Jordan Seiler runs Public Ad Campaign, an organization that promotes the public’s interaction with public spaces. Public Ad Campaign aims at filling outdoor advertisement spaces with art to lessen the impact that privately owned companies or corporations have on people and their environment—making public property public again. Armed with acts of civil disobedience in accords with Henry David Thoreau’s theory, the organization intends to increase citizens’ interactions and generate a stronger “general will.” When Seiler isn’t advocating people’s rights, he spends time creating art. Odessa Giving Up the Gun depicts a faceless woman encompassed by waves of dark hair, rendered with bold, thick black lines and contours. Pages of used books color her skin while acting as the background of the work too. Interestingly, Seiler’s minimalistic formal style, concentration of graphic shapes, and reliance on flatten pictorial space mimic the advertisements to which he objects.
Email This Post
