Walking downtown today, I had a double take DUCK! sighting. My road sign art installation is on King William Street- it’s up! Thank you to Steve Newberry for helping me with some digital translations on the project. The location is perfect next to the Listor Block building where once decayed bricks were known to fall into pedestrian traffic, but today is resplendent in its beautiful restoration.
The Road Sign Project is a production of Centre3 for Print and Media Arts in Hamilton, Ontario, presented in partnership with Atelier Imago in Moncton, New Brunswick. The two art centres each invited eight artists to create road signs that incorporate the vernacular and syntax of email and text messaging.
Download The Road Signs Brochure walking / bike tour and map of all 16 road signs located in downtown Hamilton.
This project has been in the works for a long time, and it has finally come to fruition! Come celebrate and see all the signs photographed as installation at Centre3 art opening on May 10, 2013, or join the walking tour on Saturday May 11th, to view all of the signs in their downtown Hamilton habitats and participate in voting for a road sign t-shirt design, and win one for yourself!
Artist Statement:
Kaomoji is a Japanese emoticon meaning face marks or face characters. Unlike western emoticons, Kaomoji is viewed horizontally, and is creatively created by punctuations, option keys, kanji, katakana and hiragana characters as well as roman letters. Using a kaomoji duck on a caution sign, makes a humourous traffic warning for overhead hazards like falling glass from poorly constructed condos; falling bricks from Hamilton’s deteriorating neglected heritage buildings or when driving under the crumbling Gardiner Expressway, …in general,
a warning sign for oncoming hazards on life’s unpredictable path when the city and corporation keep passing up the response-ability.
