As free standing well placed street furniture, commercial billboards provide their own framing device for anyone who would like to communicate their message and increasingly their use in the public sphere is being debated. Billboard “takeovers” have often been the purview of “culture jammers” or “ad busters” since at least the 1970s, where the intent is to hijack the original commercial message to illuminate a social or political one. In more recent years a number of more traditional artists have been simply reclaiming this private message space as a canvas, an opportunity to display a bit of individual creativity.
OX in Troyes, France. July 2012. (photo © OX)
In new billboard takeovers from French Street Artist OX, the billboard is part of a visual conversation with its environment. Other times his geometric simplicity stands on its own without commentary but typically his ingenious incorporation of context brings the simple takeover to serve a higher purpose than drawing attention to itself. By treating the billboard as an element in a holistic field of play, a passerby may see everything around it in a new perspective, or see it for the first time. Without lecturing, this visual humorist opens the conversation about the appropriate use of public space for messages, and art.
OX in Troyes, France. July 2012. (photo © OX)
OX in Brooklyn. Spring 2010. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
OX in Brooklyn. Spring 2010. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Modern slavery takes many forms, and is known by many names: slavery, forced labor or human trafficking. A star of yesterday's BSA Film Friday, here is French Street Artist Michael Beerens sharing pi...
Street Artist Swoon's show at the Brooklyn Museum was named in the recent The 15 Best Art Exhibitions Of 2014 listing on The Huffington Posts Arts & Culture page. We're excited that our article, t...
Street Artist Li-Hill is a professor and student of the science of motion on the street and in the public sphere, with figures captured at increments along a path of movement. Often his large scale mu...
An internationally known European Street Artist had a “residency” in NYC last month before being arrested on the street by police last week. Invader, the French Street Artist who takes his shortened ...
Typically a bus stop is not a place where you would discover someone of interest, but in Święcica Poland you could find the Queen of the Night following you out of the corner of her eye. Olek in ...