If these Syracuse billboards make you stop and think, that's the point
Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011, 5:00 AM Updated: Thursday, April 21, 2011, 12:10 PM
View full sizeA woman gives a provocatively ambiguous greeting in this artwork created by five Syracuse University transmedia art students. The work went up on a billboard this week at South McBride and East Washington streets in downtown Syracuse.Syracuse, NY -- The woman smiles down from the billboard, modestly dressed and posed. But the words next to the picture smack of something else:Lonely Unsatisfied Wife Loyal Loving Partner Looking for a Sugar Daddy Who Can Provide Emotional Support I’ll Be Your Sugar Baby email me! PleaseSugarMe@gmail.com
Is it a lonely hearts appeal? A prostitution come-on? A cry of pain from a woman toward the man in her life?The challenge to figure that out was issued this week by five Syracuse University art students to motorists passing South McBride and East Washington streets in downtown Syracuse.The public artwork was one of three mounted on Lamar Outdoor Advertising billboards around downtown as part of a “Non-Traditional Modes” class offered by the Transmedia program at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. The works are scheduled to stay up through May 15.Non-Traditional Modes gets students to produce art that would be seen outside the framework of a traditional gallery show, said their teacher, assistant professor Susannah Sayler.This is the fifth year that the Visual and Performing Arts school has rented billboards for the class project. Michael Centore, the college’s account representative at Lamar Outdoor Advertising, would not disclose the fee for competitive reasons, but it was paid by the college.
View full sizeA woman in a hard hat, seated on what appears to be a child's mat, greets motorists at the intersection of South Clinton and West Adams streets. It's one of three panels that went up on billboards this week in Syracuse as part of a "Non-Traditional Modes" class at Syracuse University.Five of Sayler’s 13 Non-Traditional Modes students produced the South McBride billboard. Four more created a billboard at South Clinton and West Adams streets that shows a seated woman, draped with a hula hoop and surrounded by toys. It depicts a photo shoot and was meant to show how contrived advertising photography is, Sayler said.The remaining four composed a billboard on West Fayette Street near West Street. On the left is a red dish with nine ripe strawberries on its rim and a mammoth, mutant strawberry in the center. On the right appears one word: “Conform.” The word is being used ironically, she said — the mutant strawberry in the middle is meant to celebrate diversity.The students intended their work to be provocative, Sayler said. It was, at least to one person who called The Post-Standard on Wednesday and complained that the billboard on South McBride appeared to be soliciting for prostitution.What its creators hoped was to expose “a landscape of desire, invisible to society,” that ranges from dating services to human trafficking, Sayler said.The idea grew out of a brainstorming session that began with creating a personal ad, drifted to ads seeking a dorm roommate and ended with a dating-service ad, said Kelly Nolte, a sophomore art photography major who created the work with Khaelin Damm, Martin Biando, Shelby Hilt and Jessica Passman.They drafted the display’s text based on what they saw on dating service websites. The woman in the picture was a friend of one of the artists who knew how the art would be displayed, Nolte said.
View full sizeThis billboard on West Fayette Street near West Street uses the word "Conform" ironically -- the mutant strawberry in the middle is meant to celebrate diversity. It's one of three billboards created as part of a Syracuse University art class.If the billboard seems to seek more than an innocent date, good, said Nolte. “We definitely wanted to have all sorts of responses,” Nolte said.Richard Ruch, vice president and general manager at Lamar Outdoor Advertising’s Syracuse office, said he reviewed the art before it was posted, including the McBride piece.Lamar can, and has, refused the use of its billboards to post vulgar material and has taken down signs that later proved offensive, he said. But the company also takes First Amendment free-speech rights into account, he said. “We knew going into this campaign that it was an art project,” Ruch said.No one had complained to Lamar about the McBride image, he said shortly before noon.Nolte said her group set up the email box on the ad to see if anyone got angry, or for that matter, whether anyone responded to it as an actual ad. Viewers who email PleaseSugarMe@gmail.com get an automated reply saying that 26 million Americans visited dating service websites in December and that the industry’s annual revenues come to $304 million, Nolte said. They also will be told the billboard was a student project.“The fact that somebody called the newspaper about it, that’s wonderful,” Nolte said. “We’re so happy about that.”© 2011 syracuse.com. All rights reserved.
If these Syracuse billboards make you stop and think, that's the point
Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011, 5:00 AM Updated: Thursday, April 21, 2011, 12:10 PM
View full sizeA woman gives a provocatively ambiguous greeting in this artwork created by five Syracuse University transmedia art students. The work went up on a billboard this week at South McBride and East Washington streets in downtown Syracuse.Syracuse, NY -- The woman smiles down from the billboard, modestly dressed and posed. But the words next to the picture smack of something else:
Lonely Unsatisfied Wife Loyal Loving Partner Looking for a Sugar Daddy Who Can Provide Emotional Support I’ll Be Your Sugar Baby email me! PleaseSugarMe@gmail.com
Is it a lonely hearts appeal? A prostitution come-on? A cry of pain from a woman toward the man in her life?
The challenge to figure that out was issued this week by five Syracuse University art students to motorists passing South McBride and East Washington streets in downtown Syracuse.
The public artwork was one of three mounted on Lamar Outdoor Advertising billboards around downtown as part of a “Non-Traditional Modes” class offered by the Transmedia program at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. The works are scheduled to stay up through May 15.
Non-Traditional Modes gets students to produce art that would be seen outside the framework of a traditional gallery show, said their teacher, assistant professor Susannah Sayler.
This is the fifth year that the Visual and Performing Arts school has rented billboards for the class project. Michael Centore, the college’s account representative at Lamar Outdoor Advertising, would not disclose the fee for competitive reasons, but it was paid by the college.
View full sizeA woman in a hard hat, seated on what appears to be a child's mat, greets motorists at the intersection of South Clinton and West Adams streets. It's one of three panels that went up on billboards this week in Syracuse as part of a "Non-Traditional Modes" class at Syracuse University.Five of Sayler’s 13 Non-Traditional Modes students produced the South McBride billboard. Four more created a billboard at South Clinton and West Adams streets that shows a seated woman, draped with a hula hoop and surrounded by toys. It depicts a photo shoot and was meant to show how contrived advertising photography is, Sayler said.
The remaining four composed a billboard on West Fayette Street near West Street. On the left is a red dish with nine ripe strawberries on its rim and a mammoth, mutant strawberry in the center. On the right appears one word: “Conform.” The word is being used ironically, she said — the mutant strawberry in the middle is meant to celebrate diversity.
The students intended their work to be provocative, Sayler said. It was, at least to one person who called The Post-Standard on Wednesday and complained that the billboard on South McBride appeared to be soliciting for prostitution.
What its creators hoped was to expose “a landscape of desire, invisible to society,” that ranges from dating services to human trafficking, Sayler said.
The idea grew out of a brainstorming session that began with creating a personal ad, drifted to ads seeking a dorm roommate and ended with a dating-service ad, said Kelly Nolte, a sophomore art photography major who created the work with Khaelin Damm, Martin Biando, Shelby Hilt and Jessica Passman.
They drafted the display’s text based on what they saw on dating service websites. The woman in the picture was a friend of one of the artists who knew how the art would be displayed, Nolte said.
View full sizeThis billboard on West Fayette Street near West Street uses the word "Conform" ironically -- the mutant strawberry in the middle is meant to celebrate diversity. It's one of three billboards created as part of a Syracuse University art class.If the billboard seems to seek more than an innocent date, good, said Nolte. “We definitely wanted to have all sorts of responses,” Nolte said.
Richard Ruch, vice president and general manager at Lamar Outdoor Advertising’s Syracuse office, said he reviewed the art before it was posted, including the McBride piece.
Lamar can, and has, refused the use of its billboards to post vulgar material and has taken down signs that later proved offensive, he said. But the company also takes First Amendment free-speech rights into account, he said. “We knew going into this campaign that it was an art project,” Ruch said.
No one had complained to Lamar about the McBride image, he said shortly before noon.
Nolte said her group set up the email box on the ad to see if anyone got angry, or for that matter, whether anyone responded to it as an actual ad. Viewers who email PleaseSugarMe@gmail.com get an automated reply saying that 26 million Americans visited dating service websites in December and that the industry’s annual revenues come to $304 million, Nolte said. They also will be told the billboard was a student project.
“The fact that somebody called the newspaper about it, that’s wonderful,” Nolte said. “We’re so happy about that.”
© 2011 syracuse.com. All rights reserved.
