Sometimes it's the obvious ideas that turn out the best. Roadsworth takes the term "street art" literally, subverting the messages of road markings with the addition of basic stencils. Here's two galleries of his work.
At first glance, it'd be easy to dismiss Roadsworth's art as that of a naïve socialist discontent and, indeed, that's how he got his start, painting anti-car messages in his native Montreal. After his arrest in 2001 for vandalism, the art evolved, developing at once a more subversive message and a more sophisticated language. Instead of clichéd anti-car sentiments, Roadsworth's art rose to a new level, revealing hidden messages from our subconscious in the lane markings, crosswalks and other on-road symbols.
Pieces like "Shallow End" and "Deep End," for instance, remind us of the extreme risk involved with crossing a busy intersection that's become so everyday that its forgotten. Roadsworth's art is so well integrated into the infrastructure that it challenges our perceptions of that infrastructure's purpose, pedestrian crossings become fences, containing our natural inclinations rather than permitting safe street crossings. It's the subtlety and integration of the art that makes it so powerful. [Roadsworth via MC24]