"Post No Bills, Post Pretty Art" May 2009

this text taken from the general art call produced in '09:

‘Post No Bills, Post Pretty Art’ (PNB-PPA) is an urban regeneration project in downtown Edmonton at the derelict Mayfair Hotel on the corner of Jasper Avenue and 108 St. NW. Using the boarded up windows as a canvas, I am encouraging temporary works of art in an open call/challenge to other Edmonton area artists to make this derelict site a fantastic urban moment during the summer of 2009.


To start things off, the creation of three panels of temporary artwork and a postered ‘Post No Bills, Post Pretty ART” encourages you to produce thoughtful and playful work on the remaining panels.


As this is a temporary site, I primarily see this as a large, public sketchpad project. All the initial projects(see pics enclosed) are temporary works and intend to be taken down, reproduced and recycled as, hopefully, future work appear on the boarded up panels. Barring the City doesn’t remove the artwork by weeks end (or even if they do...), I think there’s incredible potential to do something amazing in this depressed area---it’s an urban regeneration project from an artist’s perspective!

I hope ‘Post No Bills, Post Pretty Art’ establishes an alternative, distinct and unique urban regeneration project that pushes an energetic and highly visible art scene in Edmonton and, more importantly, can make the city a more interesting and fun place to live.


For those who might be offended by the “pretty” moniker in the project call, it is intended to be a wryly ironic sentiment of art often conceived through an institutional, commercial and ultimately bureaucratic level where the art produced ultimately becomes ‘watered down’ and ‘neutral’ and the general sentiment from the client is to simply make the work look “pretty.” Here, ‘pretty’ in our moniker becomes quite the opposite--it is a challenge to create art that is a free rein for artistic vision removed from such bureaucratic constraints.

--
After this had been done, I got some interesting press and I also met a pretty awesome guy named Steve Teeuwsen who is editor of the most excellent Notebook magazine that focuses on Edmonton artists in a spectacularly and professionally presented quartely mag.(it's actually printed on that super glossy stiff paper and it definitely has a 'weight' to it). He's looking at doing an art jam through more legal means at mayfair hotel, and I totally appreciate that he's willing to take the project to that next level. Very cool to know that Edmonton, despite general sentiment, really does have incredible potential to be an art gem...