Slippery When Read

We have long puzzled over where the public is when thinking about public art, especially in a large, low density city such as Edmonton. The example of the Talus Dome, that infamous shiny sculpture on the Whitemud (easily the most discussed artwork in the city), pointed us to consider that the public is on the freeway, the highway, moving through space in cars. Therefore, if we ever wanted to address this atomized public, it would have to be from the comfort of their vehicles. By being largely designed and constructed in the 20th century the infrastructure of Edmonton is governed by the car and we felt we should pull from that realm, choosing to alter and “hack” an existing element of this established visual language.

The changeable message board, a familiar staple of the Edmonton construction season offers an opportunity to address drivers. Slippery When Read comprises three texts that complicate the symbolic system of road directions. Questioning our relationship to cars, symbols, and petroleum, these texts are slowly revealed through successive panels. A pedestrian can easily witness all three texts, however, the car driving by will be given small, open-ended, snippets of the whole.