Roadsworth, when street art reinvents the culture of oil and cars

    Pedestrian crossings in the shape of footprints or bullets, scissors that cut the streets, zips that close the road markings, barbed wire to lock the parking lots. A very unusual protest against oil addiction and car culture. It is the one created by the Canadian Peter Gibson, aka Roadsworth, a street artist who, spray paint and stencil in hand, creates urban works of art in protest against "oil-friendly" culture, following the desire to have more bike paths in the city. The aim is to leave a "mark" on the streets of Montreal to send a clear and strong message: we need to make room for a lifestyle less dependent on black gold, where the bicycle can play the lion's share.



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    Pedestrian crossing in the shape of footprints or bullets, scissors that cut the streets, zips that close the road markings, barbed wire to lock the parking lots. A very unusual protest against oil addiction and the culture ofauto. It is the one the Canadian gave birth to Peter Gibson, a.k.a. Roadsworth, uno street artist which, spray paint and stencil in hand, creates urban contest artwork against the "oil-friendly" culture, following the desire to have more bike paths in the city. The aim is to leave a "mark" on the streets of Montreal to send a clear and strong message: we need to make room for a lifestyle less dependent on black gold, where the bicycle can play the lion's share.



    After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Peter strongly believed that there was "a discrepancy between our consumerist lifestyle - particularly related to oil - and the effects it was having around the world", explains the artist. The connection between the attacks and our passive acceptance of car culture in his head was clear. For this reason he decided, with the help of a spray can, to vent his frustration on the asphalt, unknowingly giving life to a real art form.

    “The idea was that pedestrians were losing control. That giant footprint meant we had to reclaim the streets, ”says Peter. Thus was born his original and humorously bitter "pedestrian street art", which became, over the years, more and more abstract and more subversive, with drawings of flowers and windmills on the asphalt and his "shadow demon" maliciously perched on the lines of roads, a real "trademark".

    Roadsworth, when street art reinvents the culture of oil and cars

    Roadsworth, when street art reinvents the culture of oil and cars

    But the fun did not last long, abruptly interrupted in the early hours of 29 November 2004, when Gibson was arrested by the police while painting on the street, charged with 85 counts of public harm. Only by admitting he was guilty did he manage to avoid jail and pay only about 250 dollars in fines, compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars demanded by the prosecution.

    An "intense" experience that forced him to earn a living alone creating commissioned and legal works. Because, having lost his anonymity, Gibson declares that he has stopped creating urban works in Montreal. But it seems that he does not disdain occasional bombing in other cities. Nor do we take advantage of every opportunity to talk about the oil that is imbued in our culture: "it is easy to point the finger, to blame governments and corporations for the ills of the world, but, in reality, we all participate in it".



    Roadsworth, when street art reinvents the culture of oil and cars

    Why a cyclist does not consume gasoline and, therefore, it does not contribute to oil conflicts or even to pollution of the atmosphere or noise. This is why we need to recapture the streets, a public space that belongs to everyone, not to cars, transforming the "signals" of protest into tangible and real signs.

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