Interview with Kimberli Meyer – MAK Center director, curator / Los Angeles, USA

 

Galeria Rusz: What was the idea behind the creation of the How Many Billboards? exhibition?
Kimberli Meyer: How Many Billboards? was a direct response to the mandatory nature of the public viewing of corporate messaging. Conceived while sitting in traffic, the show was designed for the characteristic sprawl, culture, and communication mode of Los Angeles. The proposition of the exhibition was that art should occupy a visible position in the cacophony of mediated images in the city.

GR: What was the main criterion for choosing the artists and works to take part in the exhibition?
KM: First and foremost, the curatorial team looked for artists that would critically address the billboard as site. We wanted them to work strategically, to approach the billboard as a means for artistic and critical intervention. We were not interested in just putting a pretty picture up on a billboard. This led us to focus on the history of conceptually based art in Los Angeles, and we began to think of that history as one that is infused with Pop Art and Identity Politics. We chose artists that represented the various generations of conceptually based art making centered in Southern California, as well as the diversity of departure points within this mode of practice.

GR: Do you think it makes sense to exhibit art in the urban space, working with the means that are normally utilised in advertising?
KM: Yes. How Many Billboards followed nearly a decade of discussion amongst city residents and officials about billboards and their environmental impact on the city of Los Angeles. There is an ongoing intense public dialogue about who has visual rights in the city. Our show attempted to investigate the political and artistic implications of these media surfaces that saturate the city’s landscape, while also offering an alternative vision for public art display in Los Angeles.

GR: The form of a billboard is egalitarian – practically everyone can see it. What, in your opinion, should be a distinguishing feature of the work of art to be presented on a billboard?
KM: Art on a billboard should depart from the usual marketing function of a billboard. The art should prompt passersby to reflect, to think, perhaps even to question what they see on other billboards.

GR: Every exhibition of art on billboards is a form of experiment. The public is used to advertisements on billboards. When they see art instead, they need to face something which is not obvious, some cognitive dissonance. What conclusions can be drawn from your experiment/exhibition? Did you receive any feedback from the citizens, the audience?

KM: The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive – people instantly recognized that they were looking at something different, and though they might not have know exactly what it was, they expressed relief in getting a break from the relentless onslaught of advertisement. In the piece by Brandon Lattu, in which the artist put up a classified-like advertisement for a 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood (which was really for sale), a phone number was included for interested potential buyers. Lattu collected the messages and passed them on to the seller, but also transcribed them and shared them with me. They were amazing to read, because in nearly all of them, the caller knew that something odd was going on, that it seemed kind of crazy to sell a used car on a very fancy billboard, yet they also expressed some interest in the car and were curious about why a billboard was being employed. These messages diagrammed very well the public encounter with art temporarily occupying advertising space.
GR: You were a member of the jury panel for the Billboard Art Competition this year. Do you have any tips for the artists that are to take part in the future editions of this competition? What should they specifically take into consideration when creating their works, so that these works better suit the form of a billboard, the urban space and an accidental audience?

KM: My advice to future entrants is: don’t take on the given theme too literally, consider addressing issues in popular culture and/or socio-politics, consider using the billboard to critique the site of outdoor advertising, and make the message bold and easily read yet holding more layers for further contemplation.

GR: Thank you very much for the talk. We want to encourage our readers to take a look at the billboards we were discussing at www.howmanybillboards.org