liz sergeant
Talking of Hope – A Portrait of President Obama
Poster on station billboard 85cm x 90cm
March 2009
The portrait of President Obama was created from the text of his election victory speech in November 2008, a speech which moved people to tears and gave many a vision of hope. Reproduced as a large poster, copies were pasted onto billboards around the local train station at night, and discovered on Wednesday 1st April 2009, the day President Obama visited London for the G20 summit. There was a high police presence at the station that day, and by 6.30pm, all the posters had been removed.
By taking the work out into the public domain, it communicated directly with the local people; its presence was reported in two local papers, and comments were made on the website. Thus, an additional, unexpected context for the work developed as discussions were generated on line.