Refacing is a form of street art where artists “defile” public property in a way that is not permanent. Examples of this include yarn-bombing, sticker-slapping, and “reverse” graffiti. This trend came about when police began cracking down harder on graffiti artists. By making their art temporary, artists believed it could not be considered vandalism and they would therefore not get in trouble. Unfortunately, many policemen do still consider this type of art vandalism and illegal.

1. Refacing
Yarn-Bombing, Sticker Slapping, and
“Reverse” Graffiti

2. Refacing
“Its refacing, not defacing…Its very temporary. It glows and twinkles and
then fades away.”- Paul “Moose” Curtis
• Refacing is a form of street art where artists “defile”
public property in a way that is not permanent. Examples
of this include yarn-bombing, sticker-slapping, and
“reverse” graffiti.
• This trend came about when police began cracking down
harder on graffiti artists. By making their art temporary,
artists believed it could not be considered vandalism and
they would therefore not get in trouble.
• Unfortunately, many policemen do still consider this type
of art vandalism and illegal.

3. Sticker Art
•Sticker art is slapping stickers
(with your art on them) onto
public places.
•Signs, buildings, posts, cars,
mailboxes, etc
•Sticker art is one of the forms
of temporary vandalism less
tolerated by law enforcement
officers because it does take
some effort to remove the
stickers.
Miami, Florida http://www.streetartstickers.com/

4. B.N.E.
“I can’t do 500 tags in a day, but I can do 500 stickers.”
•
B.N.E is a more well-known
sticker artist.
•
His stickers, simply featuring
the letters BNE, are found all
over the world.
•
There are people who
constantly hunt for B.N.E
stickers and create blogs and
Flickr pages devoted solely to
him.
•
In San Francisco, there is a
$2,500 for the person behind
the B.N.E stickers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/us/17graffiti.html

5. Yarn-Bombing
•
Yarn-bombing is covering public objects
with knitting. This includes tree cozies, roof
blankets, telephone-booth sweaters, etc.
•
The movement started with a single event in
London in 2009 called Knit the City
•
Since then, the movement has become
worldwide. Now you can find knitting
covered objects almost anywhere.
•
Strangely, yarn-bombing is still considered
vandalism by police in most European
countries and the United States. However,
most knitting artists have only ever reported
getting warnings rather than arrests.
A knit street corner in New York City

6. Lauren O’Farrell
•
Lauren O’Farrell is the
founder of the Knit the City
organization in London.
•
She knit-bombs herself but
her most important
accomplishment in making
the movement more wellknown and globalized.
http://yarnbombing.com/files/2009/07/phonebox31.jpg

7. Reverse Graffiti
•
Reverse graffiti is when
artists carve into dirt or dust
already present on a
surface. Some artists just
use their fingers while other
artist use (environmentally
friendly) cleaning products.
•
Acceptance of this
particular form of street art
usually varies case by case.
http://www.dirtycarart.com/DCAGallery/slides/038_GWPE.html

8. Reverse Graffiti Artists
Scott Wade
•
Artist of dirtycarart.com
•
Scott is known for
recreating old masters
drawings in random dirty
car windshields
Paul “Moose” Curtis
•
An English reverse graffiti
artist who creates massive
murals in dirty places by
using GreenWorks cleaning
products and a wire brush.

9. http://www.dirtycarart.com/DCAGallery/index.html

10. http://feelgoodguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dirty-pictures.jpg

11. Bibliography