This publication and exhibition explore the typically Dutch tradition of
publicly displaying homemade photo collages throughout streets and
neighborhoods in celebration of a person's 50th birthday. Almost
reminiscent of missing pet posters, amateur portrait photographs are
distributed and displayed by being taped onto lamp posts and stapled to
trees by friends or relatives, at the mercy of public opinion. Exposed
to judgment and ridicule by friends, family, and strangers, due to the
usually demeaning nature of the photographs through unflattering holiday
photos and the likes, individuals are exposed, raised out of anonymity
and placed in the public eye.To an extent the street becomes an
exhibition space for the non art-oriented person. It's a document of the
democratization of the public domain, through a tradition which allows
artistic expression and experimentation for anyone, under the gaze of a
watchful even if disengaged audience.
The presented collection of posters, possibly a study of non-intentional
art under the scrutiny of the public eye, constitutes an archive and an
ode to amateur, homemade graphic design, made possible through the
democratization of artistic means and software such as word art, paint,
and clip art. A non-hierarchical demonstration of taste and aesthetic is
catapulted into the streets and now gathered in the exhibition space.
Perhaps involuntarily, the posters bear a sense of humor and irony to
the rest of the onlooking public.
