0:51How the \u2018Banksy of Baltimore\u2019 earned that rep<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been called the \u201cBanksy of Baltimore,\u201d gaining notoriety for the wire street art installations he constructs, possibly illegally, in the Maryland city and throughout the D.C. area. And like Banksy, the world-renowned, England-based street artist whose murals are highly regarded for their political commentary, Reed Bmore aims to make a statement with his art.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy entire existence is political,\u201d he\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cEverything that I represent and even the things that I create are because I want to rebel against these systems that tell us something that we are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he acknowledges the nickname, Reed Bmore\u2019s work is distinct from his anonymous counterpart. When it comes to their art, there\u2019s no mistaking his metallic wire creations, which hang innocuously from traffic lights like ornaments, for Banksy\u2019s graffiti.<\/p>\n
It takes three things to mold his work \u2014 galvanized steel wire from the hardware store, a really good set of pliers and \u201carthritis,\u201d which he said was a reminder for himself to take a break. Because while some of his designs can take just a few minutes to make, some take a few days, depending on the details or the subject matter.<\/p>\n
Reed Bmore (a nom de guerre) has been operating as an artist for nearly 17 years and leaving his wire installations around Charm City, the D.C. region, and other parts of the world since 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do street art to get a broader message out there, and the broader message is there\u2019s people there that are in power who are fully taking advantage of all of us in the system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Reed Bmore’s wire art conveys a powerful message<\/p>\n
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He hung a wire sculpture of the character Healthy Holly tied\u00a0up outside of city hall in April 2019<\/a>,\u00a0amid allegations of fraud against\u00a0former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, the author\u00a0of the Healthy Holly books. Pugh\u00a0was sentenced in 2020 to three years for fraudulently selling her self-published children\u2019s books to nonprofit organizations to promote her political career, The Associated Press reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last June, after the details of President Donald Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s efforts to cover up the Epstein files were revealed, Reed Bmore said he would consider displaying the names of the victims or any of the people whose names appeared\u00a0in the files. It\u2019s a long list, and he said there are a lot of traffic lights in D.C.<\/p>\n He would need a lot of wire.<\/p>\n Under the wire of the law<\/p>\n Reed Bmore has come up with a system to get his wire sculpture in hard-to-reach and high-traffic spaces.<\/p>\n He\u2019s got a design similar to a carabiner that he uses to clip\u00a0his work\u00a0to wires and traffic lights.\u00a0His carabiner system\u00a0makes it easy\u00a0to put up his wire sculptures, but\u00a0it would require a cherry picker to take them down.\u00a0He has used a ladder and climbed on top of cars.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever you can to just figure it out at that moment. The most important part is you got to stay\u00a0agile. You have to be accommodating to the environment that you\u2019re in and just work around it,\u201d\u00a0Reed Bmore said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said he hasn\u2019t been ticketed so far.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could get away with a lot especially with being a Filipino, especially with being like an overlooked race in America, by just putting on a reflective vest. You just put on a reflective vest, and nobody gives a s\u2014,\u201d\u00a0Reed Bmore said.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019d be plum surprised about the amount of people who didn\u2019t even look up to seem interested, whenever I was just installing a piece right in front of them. They\u2019ll look up and then they go right back to their phone.\u201d<\/p>\n toggle audio on and off<\/p>\n How Reed Bmore hides in plain sight to install his art<\/p>\n \n 0:54\n <\/p>\n \u2018I found myself constantly trying to tone myself down\u2019<\/p>\n Adopted from an orphanage in Manila, Philippines, Reed Bmore was raised in a \u201cvery American household\u201d in Maryland. His interest in art started at a young age, eventually leading him to the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he studied environmental design work.<\/p>\n He said he\u2019s only really known an \u201cAmerican lifestyle,\u201d except for holidays when his \u201ctitos\u201d and \u201ctitas\u201d would come over from Virginia Beach with trays of lumpia, puto and other Filipino desserts.<\/p>\n When he was about 14, his dad let him graffiti his room, even buying him the spray cans. But he also hears his father in the back of his head telling him to be as humble as he can.<\/p>\n \u201cWe try to be nonchalant Filipinos, but it\u2019s in our blood to be \u2018chalant,’\u201d Reed Bmore said. \u201cI found myself constantly trying to tone myself down.\u201d<\/p>\n His artwork is the only area where Reed Bmore doesn\u2019t feel an urge to subdue his true chalantness, he said.<\/p>\n He is a generation that\u2019s far removed from Filipino culture, and he said what he represents\u00a0as a Filipino American artist is what happens when \u201ccolonization wins.\u201d<\/p>\n Although his street art aims to send a broader message about humanity, politics or power, sometimes\u00a0he just likes to remind his friends all over the country that he\u2019s been where they often pass by.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll just go over and put something up just for, I guess, the foot traffic, and so it would be like a nice little, maybe, inside joke between both of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He is at a point in his life when he said he is trying to be a little bit more grateful about\u00a0making a piece and installing it.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce I have it up there and I put it out to the public, it\u2019s not mine anymore. Technically, it is not mine,\u201d he said. \u201cJust making sure that I cover my bases and I get a good photo of it afterward. It\u2019s\u00a0all that really matters to me.\u201d<\/p>\n