Various Locations Along the BQE
This event has passed.
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Courtesy of the artist
- When
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June 6, 2010 – Dec 7, 2010
Mondays–Sundays
- Where
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- Price
“Designed to look like a large-scale guerilla marketing campaign, this project, which began as a critique of the appropriation of art by commerce, became an example of commerce's appropriation for art's sake. Having rented space on 21 billboards along the BQE, and painting them white and black, the artist reveals the quaintness of a manner of advertising that has outlived its usefulness—the blank surfaces a decaying vestige of a bygone era of our consumer culture. The artist offers the billboards as blank canvases for a "fresh start" against the city's skyline. And he has created a blog to document the project, which ends in December. This will give you something to contemplate on your long ride home, or a reason to borrow a car and take a spin through a most unusual art installation.”
Rozalia Jovanovic, Flavorpill
In February the City of New York tightened its zoning regulations in terms of signage and advertising. Sensing an opportunity [James J. Williams III] conducted an under-the-table firesale of back inventory from his past exhibitions. Acknowledging a major shift in advertising space and spending due to the court’s ruling, the artist made an offer for 21 BQE billboards. From June through mid December 2010, these billboards would remain empty. Two were painted black. The remaining, white.
- Thorstein Foundation
