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American Artist/Designer Chris Maestas (b.1984) has been interacting visually and physically with the urban environment of Los Angeles since his day as a graffiti writer and skateboarder starting in the early 2000s. Chris was deeply influenced by the transformation brought by the many different sub-cultural elements that Los Angeles underwent in the early 90s. He was particularly inspired by how the three-dimensional reality of the city was often dressed or transformed to express individuality based on influential subcultures. There was an urge to stand out. Over the years, these unique relationships of free-from styles of subcultures influenced his approach to capturing cultures through forms of art.

Plotting

The graffiti Vandal uses space to experience the city in a different but meaningful way, through self-mapping exercises, expressing the moments they experience through visual but non-verbal markers that many other community members do not communicate openly. Graffiti is a design exercise that encourages, whether or not it is actively participated in, stewardship with the urban landscape by finding liminal or in this case, Latent spaces as opportunities for communication, probing a reaction from the community.