+ urbanart + being +

What's the Big Issue?
homelessness
"It has been our experience that more stereotypes are shattered than confirmed by the plain truth of homelessness. .... an accident, onset of mental illness, or just plain bad luck can bridge the gap between getting by and poverty with surprising speed."
(Thornton McCamish, Big Issue Editorial, No. 50)

People who live without traditional forms of shelter encounter many problems as they attempt to create a lifestyle on the streets of the inner city.

"Late last year, a study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics put Australia’s homeless population at 105,000 - some two and a half times greater than previous estimates by leading charities and organisations. This figure include middle-aged men, but it also includes women, teenagers, young adults, singles, gays couples and families."
(Simon Castles, Big Issue Editorial, No. 92)

These people occupy a space in the city surrounded by advertising images suggesting lifestyles of opulence and glamour that contrast sharply with their daily existence.

background
"Between the spaces of the art object and the spaces of publicity."
(Barbara Kruger)

In their attempts to create public awareness of issues facing disadvantaged groups; a number of artists have attempted to throw a line across the divide between the `interiority’ of the museum and the `exteriority’ of billboard advertising imagery, by utilising the public advertising space as a means for conveying a social message.

American artist, Barbara Kruger has adopted the graphic style, the typography and format often used by advertisers, to convey social and political messages. Creative Time, a New York based art group, employed the format of bus advertising to carry their multiple messages concerning the AIDS crisis.

Chilean artist, Alfredo Jaar chose to utilise the presentation devices often used by advertisers to convey a global - as distinct from the local - message of social consciousness. He photographed gold miners living in squalid conditions in a remote part of the eastern amazon. He bought up all the advertising spaces in Spring Street subway station in New York and the results were mounted with a light-box format so as to mimic the flow of pedestrian traffic in the tunnel.

In 1999, the Salvation Army Crossroads Network developed the Visionary Images project, a billboard project staged throughout Melbourne that created a platform for disadvantaged youth in Victoria.

the project
"Advertising doesn't always mirror how people are acting, but how they are dreaming... In a sense what we are doing is wrapping up your emotions and selling them back to you."
(Advertising Manager Bennetton p5 VR)

In collaboration with: the Big Issue (a magazine sold by homeless and unemployed people); and as a component of the Ideas/in/transition project (via the City of Melbourne) - five Melbourne artists: Angela Bailey, Bibi Vira, Sarah Pears, Anita Budai and Jo Grant are using 5 prominent illuminated advertising display sites on the Melbourne City Circle tram route and a corresponding exhibition space at the Public Office - 100 Adderley St, West Melbourne to present photographic/digital based images on the theme of Homelessness.

Art in public spaces can and has been used be a vehicle to invigorate debate surrounding the way people interact within the public domain.

Advertising images within the urban arena suggest that products and images may enhance or even change the viewer’s lifestyle as they move within that space by portraying people within the advertising framework as desirable through their associating with a product. As the public move through the city they are exposed to these images on mass, which then are an integrated part of their environment. In utilising these spaces, the artists will be addressing boundaries of art/advertising within the public arena.

A number of public sites have been designated for use by five artists as an avenue for addressing the issue of homelessness within the public domain. The sites chosen have been used predominantly to display advertising images along public walkways and adjacent to roads and shopping areas.

The project will challenge prescribed notions of identity and the stigma associated with homelessness within a highly urbanised environment, by introducing a dialogue between the homeless and the general public through a method of public art display.

The images may be seen as adverts, as they will be occupying spaces frequently used for metrolite advertising campaigns. However, in this case, the 'product' is the issue of homelessness and the vehicle for displaying this product will be the work of an emerging Melbourne artist.

objectives
To raise awareness of issues relating to homelessness in the Central Business District of Melbourne and the immediate inner suburbs.
To provide a platform for innovative public artworks by emerging artists.
To establish linkages between arts organisations and organisations for the homeless.
To further develop a unique and vital framework for arts presentation.

This project seeks to encourage artists (and others) to use unusual methods, vehicles and sites for their message. This project suggests a model for diversification in the way artists present their work; who they target (new audiences) and as a framework for establishing relationships with community organisations.

contact
For more information on What's the Big Issue?
email Andy Miller or Big Issue
bigissue.org.au