Urban Mimics

Urban Mimics (composition from the English to mimic + suffix “-s”) is a group of photographic artists whose primary goal is to become connected the world around us though the blending of the human body with the urban landscape. This leads to the visual integration or camouflage of a subject with his/her environment. Influenced by visual artists such as Liu Bolin and Emma Hack, Urban Mimics have adopted this form of artistic camouflage in creating a new vision of the way we interact with our surroundings.
Influences from the visual arts
The work of Chinese artist Liu Bolin can be seen to adopt the similar artistic principles as by Urban Mimics, who in turn has been influenced by his work. By painting the clothes of his human subject, he makes them visually disappear into the environment. In doing so he creates an almost surreal blending of the subject within his/her surroundings, which he captures through photography. Central to his work is the perfect visual merging of the urban landscape with the subject, and in doing so shares the common philosophy associated with the Urban Minic’s artistic movement.
Desiree Palmen, a Dutch artist who creates cotton suits designed for subjects to literally disappear into the environment.
Emma Hack, she has taken bodypainting to another level. She uses the human body as a canvas and by incorporating the background gives the illusion of a flat surface in which the subject is camouflaged by the wallpaper.
Influence from the movies
The Urban Mimic art form has also been influenced by the classic cinematic technique used to camouflage a subject within their environment, usually for the purpose of going unseen in order to avoid a potential danger or to plan a surprise attack. This can be achieved through the use of camouflaged clothing or mimicking the surroundings in order to become a natural extension of the environment, tricking the intended victim and sometimes also the cinema audience.
A good example can be seen in The Mummy Returns, where the protagonists are attacked by mummified pygmies.
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) deceives the audience through bodypaint to give the illusion that his eyes are open.
In the movie Garden State, Urban Mimicking is used as a design element.
Urban Mimics as an urban trend phenomenon
Urban Mimics is an artistic movement, similar to other movements such as cultural jamming or cultural hacking, which also aim to artificially transform the environment around us and promoted using modern social media networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.
Urban Mimics in the press
* National German Newspaper Die Zeit published an article featuring photos from the Urban Mimics.
* National Austrian Newspaper The Gap published an article about Urban Mimics and artists who practice it.

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