Council clean-up crew sees red in hilarious tit-for-tat battle with London graffiti artist Mobstr

They just saw red.

A graffiti artist engaged in a hilarious year-long battle with his local council’s clean-up crew - over a brick wall.

Mobstr said he’d cycled past the nondescript space in Dace Road, Tower Hamlets, London, for years before realising every time tags were painted in the red area it was buffed with red paint.

“However, graffiti outside of the red area would be removed via pressure washing,” he wrote on his website.

He decided to carry out an experiment.

“Unlike other works, I was very uncertain as to what results it would yield,” he added.

He began by painting the word “red” inside the red area. It was quickly buffed away. He repeated the trick several times, and on each occasion red paint was added to the bricks to cover it up.

Mobstr then went next level, by painting “red?” on a section of non-red wall. In line with his thinking, it was quickly hosed off.

He then added the words “pressure wash” onto the non-red wall and “paint red” onto the red section.

The red was buffed away, but the pressure wash words remained. He added a “what about this” and an arrow to the red section.

The tit-for-tat continued for several months, until council crews finally gave up - and painted the entire wall red.

Mobstr decided to have the last laugh, however, and added the following statement to the originally red section.

“Well, that’s one way to end it. Thanks mate, it’s been fun.”

More of Mobstr’s work can be seen on his website by clicking here.

A timelapse of the battle can be seen here.

(All pictures credited to Mobstr).