Mysterious Wichita artist’s roadside signs reappear over weekend

Kanbee, the anonymous artist responsible for those odd cut-out signs by Wichita roads, is at it again.

Over the weekend, new colorful roadside signs popped up around town, east-side drivers observed.

The signs are the work of Kanbee, an anonymous Wichita-based artist who takes old political signs or yard signs that are thrown away and converts them into custom-cut line drawings.

Earlier this summer, the signs proliferated by Wichita roads but were eventually taken down, as county sign enforcers say they technically violate sign codes by virtue of their placement in public rights-of-way.

Temporary signs – which encompasses Kanbee’s art, going out of business signs and liquor-store sale ads – cannot be placed in the city’s public property between sidewalks and the road, technically.

Every few months, the signs tend to reappear, destined to disappear again soon thereafter – making them the sand mandalas of Wichita art installations, so to speak.

Kanbee, whom the Eagle contacted through a third party, declined an interview request earlier this summer, but provided an artist’s statement scrawled on a piece of notebook paper:

“I draw humans, stripped of all distinctions, ready to be interpreted and collaborated with by a world of hearts. I use mystery and wonder as tools to meet the challenge of exposing my figures to every single heart I can. Materials appropriated from many origins including the divisive are available for my bending to express. My art moves me to make a difference – Kanbee.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2017 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Mysterious Wichita artist’s roadside signs reappear over weekend."