Muristek
‘We’re in a post-truth apocalypse’: meet Foka Wolf, Birmingham’s billboard prankster
He ridicules the PM and offers penis enlargements to SUV drivers by hacking public adverts. The anonymous artist tells us why ‘people will believe anything’
What started, in 2018, as “a bit of a wind-up” quickly turned into a political act. Approaching 30 and after a string of self-described “menial” jobs post-art school (manual labourer, chalkboard writer and a brief two-week stint as a graphic designer), Birmingham-based Foka Wolf was restless. He stuck up a satirical advert that read, “Do you drive a 4x4, Jeep or Range Rover in the city? You could be entitled to FREE penis enlargement therapy on the NHS” and received several serious enquiries.
“People will believe anything if it’s packaged and polished in a certain way. That really worries me,” says the artist, whose name is an apparent play on Focke-Wulf, the German manufacturer of second world war fighter planes familiar to generations of model aircraft builders and who uses art to subvert the power and meaning of advertisements.
Continue reading...