Stickers, or slaps, are small but formidable graphic and text messages, especially when massed together on a doorway or light pole. They are also fast and surreptitiously placed, as simple as a gesture, undetectable in their ease of application.
A board covered with stickers at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Begun exclusively perhaps as vehicles for handwritten or hand drawn missives, usually the tag of an artist, today they are often mass produced and designed on a screen, commercially printed on stock that is weatherproof, yet crumbles into pieces when you try to remove it. Personal and political are often on display, as well as that eternal graffiti impulse to simply spread your name.
Phil (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stickers and their creation, distribution, and collection are a culture unto themselves, with fans mounting massive sticker shows and books tracing historical roots and telling stories. On the street, just one sticker can alter your day. Because you know it is made and placed by an individual and not a corporation, it feels like a personal message. Because it is small enough for you to get close to, it becomes intimate.
Here is a selection of recent images of stickers caught by our editor of photography, Jaime Rojo, for BSA readers to get up close to.
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Above (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Elle (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cash4 and Smells with friends in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
El sol25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Where is He? (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist…YES!!! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
45 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Fonki World (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dceve . Croma . Above . J0eg (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Detail of the fridge door at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Ukrainian duo Interesni Kazki are as understated in person as they are fantastic in their illustrative paintings. Aleksei Bordusov and Vladimir Manzhos may offer insight into their process and themati...
In Stavanger, Norway the Nuart Festival, in all its firey activist rebellious street-smart community-powered glory, is well underway; a chain-reaction of events and actions that ignite throughout th...
“Gouzou” are on the loose in Grigny, thanks to their creator, French graffiti writer and muralist JACE. JACE. Wall Street Art Festival 2019. Grigny, France. (photo © Galerie MathGoth) A childr...
This week BSA is in Madrid to capture some highlights on the street, in studio, and at Urvanity 2019, where we are hosting a 3 day "BSA TALKS" conference called "How Deep Is the Street?" Come wit...
“I didn’t get invited to paint anywhere this winter so I made my own street art trip,” says Labrona of his new wheat-pastes in Portugal. “It’s sort of a throw back to before mural festivals, when we j...