Radical Ephemera artworks are one-of-a-kind pieces by Blinks Friction (FRIX), created on reclaimed books and posters that were originally surplus, damaged, or destined for disposal. Rather than obscuring the source material entirely, the original imagery is deliberately left visible beneath layers of torn paper textures, stencilled symbols, and hand-applied paint — allowing the past life of the object to remain present within the finished piece.
At the centre of the Love Sick composition, a roughly cross-shaped field of distressed white evokes improvised repair, protest posters, or emergency bandaging. It is also a sigil, a grafitti code from the Book of Immersion by the Dinfants. Onto this surface, FRIX applies stark black and red iconography: a headphone-clad figure, a silhouetted body shedding heart-like fragments, graphic lips, and a raw, expressionistic religious image. The words LOVE and SICK flank the central figure, creating a visual tension between desire, belief, consumption, and exhaustion.
The work deliberately juxtaposes pop-culture spectacle with human fragility. Familiar cinematic imagery fades into the background while the surface intervention feels urgent, handmade, and confrontational — more akin to street action or radical pamphleteering than traditional fine art. Creases, abrasions, and imperfections are not corrected; they are integral to the piece, functioning as a record of both material survival and cultural overload.
Ethos & Process
This artwork is part of the Blink Friction project — an ongoing initiative launched in 2020 by Sarnia de la Maré to address the vast quantities of surplus, damaged, and discarded materials generated by the fashion, print, and promotional industries. Blink Friction began with a fashion-led art show built entirely from reclaimed and unusable stock, reframing waste as both medium and message while actively supporting eco-conservation values through reuse rather than reproduction.
Within this framework, FRIX operates as a brand artist identity dedicated to Radical Ephemera: works that exist at the intersection of protest, pop archaeology, and sustainable practice. Each piece is materially singular — shaped by whatever object has been rescued — and conceptually resistant to mass replication. No two works can be repeated, because the source materials themselves are finite.
Brand & Legacy
FRIX is presented as an autonomous creative identity, allowing Blink Friction to evolve as a platform for future collaborators while maintaining a consistent visual and ethical language. For collectors, this means early FRIX works sit at the foundation of a growing, protected art brand — with clear provenance tracing back to the original Blink Friction launch and its founding principles.
Please note:
• This artwork is supplied rolled for safe shipping
• Frame shown in images is for display purposes only
• Surface irregularities, creases, and marks are intentional and form part of the work’s character
• One-of-a-kind — no reproductions
Embedded throughout Radical Ephemera are elements from the Blink Friction Sigil System — a developing visual language that functions as both mark-making and meaning. These sigils are not decorative motifs; they operate as symbolic residues, recurring across works in altered forms, scales, and contexts.
Each sigil is intentionally open-coded rather than fixed, designed to shift meaning depending on its placement, orientation, and relationship to the reclaimed surface beneath it.
In this work, the sigils reference:
• Transmission & Interference — headphones, mouths, and fractured text suggest the overload of broadcast culture and the distortion of intimacy in mass media
• Consumption & Shedding — the falling heart-forms imply emotional depletion, desire commodified, or belief systems breaking away from the body
• Faith, Icon, and Collapse — the raw religious imagery is treated as a cultural artifact rather than doctrine, positioned alongside pop spectacle to question what society venerates, discards, or repurposes
• Repair & Resistance — the cross-like field of torn white paper echoes emergency repair, protest wheat-pasting, and ritual covering, reinforcing the ethos of salvage and survival
The sigils act as anchors — visually arresting points that recur across the Blink Friction ecosystem, allowing viewers who look deeper to trace connections between works, eras, and contributors.
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Authorship & Continuity
While FRIX operates as a distinct artist identity within Blink Friction, the Sigil System provides continuity across the wider project. Introduced at the launch of Blink Friction in 2020 by Sarnia de la Maré, the sigils form part of the project’s foundational language — one that allows multiple creators to contribute while preserving a coherent ethical and visual spine.
As Blink Friction evolves, sigils may be reinterpreted, fragmented, or obscured, but their presence signals participation in a shared lineage:
radical reuse, cultural interrogation, and eco-conscious creation through reclaimed matter.
Collectors encountering early FRIX works are therefore acquiring not only a singular artwork, but a piece of the formative visual grammar of the Blink Friction project.
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