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Art makes noise with words
by KOD Staff
Our cities are choked with words – they’re on billboards, at bus stops, in shop and restaurant windows. They fight for our attention, turning our streets into a battleground for brands. For years, artists have mimicked advertising; hijacking public spaces with words and slogans. In the eighties, Jenny Holzer took her Truism series to the streets of New York and last summer, Robert Montgomery occupied the billboards of Berlin. Both artists unveiled their word-art to a huge audience: from the culture clan to the curious pedestrian.
As we spend more and more time online, snappy word art is now a common form of communication and artists toy with this familiarity.
Tim Noble and Sue Webster, 'Forever', 2001
Robert Indiana, 'LOVE', 1967
Barbara Kruger, Installation View at L&M Gallery, 2011
Bob and Roberta Smith, 'Make Art Not War', 1997
Jenny Holzer, 'Monument', 2008
Ed Ruscha, 'I Plead Insanity Because I'm Just Crazy About That Little Girl', 1976
Mark Titchner, 'Be Angry But Don't Stop Breathing', 2003
Louise Bourgeois, 'Ode à l’oubli', 2002
Bruce Nauman, 'Human/Need/Desire', 1983
Darren Coffield, 'Sex Art Money', 2013. For the exhibition 'Factual Nonsense: The Art and Death of Joshua Compston' at Paul Stolper, London
