“Driving some ten thousand miles in the United States in the last two years, I have been struck by the proliferation of empty billboards. They are blank and mute, but not silent.
Many of these neglected or graffiti-strewn advertising surfaces reminded me of the large-format paintings popular during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s — abstract expressionist, minimalist, and early pop paintings whose expansive visions coincided with the rise of consumer and automobile culture in post World War II America. During that period of optimism and upward mobility, roadside billboard advertising suggested a future of unlimited material prosperity and idealism.
Today’s empty billboards tell a different story. Their blank surfaces promise nothing. Some possess a meditative calmness; others embody melancholy; still others seem merely remnants of times gone by. In I Am Your Mirror, each blank billboard seems to me a reflection of contemporary America. Collectively, they describe both fading dreams and new beginnings.”
Art Installation & Statement: O Zhang
Photographs: Stephen Wise
LOTUS EDITIONS 