Art Photography Students Create Billboards

As part of the Non-Traditional Modes class taught by Laura Heyman, assistant professor of art photography, students were asked to research the history of artists' billboards and then divide into three teams, each of which produced its own billboard. The billboards were then hung at different locations throughout the city of Syracuse.

"We discussed the pieces while they were in process, but all of the work was the students' own," says Heyman. "As you can see, there's a wide range of work, from the overtly political to the highly conceptual."

The billboard by Alex Johnson '09, Emily Wathen '07, and Greg Pasternack '09 listed the number of soldiers killed in Iraq in a field of desert-style camouflage. The billboard by Jessica Martinez ‘09, Christine Kelley '09, and Aaron Siegel '10 exhorts the viewer to "Touch Somebody." Evita Sikelianos '09, Heidi Bungart '09, and Alejandra Arenas '07 posed the question, "What if this billboard weren't here?" and set out to make that happen, photographing the scene directly behind the billboard, and affixing that image to the front.

The Non-Traditional Modes class explores the myriad possibilities and reasons for producing work outside of the parameters of what is most commonly accepted as art, namely framed images hanging on the walls of a gallery or museum. "I lecture and discuss the work of artists whose work co-opts, challenges, and even eschews the gallery system, and I ask students to use those artists as models for their own production," says Heyman.