Sanchez billboard displayed

Art is moving from the galleries to the streets, through Milledgeville’s first public art billboard.

Richard Lou, chair of the Georgia College & State University art department, invited Robert J. Sanchez, a renowned artist in San Diego and a teacher of art and art history, to come to Milledgeville to create the billboard.

Sanchez collaborated with Lou on the creation and promotion of the billboard.

“If we are correct, not only is this is an important art event, but it is also an historical event in regards to public art in Milledgeville,” Lou said.
“The artist is challenging the notion that art is strictly confined to the gallery and museum context and, in actuality, placing art within a much more public arena.”

“I like the idea of extending my work, at times, into the realm of a larger scale and more importantly, into the realm of the public arena,” Sanchez said.

The billboard is broken down into three quadrants with a sky scene as a background. The first quadrant has the words time and history and has the image of blood on it. The second quadrant has the words space and mystery and has an earth image. The third quadrant has the words memory and prophecy and has the image of bones suspended in the air.

“The work itself I meant as a poetic piece. By that I mean I obviously wanted to use a combination of language, words and image,” Sanchez said. “So the words time, space, memory, history, mystery and prophecy are meant to resonate. If you look at the image, it is basically a backdrop of sky and clouds, a central image that is a surface of earth.
Those are all very primal images, things that are part of us and a part of nature. The overlay of the two right and left panels are very primary images in terms of the human body, blood drops and bones that are suspended in the air. How one interprets it will be different. Whether it’s in the political way that has to do with what’s going on right now, or with the spilling of blood and the idea of the bones as a connotation for death, and also as a celebration of the spirits of those who have passed on. It can go either way. I tried to use a range of those words and images as archetypes.”

Lou compares the art billboard to a form of advertising.

“Sanchez is subverting the language of commerce/business with his probing questions about history and prophesy, space and memory, time and mystery,” Lou said. “He has employed the same advertising strategies of inserting images into the everyday milieu, but instead of seeking material profit he seeks a more elusive dividend.”

Sanchez and Lou are unsure about what the general public’s reaction to the billboard will be.

“Maybe I’m being a bit idealistic to think that the general public will get all that, but you will never know if you don’t attempt to really do things that give a lot of the general public the benefit of the doubt,” Sanchez said. “There are a lot of people out there who read, who are interested in poetry and poetic images, who don’t necessarily always want to feed into the ready made, instantaneous message that you get in
consumerism and advertising. I think if it strikes just a few people, then it makes it worth while.”

“Community members without the intention of viewing art will see art mixed in with their common everyday experience of driving, walking, bicycling to or from work, school, meals, shopping seeing car ads, mower ads, Habitat for Humanity ads, funeral services ads,” Lou said.
“Art could act as a respite, and/or amplifier, and/or a new conceptual frame to re-view what they see everyday. The street becomes an art venue. The street and all of its signs become filtered in a new way and the art billboard acts as a coding and de-coding device. It is a way where people in transit become a potent metaphor for transition, earth in transition, sky, blood, memory, history and prophecy in transition. It is all fixed within our momentary physical world and, in transition, in our prophetic world.”

Sanchez is very grateful and overwhelmed to have been given this opportunity.

“I am really very appreciative to all the faculty, especially Richard Lou, Valerie Aranda and their families, who are very close to me because I knew them in San Diego, and all the other people that I have met in the art department,” Sanchez said. “Students, faculty and staff alike have been so generous with their time and having me come out.”

Sanchez has also facilitated an art trade between GC&SU and his home community. Two student artists from San Diego are here to present their work to the Milledgeville art community.

“I am also creating an exchange show of student work from our campus in San Diego and the Milledgeville art department students. My students’ work will be up here and we will be having a reception this Friday at Valerie’s studio,” Sanchez said. “Then, when I go back to San Diego, the work from the students here will be taken out and will be shown out there. For me, it’s an important way to facilitate a dialogue with very different, yet very similar cities. What I mean by similar is that there are a lot of generous individuals who are very honest and willing to go that extra step to understand diversity or the difference between art from other places.”

The billboard is situated on the east side of 527 N. Jefferson. The artwork faces north. The billboard is currently scheduled to run through May 7. For more information on the billboard call 478-445-4572.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 18 2003. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry