Gone but not Forgotten ep.3: Phlegm’s Vanished Oslo Mural
Some murals disappear loudly, under scaffolding, redevelopment, or a sudden coat of municipal beige. Another story of a mural gone but not forgotten.
Phlegm ’s long‑standing black‑and‑white mural in Oslo belongs to the latter category: a work that lived a full life, became part of the city’s daily rhythm, and then simply… left the building.
Created during the ARDPOP‑UP Festival* in Oslo, a historic, small‑scale street art and graffiti event held in November 2012, organised by All Rights Destroyed (ARD) and dot dot dot, this monochrome mural by Phlegm once stood as a quiet but unmistakable landmark in the city’s urban landscape.
Its absence didn’t go unnoticed. Several Street Art Cities users flagged the mural as disappeared through the platform’s social features '(as shown in screenshot below), prompting a wave of memories, questions, and a renewed appreciation for the piece. In many ways, the community itself became the first archive of its loss.
What remains now is memory, both collective and personal. And in true Phlegm fashion, that’s exactly where he believes the real value of a mural resides.
Local and hunter Per Haram recalls the mural:
“I love those intricate black-and-white worlds he creates. For me it'll be missing that quiet storytelling vibe it added to the area around Brenneriveien. Brenneriveien has been known for more than 30 years for a important scene for graffiti an the later years streetart.”
A winter wall, a first snow, and a Brazilian Without a Coat
Phlegm remembers painting the Oslo mural vividly. It was the city’s first proper snowfall of the year, the kind that blankets everything, including the artist’s lift, faster than you can clear it.
He wasn’t painting alone. Among the group was an artist from Brazil, experiencing snow for the very first time. He hadn’t even brought a proper coat. The scene reads like a comic panel from one of Phlegm’s own books: a surreal, slightly absurd moment of camaraderie, cold fingers, and shared creativity.
These are the kinds of memories that stick with him, not the finished wall, but the lived moment of making it.
“I’ve always seen murals as an alternative to a coat of paint.”
When asked whether he knew the mural had been removed, Phlegm’s answer is disarmingly simple: he doesn’t keep track.
For him, murals are not monuments. They’re not meant to be preserved like relics or guarded as legacy pieces. They’re expressions of energy, alive in the moment of creation, and then released.
“I’m happy for my work to last until the building needs a new coat. I like its ephemeral nature.”
It’s a perspective that often surprises people, especially those who lived with the mural for years. For locals, the piece became a landmark, something woven into their daily walk to the nearby art school or the big art shop around the corner. But for Phlegm, the attachment ends the moment the lift comes down.
The natural life cycle of a wall
Does the loss sting? Not really.
Phlegm compares it to aging: not always pleasant, but undeniably natural.
“Street art and muralism isn’t the pursuit of artists after some sort of immortality. I see it as a living, breathing artform moving with us.”
His work has always embraced impermanence. Growing up painting in abandoned buildings, he learned early that walls are temporary companions. The moment of completion is the true reward; everything after that is a bonus.
Even the durability of his black‑and‑white palette, surprisingly stable in the sun, was never chosen with longevity in mind.
What should be remembered?
If there’s anything Phlegm hopes people carry with them now that the mural is gone, it’s not the image itself. It’s the way the mural became part of someone’s life.
“When I hear of people growing up and moving away and the mural was on their everyday walk… it becomes a little core memory for that time and place.”
Street art at its best becomes a backdrop to personal history. The Oslo mural did exactly that.
Documenting the ephemeral: a time machine for walls
With the mural now part of Oslo’s past, tools like Street Art Cities’ new Timeline feature take on a special significance. Phlegm appreciates the idea of treating streets like living archives,places where layers of tags, murals, and overpaints form a fast‑moving visual history.
“It’s an ephemeral artform, so documenting and assessing its ever‑changing tapestry is important.”
The Timeline doesn’t try to freeze murals in time. Instead, it acknowledges their movement, how they appear, fade, and make room for what comes next.
And thanks to the community flagging the Oslo mural’s disappearance, its story now has a proper place in that evolving record.
A wall that lived well
Phlegm’s Oslo mural may be gone, but it lived a long (almost a decade), meaningful life. It weathered snowstorms, watched students grow up, and became a quiet companion to countless daily routines.
Its disappearance isn’t a tragedy. It’s part of the rhythm of street art, a rhythm Phlegm has always embraced.
Gone, yes.
But forgotten?
Not by the people who walked past it every day, and not by the community who made sure its absence didn’t go unnoticed.
Who is Phlegm?
Phlegm is a Sheffield based street artist, illustrator, and storyteller known for his intricate black‑and‑white imagery and instantly recognisable visual universe. Emerging from the DIY zine and comic culture of the early 2000s, he first gained attention through self‑published books filled with surreal characters, mechanical contraptions, and dreamlike narratives. These early works laid the foundation for the distinctive world he would later expand onto walls across the globe.
His murals often feature elongated figures, whimsical machines, and fantastical ecosystems, all rendered with meticulous linework that reflects his background in illustration. Despite his international reputation, Phlegm maintains a deeply grounded approach to muralism. He embraces the ephemeral nature of street art, seeing each wall as a temporary extension of his imagination rather than a permanent monument. Follow his adventures on Instagram.
Over the years, he has painted in cities worldwide, from abandoned industrial sites to major festivals, always bringing a sense of quiet wonder and narrative depth. Today, over 75 of his murals can be discovered and explored on Street Art Cities, offering a broad view of his evolving visual universe and the global footprint of his work.
