Part poetry, part enquiry into our collective unconscious, Robert Montgomery’s ‘Words in the City at Night’ project hijacks advertising space in the city replacing brands with melancholy, intimate messages that encourage reflection.
They are intended to be encountered by commuters who do not know that they are art, and attempt to describe in public space what it feels like to live now.
Robert Montgomery works in a public melancholic post-Situationist tradition. Since 2005 he has carried out his WORDS IN THE CITY AT NIGHT project where, echoing the Situationist concept of detournement, he hijacks advertising space in the city, often illegally. He covers illuminated advertising billboards with austere black posters with white letters, which assume the colour of the ad posters underneath and take their light, parasitically. His texts are part poetry, part an enquiry into our collective unconscious. They are intended to be encountered by commuters who don’t know they are art, and an attempt to describe in public space what it feels like to live now.
Robert Montgomery works in a public melancholic post-Situationist tradition. Since 2005 he has carried out his WORDS IN THE CITY AT NIGHT project where, echoing the Situationist concept of detournement, he hijacks advertising space in the city, often illegally. He covers illuminated advertising billboards with austere black posters with white letters, which assume the colour of the ad posters underneath and take their light, parasitically. His texts are part poetry, part an enquiry into our collective unconscious. They are intended to be encountered by commuters who don’t know they are art, and an attempt to describe in public space what it feels like to live now.
For more from Robert Montgomery check Dazed Digital for an interview, or robertmontgomery.org where you can find a biography and selected works.
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