Questioning Normality via Propaganda Banner Intervention!

After my experiments with my fly posting and billboard interventions (Billboards and Fly Posting) I was keen to take it to the next level and make a big statement using a banner. I had aspirations of something much larger, which may be something I go on to do, but this was the test piece to see how those ideas transferred to this presentation. 

I wanted to build on the idea of direct communication with both the environment that inspired these ideas and also the general public who most of my work is directed towards. It felt natural to use a location of one of our explorations also to display this as the building itself is typical of something so large and previously important that has now become overlooked and forgotten. 

One thing that did interest me was the idea of a banner that links with protest movements and bold revolutionary statements. For the presentation itself to conjure up a historical and political back story and how much impact and strength that can add to the message. For the placement of the banner to be a message of freedom itself and a statement of questioning.

I chose to write "Escape The Everyday" on this banner to play with the idea of an entrapment within the everyday routine, to again question what we are forced to do everyday and spend our time and money on. To ask whether we can make the most of our everyday by challenging ourselves and moving of of that comfort zone. 

To place this on something like a derelict factory to show the strange, fascinating and dangerous side to the everyday, to show what you pass everyday , to provide and escape route and to highlight and alternative narrative running alongside that everyday. 

I also like the idea within this that the statement is something which cannot be agreed with or rubbished on the spot as it requires some deciphering to understand it's message. I it feel produces something which will promote an individual reading and also bring up questions of how it was actually put there and by whom. 

The banner itself was surprisingly easy to rig but required a different approach than we had originally expected and shows how planning can help especially if time is an issue. Although I am pleased with how this turned out, especially as a test piece for a potentially larger and more prominent banner, it does show how something which looks big initially can suddenly become quite small when taken out and placed upon a building like this.