right shape. OakOak added orange, blue and red paint and a pair of square eyes each, and the square got its own Pac-Man ghosts.

💡 Game Fact: Toru Iwatani created the ghosts for the 1980 arcade game Pac-Man. Each color was programmed with its own habit. Red chases Pac-Man head-on, while pink and blue try to get in front of him.

More: OakOak’s Street Surprises

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🪢 A Bike-Rack Skipping Rope — By Tom Bob in Dubai, United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪

At La Mer, a girl in a blue dress holds the two ends of a wavy bicycle rack as a skipping rope. Her painted hands meet the rack’s mounting plates on the floor, so the metal loop arcs over her head right where the rope should be.

💡 Festival Fact: Tom Bob was a first-time participant in Dubai Canvas, a 3D art festival organized by Brand Dubai. Its fourth edition was held at La Mer on March 1–7, 2018.

More: Tom Bob’s Clever Street Art

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🌼 A Tiled Base for a Street Pole — By Ememem in Reims, France 🇫🇷

Outside Bibliothèque Carnegie, white petals spread from the foot of a metal pole like a flower around its stem. Ememem fills damaged sidewalks with mosaic, and here the tiles creep into the gaps between the paving stones.

💡 Material Fact: For the Reims series, Ememem used reclaimed materials, including ancient mosaic pieces recovered during excavations at the Musée des Beaux-Arts.

More: Ememem’s Mosaic Repairs

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

Twelve retired red telephone boxes tip into one another along Old London Road. The last box seems to be the only one still holding on. David Mach installed Out of Order in 1989.

💡 Phone Fact: The boxes came from British Telecom. For the sculpture’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.

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🍏 The Son of Man as a Bollard — By OakOak

A round-topped bollard already looks like a man in a bowler hat. OakOak added a white collar, a red tie and a green apple, and Magritte’s The Son of Man now guards the curb.

💡 Art History Fact: René Magritte painted The Son of Man in 1964 as a self-portrait.

More: OakOak’s Street Surprises

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❤️ Very Hot — By OakOak

Two red fire standpipes lean toward each other on a white wall. A googly eye each, bent arms and two floating hearts turn the fire connections into a couple, and the title takes care of the pun.

💡 Artist Fact: OakOak comes from Saint-Étienne in France. Since 2007, streets, walls, sidewalks and roads have been his playground, and he leaves his drawings in the places he passes through.

More: OakOak’s Street Surprises

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🎵 Bob Marley on a Utility Box — By Tom Bob in New York City, USA 🇺🇸

The cables were already hanging there. Tom Bob painted Bob Marley’s face on the box and let the wires become his dreadlocks at Broadway and West 151st Street in Harlem. Below, a small body flashes a peace sign.

More: Tom Bob’s Clever Street Art

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🐸 A Frog at the Water’s Edge — By Tom Bob in Kaohsiung, Taiwan 🇹🇼

A rounded mooring bollard on the quay becomes a lime-green frog sticking out its tongue. Long painted frog toes spread across the concrete, as if it is about to hop into the harbor.

💡 Scouting Fact: Before flying to art festivals around the US, Tom Bob often scouts the host city on Google Street View, searching its neighborhoods for objects worth painting.

More: Tom Bob’s Clever Street Art

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