If you were to fire an arrow randomly into the Brighton sky, chances are it’d return to earth stuck in a wall decorated by Aroe. Perhaps the longest serving member of the Brighton graffiti community (he started writing in 84), the Heavy Artillery member has had a hand in nearly all the big legal pieces around town, either through organising the work or painting it himself. But surely his seminal work is this two-storey melding of Star Wars and b-boy culture, typical of his modern take on the 80s. It’s a look that got him invited to California’s legendary MSK graf crew, who are no strangers to huge work.
Like much of his graff it’s a piece so huge that if you walk on the same side of Ditchling Road you can miss it. It’s been around for ages now but for our Outdoors Issue we wanted to make sure everyone had caught up with this work of art as the building has been sold and will be ripped down soon. Go and say goodbye to this modern icon of Brighton.
WORDS AND PHOTO BY JAMES KENDALL