In light of the recent bill board takeover projects curated and organized by Jordan Seiler that we have covered in the past, I would like to a couple different billboard projects by Alfredo Jaar. With Why (2008) Jaar was granted access to various billboards run by clear channel, and rather than provide an alternative to the sale of products, he asks the simply question, “why?” By questioning this format of communication but providing no context or trail to follow, the authorship of the unique artist is nullified. Secondly we have the Rwanda, Rwanda (1994) project which is a series of pieces on street level ads bringing awareness to this war torn country. A simple reminder amongst all the contending issues that suffuse the urban environment.
