da-eYe, looking around and blinking

1986 – 2026

da-eYe

Forty years of watching.

The observing eye

da-eYe is the observing eye of the World of Sama. Max Dana first drew him on the walls of Paris in 1986. Whenever a graffiti caught her eye, she left da-eYe beside it, with a wink and always the same message: “I was there, I've seen you and your work.”

He was a nod from one passer-by to another, a sign of approval left for whoever had painted there first, and never a tag claiming the wall.

Nothing was kept

A graffiti is meant to disappear: painted over, washed away, buried under the next one. A few photographs of da-eYe were taken at the time. None of them has survived, and none of the walls either.

What remains are the places.

After the walls

In the early 1990s, after the wall of rue de Verneuil, da-eYe left the street. He moved into the World of Sama: into Max Dana's drawings, the pages of The Sama Gazette, and the Sama Airship, where da-eYe Jr. now travels the Many Worlds with Max Von Sama.

Mr. da-eYe is forty now. Still watching, still noticing, still there.

Seen everywhere

Off the walls, da-eYe never stopped watching. He turns up on canvas, on a coat, on an old door, underfoot, and in places that may or may not exist. Wherever you look, he has probably seen you first.

A brush finishing a large black and white da-eYe on a white canvas
First StrokeOn canvas.
A giant da-eYe on a weathered wall covered in graffiti, with the words da-eYe is watching you
da-eYe Over the WallAn imagined wall.
da-eYe spray-painted on an old wooden door, with paint drips
Spray & StareVirtual spray on an old door.
da-eYe painted on cracked asphalt, crossed by tire marks
UnderfootWatch your step.
A hooded black coat seen from behind, with a large da-eYe patch on the back
Always WatchingOn a coat, walking away.
A black vinyl art toy with da-eYe's white crescent across its face
VinylAs an art toy.
A sprayed da-eYe on a concrete block in an empty industrial hall
A Vision in ConcreteIn an empty hall.
Mr. da-eYe, drawn by Max Dana
Mr. da-eYeForty, and still watching.

Lending an eye

Long after the walls, da-eYe kept showing up where it mattered, for causes Max Dana cares about and for the people who inspired her.

da-eYe on two bare feet beside a pledge to fight poverty and stand for universal human rights
Barefoot Against PovertyHuman Rights Day, December 10, 2010, for the Every Human Has Rights campaign.
da-eYe beside the gate of Serge Gainsbourg's house, with the words da-eYe was here in 1991, he is again in 2011, Gainsbourg forever
Back on the wall, virtuallyRue de Verneuil, twenty years after Gainsbourg's death, March 2011.
A child's drawing of da-eYe surrounded by colorful circles, with his name written three times
Drawn by kidsWorld Kids Coloring Day, May 2011. All they needed was a compass and a ruler.
da-eYe wearing a black curled moustache for Movember
MovemberNovember 2011, growing a moustache for men's health.
“I was there, I've seen you and your work.”
da-eYe