Everybody seems to love them or hate them in equal measure. But what would the internet world be without its quickly tinkered, highly catchy and sometimes slightly silly GIF creations? Right, a tad bit poorer in hilarious stuff. For a good few years now, Shoreditch-based designer INSA takes this internet spirit to a whole new artistic level and became an illustrious name in street art circles, turning his graffiti pieces into hypnotising digital animations: Painting, photographing, painting over, photographing, and all over again. With these ‘GIF-ITI’s, how he calls them, the artist deliberately vaults the streets and façades of London, Miami or Shanghai onto our screens, conveniently playing into the hands of those who more and more turn to the countless tumblr sites and art blogs for inspiration.
After generating a buzz in the media with his large-scale murals, such as Stanley Donwood’s animated ‘Atoms for Peace’ album artwork in L.A. or the ‘Make Your Own Way’ collaborative GIF-ITI during last year’s Art Basel in Miami, INSA dared to have a crack at his yet most ambitious project. Well, I wouldn’t say he tried to break the internet that way. He simply pulled off the world’s largest animated GIF in Rio de Janeiro, using four paintings measuring a total of 57,515m2, photographed from an Airbus Pleiades satellite 431 miles above the Earth. The sky is the limit, my friends.
To wrap up, check out this beautifully shot making-of video. Enjoy!
INTOSHALLOWDEPTHS 