The sides of the structure are painted from ground to roof, but peeling back layers of artwork reveals just how far back the building’s vibrant history goes.
“This is Doornroosje, the location where I took the piece from, “explains Paul De Graff. “It’s a Graffiti Hall of Fame in the city of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. What started as a 70’s Hippie cult place, became a center of music and art in the early 80’s.”
It was apparently “one of the first places where it was legal to smoke cannabis” and “the building is surrounded by walls that are all spray painted from top to bottom.”
And over its many years and various uses, the building has gathered coats of paint, which De Graff has deconstructed like a geological core sample (or piece of Fordite).
Like a good urban scientist (or someone trying to sell proof with a section of the Berlin Wall on the streets of Germany), he also shows people exactly where it came from, then includes a banana for scale.
