Keep Your Eyes Open

Jealous Lover 1 by Heather Benjamin. Photo by Luna Park.

Well, here it is: ad takeover #52 of 52 comes from Heather Benjamin. We have a few more surprises coming your way soon, but we made it to the end of the year. Art in Ad Places started as a daydream, and it's ended up taking over our lives for a little while (in a good way). The marathon is over, which is a nice feeling, but we'll have more news soon on where we go from here.

One last time, here's what this week's artist, Heather Benjamin, has to say about the importance of public art, and how we move through the world:

“I think it’s easy to experience a sort of tunnel vision when you’re running around in the city, it can be a kind of natural response to all the over-stimulation. But that can cause you to miss things going on around you that could be fresh opportunities for critical thinking or raw emotional reactions. Those could be moments where you might begin to think about something in a different way, or feel inspired, and at a basic level have a visual experience really resonate with you in some way. Public art is one of those things that can jolt you right out of your comfort zone and turn everything upside down for a few minutes, while you try take in and wrestle with something you weren’t expecting to see. And I think having that experience on a regular basis is an important part of feeling connected to the humans around you and their lives and emotions and experiences, how you can relate to them. That’s why I’m psyched on the Art in Ad Places project and excited to be a part of it, it’s actively creating spaces in the city for those moments to happen. We need more of those opportunities and less visual stimuli that are just meant to force us into more consumerism.”

Jealous Lover 1 by Heather Benjamin. Photo by Luna Park.

Just a Daydream

Artwork by Louise Chen aka Ouizi. Photo by Luna Park.

Wish we had a before photo of this week's installation. Few pieces this year have been more of an extreme change from a harmful ad to the gift of art. To install Louise Chen aka Ouizi's flowers, we removed an ad for teeth straightening. Because apparently we all need fancy cosmetic surgery now... Screw that.

Ouizi says, "Rather than stopping to smell a flower, would you prefer to peer into it's soul? One of the reasons I make my art public is that it seems to give people a sense of pride and security in their surroundings. This project in particular does this by making an extra-ordinary space feel extraordinary."

Hopefully she's right. At least for a few days, that space is something a bit extraordinary. It doesn't harm, and it's even something to enjoy. But it's only the briefest manifestation of a daydream, unless we all push for something like it to be permanent. Our intervention will be removed in a couple of days. Soon enough after that, the phone booth will be torn out and replaced by a digital ad display, something we can't hack into or disrupt.

But for a fleeting moment, please enjoy something beautiful.

Artwork by Louise Chen aka Ouizi. Photo by Luna Park.

What You Practice Grows Stronger

Artwork by Tenderloin Television. Photo by Luna Park.

Tenderloin Television (aka Benjamin Clarke) gets to the heart of it this week with his poster declaring "What you practice grows stronger." Surround yourself with negativity, and you'll probably be a pretty negative person. Surround yourself with messages about buying more stuff, and you'll probably buy more stuff. Buy more stuff, and you'll probably continue to buy more stuff. Or, surround yourself with positive messages and practice positive behaviors, and it'll be easier to continue down the path of positivity. So why do we fill our public spaces with empty messages, encouraging us to be empty people? Let's practice something different.

Tenderloin Television tells us, "I'm participating because advertising undermines our sense of human purpose. Preying on physical desires at the expense of public welfare, in pursuit of financial gain. It's fear based consumer culture with an absence of a deeper meaning of life. As a firm believer of PMA, I wanted to show an alternative to capitalist plastic identity by leaving the viewer with an authentic feeling. An encouraging catalyst for introspection, reflection and inspiration...peace of mind."

That sounds better.

Artwork by Tenderloin Television. Photo by Luna Park.

Advertising and the Myth of the Meritocracy

Purchase the Proper Boots With Which to Pull Yourself By the Bootstraps by Kameelah Janan Rasheed. Photo by Luna Park.

This past week, we've seen the myth of American meritocracy on full display for the lie it is. Politicians and their wealthy donors are about to overhaul the tax system to give their children even greater inheritances, while simultaneously increasing the costs of higher education and health insurance, all further cementing existing structures of privilege.

With that tax bill on the horizon, it feels especially fitting to install this poster by Kameelah Janan Rasheed, who says "'Purchase the Proper Boots With Which to Pull Yourself By the Bootstraps' is one of four posters from the 2014 project How to Suffer Politely (and Other Etiquette), a series of satirical gestures. How to Suffer Politely (and Other Etiquette) examines how expressions of anger and resistance to racialized violence are regarded as 'impolite' in order to maintain social order. Informed by etiquette guides that advise one to prioritize the needs of others before one’s own, these satirical sayings command the performance of exceptional self-control and triumph under traumatic circumstances. Inserted into public spaces in the place of advertisements, 'Purchase the Proper Boots With Which to Pull Yourself By the Bootstraps' acts as a not so polite intervention of traditional ad signage."

Advertising is deeply intertwined with American ideals of selfishness, consumption, and debt, and the myth of a meritocracy. From an early age, we're taught to buy more, to buy for ourselves, to judge others on the things they own, and that we all start out on equal footing. That doesn't come only from advertising, but ads both rely on and reinforce those concepts. Beyond that, as Rasheed points out, advertising reinforces the worst of our prejudices.

Purchase the Proper Boots With Which to Pull Yourself By the Bootstraps is a satire in the vein of the billboards in They Live. But, with the way we cling to the myth that "anyone can make it in America" and define ourselves by the things we buy, you've got to wonder... if Timberland stole Rasheed's language and added a logo, would it sell boots?

Your Friends Have Got Your Back, Ads Don't

Artwork by Alex Krokus. Photo by Luna Park.

Plenty of ads prey on insecurities. They say, "If you buy him a Coke, he'll be your friend," and "If you wear that shirt, she'll think you're cool." But Alex Krokus' comic turns that around. He told us, "Advertising preys on the depressed, the hungry and the unfulfilled. I made this comic for Art in Ad Places proposing an alternative to how to reach out to those individuals. What if instead of struggling to buy happiness alone, they had a community that gave them a sense of belonging and support? What if instead of advertisements, a billboard's only intent was to make us laugh? Or think? Or have a conversation?"

And there's something that feels just a bit absurd, in the best way, about having this comic in a pay phone, in a space normally reserved to grab your attention and make you feel bad. It's incongruous. It doesn't shout at you. But, for the curious who stop and spend a moment with it, there's a gift.

Artwork by Alex Krokus. Photo by Luna Park.