Belgian street art stalwart ROA’s video profile as brought to our attention by Sampa Graffiti is a pretty stunning piece of work. ROA is pretty distinctive much like all those at the forefront of the street art movement.

His animals first appeared in hidden areas of his native Ghent, such as under bridges and in off-the-beaten track areas. Since then ROA’s animals have spread to more and more overt regions of the cities he paints in, that include London, New York City and most recently at Cityleaks Festival in Cologne (see below – photo courtesy of Cityleaks). ROA cites his inspiration behind his paintings as repopulating the cityscape with animals, as a way of having them re-emerge into the space modern metropolises have since commandeered.

His paintings are so highly thought of that the attempted removal of one of his paintings in Hackney in 2010 was met with fierce opposition. The removal notice issued by the council was unclear as to how this was to be removed, and as such the owners of the building (upon which the piece was painted) opted to cover it. The rabbit remains in place and intact.

The video by Colin M Day has a great voice over of ROA’s words accompanying the visuals, of both outdoor work, and exhibition pieces as well as great camera work. The soundtrack doesn’t let the video down one little bit!

UKB