British artist Robert Montgomery lights up Berlin with his haunting statement pieces
If designer James Victore is right and advertisers do think you’re stupid, artist Robert Montgomery shows where they’re missing out. His poetic text-based works—which he typically plasters across existing billboards—are hardly dumbed down or subliminal. Instead, Montgomery challenges the general public with eloquent statements on relevant topics spanning world politics to modern hipster aesthetic. This summer Montgomery is taking over Berlin with a new range of works at the unused Tempelhof Airport and beyond, in a citywide exhibition dubbed “Echoes Of Voices In High Towers.”
Working in what he calls “melancholic post-situationist tradition,” Montgomery creates his own black-and-white signs that tap into the collective conscious and shake it up with extensive thought-provoking assertions, which include sound bites like “Here comes the cabriolet edition of capitalism and the end of an empire you were too conceited to even protect.” His prose-like style feels like a Missed Connections ad addressed to the world passing by, reminding us of our potential while letting us know of opportunities lost.
Montgomery seemingly has a small fascination with light and the effect it can have on a person. Several of his works make mention of this in a series dubbed “Recycled Sunlight Pieces.” Still as potent as his socio-political works, these lyrical pieces—done in both billboard style and as neon installations—speak to the universal truth that we’re all human and no matter our religious beliefs or other differences, everyone has dreams, everybody hurts sometimes and essentially we’re all in this together.
Curated by Neue Berliner Räume, Montgomery’s first solo exhibition in Germany currently includes ten billboard poems around Berlin, five at the Tempelhof Airport (including two neon Light Poems) and more to come this September. “Echoes Of Voices In High Towers” runs through October 2012.
See more images in the slideshow below.
