Fifty billboards: an art project hopes to provoke debate across America

[Hela]

Last edited Tue Jul 10, 2018, 12:29 PM - Edit history (1)

After raising $172,000 on Kickstarter, artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman will launch The 50 State Initiative, sharing artwork on billboards in every US state

Nadja Sayej
Mon 9 Jul 2018 06.00 EDT Last modified on Mon 9 Jul 2018 11.02 EDT

https://tinyurl.com/y9ar9xhb

In 1943 Norman Rockwell created a series of four oil paintings based on Franklin D Roosevelt’s “four freedoms”, which he declared as “the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world”.

They included Freedom of Speech, which Rockwell painted as a man standing up in a public meeting, Freedom of Worship, with praying people, Freedom from Want, with a family eating a meal and Freedom from Fear, with parents tucking children into bed at night.

Now these historic paintings are the inspiration for a new public art project launching this fall called the The 50 State Initiative, where artists will be taking over advertising billboard space across the US. Co-founded by New York artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, the goal is to put artists in the public eye – around the same time politicians will be using public advertising space for the midterm elections.

“Artists and creative people are often seen as voices off to the side, not necessarily driving the main thrust of public discourse,” said Gottesman. “We want to put artists and creativity really right at the center of public discourse and recognize creative people don’t just make paintings, music or movies, but they shape the systems of the society we live in.”

Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/09/fifty-billboards-an-art-project-hopes-to-provoke-debate-across-america

[MountCleaners]

1. They say "make America great again"

...but ignore examples from history that might not be to their liking. Like "Christian values"...I remember when religious people stayed in the background and religion was a private matter.

I read a book about Jerry Falwell called "God's Right Hand" that tells the story of Falwell and the rise of the Christian right. It seems that not every southern Christian back in the seventies thought that politics was an appropriate place for religion.

These MAGAts like to shove this idea of how (white) people should be down everyone's throat. A lot of people don't conform to stereotypes and a lot of history doesn't square with their ideas about this country.

[Mariana]

2. Many Southern Christians, and some Northern ones too, I suppose

were afraid that if religion got too heavily into politics, the government would tell the churches to STFU or start paying taxes. That is what should have happened, but of course, it didn't.

[al bupp]

3. FYI, you have an errant period at the end the article URL which is leading to a 404 error /nt

[Hela]

4. Whoops, thanks! n/t