It's been a while since I took that picture, on one of my walks around the parts of Berlin that these days happen to be a bit further away. So instead of waiting any longer, I thought I'd post this very unusual mural, making use of hexagonal gesign.
Pixels Viewed from Far Away
The nice thing about pixels is that the further you view the image from, the sharper it gets. This offers itself as an ideal technique for large-scale murals such as this one, again on the empty side facade of a large urban building. However, the way this picture is painted, the pixels get so immense that you'd need to stand even further back, or maybe just squint your eye enough.
But then you'd be missing all the details! The image of a flower includes a bunch of smaller images on each of its hexagonal petals, such as a heart, a book, a broken chain, or the letters W and E. As for there meaning, I'd say it's completely up to individual interpretations. Maybe the letters are the artist's initials? I could not see any other indicator to who this piece was created by.
Do I Recognize the Style?
For some reason, the hexagonal shapes brought to mind another mural in Mexico I posted about a few years ago. Back then I was convinced I had recognized the Huitchol style art, where the hexagonal "peyote shaped" images dominate painting and sculpture. But now that I'm looking at those "DMT animals", as one of my readers called them, I have to acknowledge that it doesn't resemble Huitchol art as much ... as this pixellated mural in Berlin! I'm impressed!
If you want to see this mural with your own eyes, you can find it close to the corner of Elsenstraße and Karl-Kunger-Straße in the Alt-Treptow neighborhood of Berlin. The building is part of a Siemens complex, facing its fenced-off parking lot, which means you won't be able to get very close, but neither can taggers, who may want to add their own art on the more accessible lower sections.
As always, this post is my entry to CCC's Street Art Contest #144, and you can see more amazing street art from Berlin in my series The Walls of Berlin.