INVADER ALERT: LONDON UNDER NEW INVASION
The legendary French street artist Invader has initiated a new chapter in his ongoing invasion with London. A recent wave of new works has appeared across the city, discreetly invading its architecture and streets throughout the night.
Created in his signature pixelated mosaics, these invasions continue Invader’s exploration of popular culture, cinematic memory, and urban mythology.
London invasion LDN_ Image copyright Invader.
New Sightings
Among the most compelling of the new works is a piece located on Goulston Street in the East End, where a striking Dracula figure materialises from the brickwork, situated inside his own window and balcony, with graffiti underneath. The location is perfect.
London invasion LDN_ Image copyright Invader.
Dracula is accompanied by a bat with glowing red eyes. The imagery is nocturnal and theatrical, invoking the gothic sensibility long associated with this part of the city.
London invasion LDN_Video copyright Invader.
A fox appears enjoying a hot drink, located beside a coffee shop, an enigmatic presence that roams the city’s streets. On social media, Invader offered a characteristically cryptic note: “Beware of the fox.”Whether read as a symbol of cunning, urban survival, or playful misdirection, the laid back fox suits the city’s streets.
London invasion LDN_179. Image copyright Invader.
Elsewhere, LDN_172 The Lovecat brings a moment of levity. Referencing pop iconography with warmth and restraint, the work softens the tone of the invasion while remaining firmly rooted in Invader’s unmistakable visual language.
London invasion LDN_172. Image copyright Invader.
In LDN_188, Invader turns to cinema again. A pixelated homage to Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange places cult film history directly onto the s, accompanied by the chilling refrain: “HI HI HI MY LITTLE DROOGIES.” Here, dark humour meets cultural provocation, an approach that has come to define Invader’s practice. Familiar imagery is recontextualised, rendered playful yet unsettling through the rigid geometry of the mosaic form.
London invasion LDN_188 Image copyright Invader.
The City as Game
Invader’s latest London invasion is most fully experienced through Flash Invaders, the artist’s bespoke app that transforms the act of looking into a participatory game. Flash Invaders is an evolving archive where discovery, movement, and attention are translated into points. The city becomes playable, and the viewer becomes an active agent within the work.
Read more here.
Invader’s latest London wave impact is cumulative and adds to over 4000 invasions worldwide, from the International Space Station to the depths of the ocean in Cancun. Each mosaic adds to a larger network of encounters, logged, scored, and part of the bigger game. The world is being invaded, mapped, played, and rewritten, one pixel at a time.
Look closely. Stay alert. And above all. Beware of the fox. 🦊