We are bombarded by imagery to the extent that it loses its visual impact on us, advertisements and those wicked geniuses behind them have to try exponentially harder as time goes by to attract and capture our attention. Danger hazard as they are, I confess to being excessively fond of billboards.
They are so in your face while still being limited in space, so the message has to be compact, compelling, of resonance. I especially like the random ones you get on American interstates that have a message about our Lord and Savior, redemption, souls and the like.Yes but is it art I hear you gripe... Mos def. Jenny Holzer, Basquiat and a whole throng of artists from the seventies onwards decided that signage would be the medium for them, their pithy messages now slogans covering a plethora of everyday objects from t shirts, coffee mugs to LED screens, but I'm still partial to big old billboards. In the past month alone I have seen this medium used for proposals, break ups and highly entertaining dictatorship propaganda the world over. What are your favorite billboards? Send them to me and I will add them to nobody cares but me collection.
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