If you happen to be wandering the countryside walking the streets of ex-socialist towns and villages in Central or Eastern Europe, you may notice a similar decor on houses built in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. What you’re witnessing is DiY rebar art in its finest form.
Just like the case of the cabins beside Tisza River, we can admire how creative and imaginative people can be when they lack proper building materials. So what if you only have reinforcing bar, a.k.a rebar, to decorate your home? You use what you’ve got: cheap rusty rods of steel that you can curve and flex and weld into anything you want.
I often photograph these amateur, awkward, clumsy yet catching pieces of art, but when I came across a great Tumblr blog called Rebar/Pattern I realized I’m not the only one who loves these rural designs.
Krisztián, editor of the Rebar/Pattern blog, writes:
A rebar (short for reinforcing bar), is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete. Besides its functional purpose, it was used for metal mural works of the pseudo-socialistic era. These works, with their false optimistic scenes, decorated firewalls of buildings. Also, the well known home made objects of that era, like flower-racks, window grids, and fence ornaments used this material. These objects were typical examples of the DIY diversity in the socialist lack-economy.
Here comes a set of fine rebar art, based on my collection and the awesome work of Rebar/Pattern. And if you know similar pieces of decoration somewhere around you, please show us: post a photo of it in the comments. Rebar/Patter also eagerly accepts submissions of steel drawings from any post socialist country.
Oriental scenes on a fence in the former Luna Park of Budapest
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Riverside, large mural work on a wall
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Bucolic scene with sheep, shepherd, sunset in a restaurant
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Wall decoration
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Church doors
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Industrial wall decoration
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Cartoon fence
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Basic geometric window grids
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Amusement park decorations
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Symbol of fire
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Ornament in a public park
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Hairdresser windows
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Weekend houses
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Typical garden gate with catfish near Lake Balaton
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Window grid with sailing boats
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Pub windows
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
The Flintstones in Hungary
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Fence near Lake Balaton
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Canoeing
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Random geometrics
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Colourful fence
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Tulips
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Skittles
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Hammer, key, and cogwheel
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Illuminati!
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Hospital garden wall
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Tobacco shop
Photo: Rebar Pattern
A simple flower somewhere in Poland
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Bees? Airplanes? UFOs?
Photo: Rebar Pattern
A really nice swordfish (or narwhal)
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Organic
Photo: Rebar Pattern
Mimicking folk art
Photo: Rebar Pattern
