French urban artist Invader (previously covered by Tile Addict here) is still going strong around the globe: now having ‘hit’ over 75 cities world-wide.  Although predominantly active in Europe, he has also tagged as far East as Tokyo, and as far West as Los Angeles, as well as hitting the Auzzies down South.

He started his global invasion with a very apparent focus on the characters of video games, which perfectly lent themselves to the pixelated look of square tiles, but now he also creates unique motifs and designs with completely disparate references and inspirations.

Invader’s description of his work comes as no surprise given its origin.  For him, the tile-tagging is a game of invasion.  He aims to give each new invaded city 20 to 50 new individual artworks, tagging new spaces, and upping his score.  The count to date is 77 cities hit, and a total of 3,724 invaders installed.

Cities that have previously been hit are still fair game for further invasion in what he calls ‘invasion waves’.  Since Tile Addict’s last post in 2017, LA has undergone its 9th and 10th wave after it was first hit in 1999.  Today the city is graced by 29 more fantastic pieces, and a further 14 were added during the installation of “Into the white cube“, including cultural icon the Dude.

Bhutan was also hit in 2018, with 11 pieces inspired by Buddhist monks and other motifs from the region; as was first-timer Cap-Ferret on the French West Coast, a subtle addition in Versailles, and Hong-Kong, which received its 7th invasion.

Discover Invader’s full map here.

A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, March 2019.