Street Stamp ​

Street Stamp has been an ongoing art project, started in 2012, which goes along a journey starting in Jerusalem, continuing in Toronto, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany and ending in Tel Aviv, examining the manhole\sewer covers that are implanted within the urban landscape. Those didn’t occur to us as a didactic source of the City.

 

We are used to carrying our heads up towards architecture and absorbing a city's character and culture while wandering around different cities. This project examines the nature and character of a city through the lower aspect of its landscape, the manholes scattered all over our daily view and around our living areas.

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The search after the different manholes uncovered a whole world full of information, formal and informative as to which type of foundation it covers, location, year manufactured, manufacturing workshop and production technology. As my project continued and my acquaintance with the cities deepened, it was fascinating to discover the cities' nature throughout the manholes. The graphics embedded on the Tel Aviv manholes describes the free, liberal city, while the manholes of Jerusalem express a conservative design suitable for a capital. The Toronto manholes tell us a story of a conservative city in a process of shifting to a vibrant continuum.

 

In this project I present the products of my research, street prints utilizing the manholes as printing plates, introducing street semantics to the house interior.

Furthermore, the prints leave a mark at the location of the manhole, attracting the attention of the people passing by the casted object.