Martin sent me an interesting link to an item about Scottish artist Robert Montgomery, who spends his evenings pasting over outdoor advertising with his anti-consumerist poetry.
Great idea, but I find the poetry kind of awful. It makes me think of an angry 19-year-old, who has just discovered anarchism, scrawling away in his notebook at Starbucks in the hope that the girl behind the counter will notice how deep and dark he is.
Too harsh? The other point against this work is that, while the artist admits he has vandalized billboards "without permission" before, these installations are authorized. (And even when he was doing it illegally, the police couldn't be bothered to arrest him.)
If you don't know me, you may assume I am trashing this stuff because I make my living in advertising. Not so. I love subversive shit. I just find this subversion forced, false and boring. If you're going to subject the public to copy like this, you might as well slap a logo on it and get paid.
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