Tuesday, January 13, 2009

BILLBOARDS





billboards are our most common form of public art. and yet advertising hoards up all the billboard space for the purpose of selling things. its ironic how intolerant people are of public art (both official and unofficial kinds). . .yet the public seems completely ok with billboards everywhere.

my friend evan calls them floating walls. (when you endeavor to build one, you must calculate the wind's force on it) . .a good way to think of them.

in some earlier comments I was asked what kind of billboard I would make, if I had the chance. . .well I did have the chance, recently thanks to louis corrigan. I built a small billboard (12'x12') up on my house . . .and so far my neighbors have tolerated it. . .in fact many say they enjoy seeing it. but I was careful, not to make an advertizement. I made a promise to never put any words on it. instead I put a carefully chosen found image. . . .it's quite ambiguous, but still political.

but I do think the best billboards are the old ones, empty or in a state of disarray. before long they will all be video screens, flashing and making noise. . .and these will be relics.

pictured here is a text suggestion from reader, adam bruneau: he thought a billboard should say, "don't buy anything."

3 comments:

Adam said...

yay! im the target demographic

Ktauches said...

you make a damn good sign.

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