Clever Shirts and Bags Directly Imprinted With Ink Casts Made From Drain Covers Across Europe

German artist collect Raubdruckerin uses the often overlooked unique beauty of manhole drain covers, sewer grids and other embedded street designs as their vast medium that directly connect imprint their wonderful shirts and bags with a thin sheet of ink. All printing is done on-the-spot, so the act of casting the design becomes a separate but related visual experience. So far the group has hit Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Paris, but hope to cover more ground soon.

Raubdruckerin uses existing surfaces such as grids, concrete and manhole cover as a stamp to produce so graphical footprints. Seemingly banal, incidental and overlooked things is thus her pictorial-graphic term “elicits”. Mainly cast iron manhole covers are used to print on to clothes and paper. These neglected city art surprise us in their diversity, creativity of design and the careful integration into their surroundings. …Almost all print works are directly on the print object in public space instead and thus have a performative character. You are invited to meetings and conversations about perception, places and objects. Spectators and passersby are to be sometimes spontaneously invited print their clothes!

via Quipsologies, Colossal

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.