Billboards Series

Throughout her ongoing art-installation practice - making temporary structures and architectures for the viewer to enter and ‘experience’ for themselves – artist Helen Angell-Preece has begun to consider more and more the personal relationship between herself as maker and the audience/participant. In the process of asking us to feel or experience a particular sensation within the work, the Titles of the installations have begun to form a more direct and intimate invitation for the viewer to participate. E.g. Impression – A small space for you, Dance for me (feel this way).

With Title (me) she has isolated the titles from a series of sketchbook drawings, and elevated each of them to the status of artwork. By printing large and placing them directly into the urban environment on newspaper billboards, she explores the way our thoughts are over-layed onto the history and uses of buildings and streets as we walk them.

Each title, or text is a disconnected statement or feeling of love – for family, a friend or lover. The relationship to the audience is ambiguous – Is it speaking directly to you? And there is a tension created between the personal nature of the thoughts and their public manner of display. Above all, each Title is intended to be a small and beautiful thing, which may resonate in someone’s heart unexpectedly, and fleetingly.

With thanks to DC Thomson for kind support