THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL
An Unrealized Project by Reynard Loki
This project exists entirely as the articulation of the text of the work’s title -- “THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL” -- onto billboards and other public advertising spaces, with no accompanying identifying information. To the viewer, it is an anonymous project. Through the use of public placement, the actual text and visual language, I would like to adopt the strategies of popular media and advertising in order to gain a specific social currency. However, the only message is a reflexive one: “Here is a traditional advertising space that is devoid of an advertising message.” But I would also like to pose a question: By knowingly stating its “non-advertising” stance, is this text actually “advertising” something else entirely, and if so, what exactly?
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL intends to hijack spaces throughout the public realm: billboards, bus stops, subway cars, subway stations, taxis, etc. While it advertises nothing in the traditional sense, it comments directly on the phenomenon of the loss of the public space to the private sector.
I am interested in using the public space to give conceptual-based art the social currency and reach that is dominated by popular media and advertising. This project could be executed in other forms of public advertising space -- buses, plastic bags, coffee cups -- to comment about the growth of public advertising and the decrease in “un-marketed” space. What is interesting to me about this project is that it uses the presentation and distribution systems of the commercial realm and places them into the realm of artistic practice. Additionally, this project, as opposed to other public art billboard projects that are more “poetic” or image-based, uses public spaces in their intended form, while at the same time undermining them: This is an advertisement that is critical of advertising.
What is also called into question by creating work that is self-consciously made for “public” consumption is the very idea of “public” itself. We are living at a time when the rights of individual privacy are being called into question. Consequently, part of the relevance of making public art is to investigate our changing understanding of what “public” means, as a concept, as a place, as an audience. This project wrestles with the escalation of advertising in the urban environment. Regardless of individual opinion on the subject, it is increasingly difficult to exist in the public space without becoming one more potential customer for space-gobbling marketers. The rapid growth of corporate advertisements throughout the urban landscape has blurred the lines between public and private; they are often regarded as an invasion of shared space. In the end, advertisements for the private sector that target the public in the public space are ultimately difficult to define as either public or private.
http://reynardloki.blogspot.com/ reynardloki@gmail.com
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL
An Unrealized Project by Reynard Loki
This project exists entirely as the articulation of the text of the work’s title -- “THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL” -- onto billboards and other public advertising spaces, with no accompanying identifying information. To the viewer, it is an anonymous project. Through the use of public placement, the actual text and visual language, I would like to adopt the strategies of popular media and advertising in order to gain a specific social currency. However, the only message is a reflexive one: “Here is a traditional advertising space that is devoid of an advertising message.” But I would also like to pose a question: By knowingly stating its “non-advertising” stance, is this text actually “advertising” something else entirely, and if so, what exactly?
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL intends to hijack spaces throughout the public realm: billboards, bus stops, subway cars, subway stations, taxis, etc. While it advertises nothing in the traditional sense, it comments directly on the phenomenon of the loss of the public space to the private sector.
I am interested in using the public space to give conceptual-based art the social currency and reach that is dominated by popular media and advertising. This project could be executed in other forms of public advertising space -- buses, plastic bags, coffee cups -- to comment about the growth of public advertising and the decrease in “un-marketed” space. What is interesting to me about this project is that it uses the presentation and distribution systems of the commercial realm and places them into the realm of artistic practice. Additionally, this project, as opposed to other public art billboard projects that are more “poetic” or image-based, uses public spaces in their intended form, while at the same time undermining them: This is an advertisement that is critical of advertising.
What is also called into question by creating work that is self-consciously made for “public” consumption is the very idea of “public” itself. We are living at a time when the rights of individual privacy are being called into question. Consequently, part of the relevance of making public art is to investigate our changing understanding of what “public” means, as a concept, as a place, as an audience. This project wrestles with the escalation of advertising in the urban environment. Regardless of individual opinion on the subject, it is increasingly difficult to exist in the public space without becoming one more potential customer for space-gobbling marketers. The rapid growth of corporate advertisements throughout the urban landscape has blurred the lines between public and private; they are often regarded as an invasion of shared space. In the end, advertisements for the private sector that target the public in the public space are ultimately difficult to define as either public or private.
http://reynardloki.blogspot.com/ reynardloki@gmail.com