Invasive

Steed Taylor is an artist and activist from North Carolina. Community and survival are recurring themes in his work. He is inspired by his own experience of being diagnosed with AIDS. This diagnosis gave Taylor a new perspective on the importance of human relationships. His “road tattoos” are publicly accessible works of art. He paints them on sidewalks, trails, and streets so people can engage with them. 

[Road tattoos] repurpose a common, yet much loved and romanticized public space with additional meaning and significance.

Steed Taylor

Taylor’s road tattoos are created in stages. He first designs the pattern. Then he sketches the pattern on the ground using chalk. He paints words or phrases within the outline and then covers them with latex paint. Taylor often enlists volunteers to help him complete the chalk and paint stages. As weather and foot and bike traffic wear away the paint over time, his artwork slowly disappears.

In creating Invasive, Taylor painted the names of invasive plants that grow in the NCMA Park within the outline. He then painted over the names with black paint, to symbolically contain them. Invasive plants are plants that are not original to an area. They are often brought to new environments by human movement, either on purpose or not. These types of plants have negative effects on their new environment. 

The design for this work is based on floral fabric patterns from the 1600s. These types of fabrics were imported from India to Europe. During that time European countries took advantage of other countries, often importing luxury goods at cheap prices. This action harmed the local economies of less powerful countries, much like invasive species plants harm local plants.