BECOMING RICHARD

Public art project on 278 advertisement billboards and bus stops across Reykjavík.


Digital images on LED screens with words written in large bold fonts in vivid colors. Most of the text is taken from the captions of the famous instagram works by artist Richard Prince while the color scheme and background combinations were borrowed from his images and paintings, primarily from the cowboy works and Nurse Paintings in combination with original images and text in the same spirit. Prince is known for appropriation in his own art and by incorporating his texts and colors into this body of work it becomes a play on stealing from a thief. The exhibition was rotating on billboards and bus stops scattered all around the city in the context of advertisement and city scapes. It took place around christmas in 2020, a time when people could not visit museums or art galleries due to COVID 19, this format proved to be an exciting new way of showing art in Reykjavík, leading to a series of artists showing their work in collaboration with the billboard company.