Gorilla Upskirts hijacks Philadelphia's visual landscape with a series of fake signs and satirical street interventions that blur the line between urban prank and social commentary. Operating anonymously since around 2010, the project specializes in creating counterfeit notices that look just official enough to catch your eye before their absurdist content reveals the joke1.
Their signature style involves creating parody versions of familiar urban signage—reimagined "We Buy Houses" advertisements with bizarre propositions, mock parking regulations for mythical creatures, and faux service flyers promising impossible solutions to everyday problems. South Philly's streets serve as their primary canvas, with pieces documented on their website showing installations throughout neighborhoods like Queen Village and South Street corridors1.
One recurring character in their work is "Huggie Butterworth," who appears in various fictional service advertisements—from "Madame Huggie" offering hexing services to "Huggie's Ex-purr-minators" featuring pest control cats. These pieces are typically wheat-pasted or posted in public spaces, creating temporary disruptions in everyday urban visual flow that force double-takes from passersby1.
Gorilla Upskirts maintains a website that documents their installations throughout Philadelphia neighborhoods, creating an archive of work that might otherwise be lost as these street pieces naturally disappear over time1.
