Los Angeles artist ETMCA painted a coded poem (pictured above), chopped his painting into 18 pieces and hid the pieces in Venice, Italy bookstores.
You can read more about the project at ETMCA’s website:
In Discovery Art, any object can be a container of the Art, as long as the Art remains unseen until its intended discovery. It can be an object created by the artist (discovery art sculpture) or a pre-existing object, re-appropriated by the artist. The vehicle of choice used for the expression of choice may vary, as much as the artform(s) of choice, found within … in Venice, ITALY, I continue to explore the book as an unseen, “go-between” space, between the artist’s experience and the observer-collector’s experience. Art pieces may be discovered in one of the following bookstores: La Tolleta, Libreria Goldini, Libreria Acqua Alta and Studium.
Last year, ETMCA also painted a coded 20-line poem called “The Ones” across ten large canvases. The artist cut some of these paintings into pieces and hid the fragments in Los Angeles used bookstores so readers can discover his “message art” in the real world.
The project page includes a translation of the first five lines of the poem and digital images of the now-divided paintings. We’ve embedded the first painting above, which translates to: “This is for the ones that escaped, that live in defiance of the demise of a demographic.” Here’s more from the artist:
In the YouTube video embedded below, you can watch the artist paint the poem in his homemade “wildstyle” code and divide the canvas.