48-Sheet Pilot
48-Sheet Pilot Project 2010 Created and produced by Claire Farrell EC-Arts and sponsored by the Arts Council England 48 Sheet aimed to test the result when artists are given the opportunity to present their work on equal terms with the advertising messages that dominate our cities. The pilot project explored the potential for a much larger scale project planned for 2012.
Artists. Harry Blackett. Robin Kirkham. Lucy McLauchlan. Ian Richards. Elizabeth Rowe.
48 Sheet installation, a short film by Mathew Beckett.
Project statement
48 Sheet is an experimental art installation project using advertising billboards as blank canvasses for artists, the pilot runs in Digbeth Birmingham from 2 – 14 September 2010.
‘48 Sheet’ definition is a reference to the size of a traditional outdoor advertising billboard – it features the site specific work of five Birmingham-based artists across four billboards located in Digbeth, and tests a variety of art forms and artistic processes against different cityscape backdrops.
The four billboards were chosen for their specific locations and close proximity to each other to encourage viewers to take a walking tour around the ‘cluster’.
48 Sheet walking route
The first billboard featured 3-dimensional lettering of graphic designer Ian Richards. Surrounded by a cluster of standard advertising billboards ‘What You Looking At’ asked the viewer to question what they see in their everyday environment. Ian collaborated with local signage company Central Signs using their patented G57 product within his concept; a fully recycled plastic composite traditionally used for signage advertising.
Elizabeth Rowe’s ‘Going Underground’ part of a body of work made by drawing onto newspaper and magazine images. By obscuring the original meaning she invites the viewer to examine the image in more detail. To an original image taken from National Geographic Elizabeth added vivid colours and intricate hand drawn designs to provide a sense of escape into a fantasy world, in contrast to the billboard’s grey, urban surroundings. Elizabeth works in miniature collages and for this piece has photographed and digitally manipulated an original work to produce it to scale.
The third billboard was a site specific installation by artist Lucy McLauchlan’s responding to the site and her surroundings on the day of installation. Using a mix both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional processes, this live art installation involved the artist collecting objects from her surroundings in the heart of Digbeth’s industrial quarter and recycling them into an art installation. The abstract piece was created over the course of two days. Lucy’s installation was recorded as a time-lapse film by Birmingham filmmaker Mat Beckett.
The last in the four, the work of Harry Blackett and Robin Kirkham entitled ‘Campanile’, the Italian for a free-standing bell tower (the tallest in the world is the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower of the University of Birmingham). Consisting of a double graphic of ringing bells set against a bright background, the work aims to open multiple meanings to stop passers-by .
Using billboard sites of a standard size and format provided a platform for the artists to demonstrate their freedom of expression and whilst making art more accessible to people that within their everyday environment that may not otherwise engage within the arts. 48 Sheet we aimed to make people smile or question what they see in the public realm. If conventional advertising is aimed at persuading us to make a purchase, the artists’ billboards will invite onlookers to consider what a future city could be like, with more focus on creativity and vibrant public spaces. The long term plan is to raise the profile of Birmingham as a great creative city.
The September pilot is a test bed for a bigger project planned to start in September 2011, culminating within a launch of 80 billboards across Birmingham in May 2012.
