Were ‘Art Everywhere’ posters drowned out by other slick, intrusive forms of marketing?
Joe Turnbull says the subtle intricacies of the 'Art Everywhere' images were no match for the attention-seeking catchy slogans, bold text and in-your-face images of commercial adverts.
Adverts have crept into every crevice of our daily lives. We are exposed to thousands of marketing messages every day and a recent study by YouGov found that 66% of UK and US adults feel its an oversaturated environment.
Art Everywhere is an ambitious project that has attempted to reclaim some of our public spaces that have been so mercilessly invaded by advertising, replacing more than 22,000 posters and billboards with great works of art, as selected by the public. The scheme is about engaging people with art, with the organisers claiming as much as 90% of the population will be reached by the campaign. This is a commendable aim, and certainly something Tate, one of the project's major backers, should be trying to achieve, given that only 11% of visitors to its galleries are from lower social classes. Taking artworks out of the cloistered confines of the gallery certainly seems an effective way to demystify art and improve accessibility.
Whether the project can be considered a success is questionable. "It just blends in," one viewer told the BBC about a David Hockney piece. And he's right; I didn't notice a single piece of work that was part of the project until this week, after it was supposed to have finished. How many pieces I had inadvertently seen without spotting them?
Adverts have crept into every crevice of our daily lives. We are exposed to thousands of marketing messages every day and a recent study by YouGov found that 66% of UK and US adults feel its an oversaturated environment.
Art Everywhere is an ambitious project that has attempted to reclaim some of our public spaces that have been so mercilessly invaded by advertising, replacing more than 22,000 posters and billboards with great works of art, as selected by the public. The scheme is about engaging people with art, with the organisers claiming as much as 90% of the population will be reached by the campaign. This is a commendable aim, and certainly something Tate, one of the project's major backers, should be trying to achieve, given that only 11% of visitors to its galleries are from lower social classes. Taking artworks out of the cloistered confines of the gallery certainly seems an effective way to demystify art and improve accessibility.
Whether the project can be considered a success is questionable. "It just blends in," one viewer told the BBC about a David Hockney piece. And he's right; I didn't notice a single piece of work that was part of the project until this week, after it was supposed to have finished. How many pieces I had inadvertently seen without spotting them?