The Sign Show opened with Rosen's "BLURRED" to declare the project's overall engagement with how Missouri billboard messages reflect "red" versus "blue" issue conflicts. The artwork's political content was more general in its initial location on the project's main board.
In its second “satellite” location, in Warrenton, a more pointed critique emerged with its position in front of a patriotic-themed advertisement for Monsanto featuring the stripes of the American flag transforming into field furrows. Connecting this new site with its initial location at the edge of a family farm in Hatton, "BLURRED" evoked a subtle commentary on small-scale versus corporate agriculture and the relative "American-ness" of each.
Video of billboard installation
Artist's Website: http://www.kayrosen.com
A pioneer of conceptual art, Mel Bochner has since the 1960s questioned the clarity, function, and efficacy of language. Within the Sign Show, "BLAH BLAH BLAH" offered a direct and playful critique of Missouri’s surplus billboards, three times more than neighboring states and five times the national average. Along I-70, the hundreds of messages blend together in a numbing barrage. Many unrented signs are blank. Others declare their self-evident purpose with ads for ad space. When the Bochner work moved, its new spot adjacent to a housing development and nearby a Walmart slanted its meaning toward the generic, in architecture and commerce as well as language.
Video of billboard production
Video of billboard installation
Artist's Website: http://www.melbochner.net
Link to "Wall Street Journal" review of Mel Bochner's exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York.