The Decapitator

The Decapitator, an anonymous graffiti artist who has been attacking ads in London, Sao Paulo, and Paris, has arrived in New York--and, just this week, heads have started to roll!


photos from my flickr

In June, Environmental Graffiti wrote, "Kissing couples, beautiful models and aspiring celebs have all come under ‘the East London decapitator’s’ knife; their beautiful heads replaced by bony, blood drenched stumps. His artworks are defined by the media as culture jamming or sub-vertising, which Wikipedia describes as, ‘the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements in order to make a statement.'"



In these photos taken on 23rd Street in Chelsea, the Decapitator has claimed the head of Shakira. Looking at a nearby original, pre-decapitation, you can see how the Decapitator has meticulously prepared a perfect puzzle piece that fits the shoulders and removes the entire head, adding vivid blood spatter to the title text.

Now, the Decapitator steps up his/her game with a special issue of this bloody Rolling Stone, planted at Barnes & Noble in Union Square.



Wired compares the graffiti to the works of Ron English and The Splasher. It's an exciting innovation in culture jamming.

However, as Words & Pictures noted, the Decapitator "targets women over men by a five to one ratio." They wonder if the graffiti artist is a "Psycho who hates women or activist stickin' it to the Man?"

An unsettling thought. What do you think? Take a look at the entire oeuvre on the Decapitator's Flickr page--and don't miss the masterpiece in which Carrie Bradshaw carries her own head, Medusa-style, in a Sex & the City billboard.