Milan-based street artist Fra.Biancoshock creates playful “urban interventions” that are designed to disrupt the monotony of everyday life and to provide passersby with unconventional experiences. Using the urban jungle as his canvas, the mysterious artist creates site-specific installations that are at times humorous or startling, but always clever and imaginative. In Fra.Biancoshock’s world, discarded tires are given new life as a Nessie-like sea monster, a port-a-potty becomes a juice box with the addition of a straw, and a crumbling wall is patched up with a gigantic band-aid.
Although the artist’s works appear quite lighthearted, many of them raise serious questions about themes like poverty, urban decay, capitalism, modern stress, and nature. This is especially apparent in works like the performance piece featuring two homeless men dining in a dumpster, flowers and a card commemorating the death of a tree, and an angel figurine sleeping on the street with an empty beer bottle beside it.
Fra.Biancoshock’s creations are centered around Ephemeralism, an avant-garde artistic movement that he says “has the purpose of producing works of art that have to exist briefly in space but limitlessly in time.” He explains, “It is based on the impermanence of an experience that demands to be carved into the observer’s mind, even though it is no longer visible.”
