L.A. artist Susanna Battin‘s latest work engages in a one day action (this Friday, Dec 2) to restore the horizon normally blocked by a billboard on the 15 Freeway. The digital image will be viewable on the Southbound 15 after the 91 interchange and is best seen from the second from the left lane. The work is part of the artists exploration of the interactions between the manmade and the natural. Keep reading for the full project description, show times, and map link.

We caught up with Battin over email for a quick couple of questions:

Are you a frequent freeway driver?

I limit my freeway driving to only include visits to my grandma, who lives off of the interstate 15 where the new installation is to be shown, and making other long distance trips.

What’s your favorite taco in LA?

Favorite Taco in LA is from La Fuente #6 in Highland Park.

WINDOW

Susanna Battin

Viewable from Interstate 15 in San Bernardino, CA on Friday Dec 2, 2011

‘Window’ is a photographic landscape installation that will be up for a single day. The work uses a digital billboard that typically obscures a small section of the Santa Ana Mountains off of Interstate 15. In this piece, a photograph of what can be seen directly behind the billboard is displayed on the billboard’s surface in an attempt to repair the visually severed mountain range.

Los Angeles freeway commuters briefly witness the billboard transform into a window. The billboard appears first as a separate figure from the surrounding mountain range. As the viewer drives south its image aligns and then dissolves into the background for a fleeting moment. For this second, a view of the past -before the billboard was constructed- may be seen in a frame of present day media. This window offers an alternative vision to the advertising that dominates roadside landscapes and questions how the human relationship with the natural world is mediated by our experience as consumers.

The Santa Ana Mountain Range is a key topographical feature in the city of San Bernardino. Lying directly east of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, San Bernardino captures much of the smog blown east on daily ocean breezes from its larger westward neighbors. 13 of San Bernardino’s varying smog conditions are visually represented in the piece.

‘Window’ is part of my broader exploration of the interactions between manmade and natural environments and human perception.

The San Bernardino Billboard Art Project, organized by David Morrison, is sponsoring the presentation of my work.

Window’s show times are:
2:50 am
6:28 am
10:06 am
1:44 pm
5:22 pm
9:00 pm

They warn:
Times are approximate only – as the show progresses, it may fall behind from the times listed in the schedule due to processing lag time.

Directions:

‘Window’ is best viewed in the second from the left lane while driving south on Interstate 15 after the 91 Freeway interchange and before the East Ontario Ave exit. Please drive safely! See map for viewing route.

MAP

Thank you to BLDG BLOG for bringing this project to our attention.

This year in Los Angeles we’ve seen a Wikileaks billboard, End of the World billboards, a Billboard takeover by Banksy, and now a billboard begging Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to tweet about puppy mills. It seems like a crazy way to get attention, but it just might work– we’re covering it, after all. If it does, will we see a wave of Celebrity extortion via billboards, demanding tweets for this cause or that one? How about one begging Lady GaGa or Justin Bieber to tweet “Free Revok”?

MyCityofLA

The boards will show the composite images of the pair, and ask for any information the public may have. The company issued a statement explaining why they wanted to help: “We, at Lamar Advertising of Los Angeles, are honored to assist the Stow family and the LAPD, as well as the Dodger and Giant organizations, in the capture and arrest of the suspects in the Attempted Murder of Brian Stow on Opening Day. It is our hope that our contribution will help put an end to this tragedy and start the healing process.”

You may have noticed billboards like the one pictured above sprouting up for the past few months all over Los Angeles. They’re not just here, they’re all over the country with the same message– the Apocalypse is coming on May 21st. The signs are sponsored by two groups affiliated with Christian preacher Harold Camping of Family Radio, who believes he has pinpointed the precise day of the rapture, the end of times, and Christ’s returning to Earth. He did this by working out mathematically-based prophecies in the Bible for the past three decades.

According to Camping, the number five equals “atonement”, the number ten equals “completeness”, and the number seventeen equals “heaven”.

Thus, Camping concludes that 5 x 10 x 17 is telling us a “story from the time Christ made payment for our sins until we’re completely saved. What that means for me and you is that (as of this writing) there are only 15 days to get ready for the big day! So what can we do?

First of all, leave your church. Camping has been very clear that leaving your earthbound church is important before the rapture comes. Second, don’t be gay. Camping has stated that Gay Pride is a major factor in the end of the world coming.

If you’re really worried about this, one thing that might give you small comfort is that Camping previously predicted the end of the world would come in September of 1994. He later said that a mathematical error lead to this mistake, and he’s sure that this time he’s got it right.

Ron English had some fun on April Fool’s Day down at the Texas/US border, putting up the three pieces documented here. We’re big fans of Ron’s brand of fun. You can click all the images to see bigger versions, and there are more on Ron’s website Popaganda.

We missed this video when it came out 3 years ago. Featuring the mighty Augor and his billboard liberation missions. Great to hear directly from AUGS and see him in action. Also features Too Tall Jamhal of the immortal 50MM.

A group called Support Wikileaks Los Angeles has raised money and placed a billboard supporting the revolutionary website Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. The billboard is up at the southeast corner of Highland and Santa Monica Blvds.

Photo by KZERGABEGALLERY which has so many more.

You know the tide has turned when a company actually wants to have anti-corporate graffiti subverting their corporate signage. But Banksy is big business these days, no matter if he is a subversive  force who’d rather compare the working stiff to a monkey than paint his name endlessly and sell t-shirts. Las Vegas-based company The Light Group is super pissed off that billboard company CBS has removed its L.A. billboard, which is thought to have been re-worked by Banksy. Heavy speculation has placed Banksy in L.A. for The Oscar he’s nominated for (in other news, he’s actually invited to the show now) and recently the billboard was liberated subverted to show an intoxicated Mickey Mouse hanging with a loaded Minnie Mouse. If it’s a real Banksy, ker-ching, it could be worth a zillion-and-a-half dollars. So guess what happened?

So when CBS took down the piece this week in service of the company renting their billboard space, a fight erupted between the two companies and was caught by those ominpresent devils at TMZ. A spokesmen for The Light Group tells Fox News that they loved the reworked billboard to the point that it almost seems like these guys sees their previous billboard as the crap pile depicting a bullshit fantasy about Las Vegas that it was. Okay, they don’t admit that, but the guy clearly has the hots for Banksy, telling Fox News, “We were flattered Banksy tagged on our ad — it was epic.” This would actually all make a pretty funny Banksy stunt in its own, getting a bunch of corporate cogs to fight over his vandalism to prove just how down they are. Either way, don’t expect such a warm reception (or zillions of dollars in anything but fines) next time you climb up there.

REVOK1.com