M

Poster Origin :	Germany
Poster Size :	German A1 / 594 x 841mm
Poster Year :	1994
Poster Version :	Re-Release
Film Origin :	Germany
Film Director :	Fritz Lang
Film Year :	1933

Country of OriginEnquire

This piece has to be seen in person to be appreciated - the photomontage and the credits are litho-printed as expected, but the large pink ‘M’ has been entirely applied afterwards by hand, sprayed onto the poster with fluorescent aerosol paint.

Drawing upon the film’s use of ‘branding’ to identify the killer, and translating that to a graffito defacement across the middle is a triumph of conceptual ingenuity. The Blek-inspired stencil ‘vandalism’ denotes a hidden menace plaguing the city, a most satisfying analogy for this dark chiller.

The texture and vibrancy of this technique couldn’t have been achieved on a printing press - the atomised paint particles create an earthy quality, gritty, unrefined and beautifully tactile. By virtue of this, each copy is unique; the larger paint spots on this copy where the aerosol has spluttered won’t be the same on any other.

Somebody somewhere had the good sense to sanction this very lavish embellishment, and allow the designer’s vision to realise its full potential.