On walls, and public fences. Seeking to pollinate passing minds with ideas that inspire action. Is the plant not worth the pollen? Billboards, giant neons, with corny axioms. There are signs everywhere, each one beckoning us toward a commercial transaction. In the metropolis the signs jostle for attention, the one behind hoping that it can out do the one in front of it by being a few inches higher. People will put signs anywhere. They’ll hand you flyers as you’re walking and stick them on vehicle windscreen. On walls, in public toilets, on the dashboards of commercial vehicles, on the kerbs, and on electric poles. And what funny names are on these signs; many of them eponymous, some of them concatenations. Signs which ultimately shoot their owners in the foot with varied contradictions.
Though a public relations avatar, the signboards are placed clearly without regard for the simple fact that positioning will define the context in which they will be perceived. Signs of contradictions, show how far, how low the bar has fallen. Contradictions we hardly notice because sadly, that’s where we are too. Do city dwellers, pundits and plaintiffs ever have the ability to see how base their existence has become until they move into a higher frame of reference? So what if you see a sign that offers “Garbage” while portraying the image of a “Cabbage”. What about the medium that carries the message, of what moment is it?
Is it just the evolution of language where phonetics and contextual use of words determine what meaning they should convey? Does it suggest quality, authenticity, deceit or simply that the blind are shepherding the blind along a downward spiral of comprehension.
