Stacy Conradt
The Quick 7: Seven Pieces of Unapproved Signage
by Stacy Conradt - July 21, 2010 - 3:35 PM

q10

Yesterday’s post about graffiti turned up some interesting info on a similar phenomenon sometimes referred to as Unapproved Signage (sometimes it doubles as installation art). Unapproved or not, I’d be intrigued to find any of these in my town – here are a few of my favorites.

1. Roundabout dog. These little guys were originally Swedish installations but have since started spreading across Europe. An official, city-sanctioned piece of art was commissioned and installed in the middle of a grassy roundabout in Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden, in 2006 (pictured). It was vandalized and then removed. An anonymous artist replaced the concrete dog with a wooden one. Someone else felt that Rover could use a bone for his hard work guarding the roundabout and provided him with a concrete one. As soon as the community art project was reported, similar dogs started popping up in roundabouts and traffic islands across the country.

2. Toynbee tiles. Several hundred of these mysterious tiles have been discovered in at least 24 U.S. cities and three South American cities since the 1980s. The tiles have been anonymously placed in the ground and say something along the lines of the one pictured (“Toynbee Idea/In Kubrick’s 2001/Resurrect Dead/On Planet Jupiter”). “Toynbee” refers to historian Arnold Toynbee who had some strong opinions on the rise and fall of civilizations, such as “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” Hmm. Some investigation shows that the tiles are made of linoleum and then cemented into place, but that’s about as much as we know about them. Although there are some suspicions as to who made the original tiles (some are thought to be copycats) no one has come forward to officially claim them.

3. Yarnbombing. You’ve probably seen coffee cozies – instead of being wasteful and using a new cardboard holder at Starbucks every day to protect your fingers from piping hot coffee, some people knit themselves reusable coffee cozies. Well, yarnbombing is basically the same concept, except they’re more along the lines of handle cozies, tree cozies, and monorail post cozies. Really. Radical knitters leave their mark by covering a public piece in knit when no one is looking. It’s a little silly and a lot fun, I think.

4. The Valentine Phantom/Valentine Bandit. Wouldn’t it be sweet (or nauseating, I suppose) to wake up on Valentine’s Day and find your town peppered with hearts? That’s what happens every year in Montpelier, Vermont. Overnight, an anonymous person (or people, probably) pick a spot in town to decorate with love. In recent years, hearts have been spotted on the State House, at the local high school, on a prominent bridge overpass, at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. And Montpelier isn’t the only town that has a Bandit – similar incidents have happened in Portland, Maine, and Boulder, Colorado.

5. Adult Swim bomb scare. In 2007, Adult Swim scared the crap out of the public when they embarked upon a PR campaign that apparently looked a little too much like a bomb for the liking of some people. They created some printed circuit boards that, when lit up, showed a Mooninite, a character from the Adult Swim show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Most people likened the device to a fancy Lite-Brite. The circuit boards were installed in high traffic areas like overpasses and subway stations. Unfortunately, not everyone recognized the character and panic ensued when one of them was called in as a bomb. Once the Boston Bomb Squad exploded one of these devices to see what it was, they determined that it wasn’t dangerous.

6. The Bubble Project. An artist named Ji Lee printed 15,000 stickers that looked like comic strip speech bubbles. Then he installed them on billboards and advertisements all over New York city, leaving them blank to see what people would decide the people in the ads were really thinking. The project proved to be quite popular with the public and quickly spread to other cities. You can see some examples of them at TheBubbleProject.com.

7. Father Pat Noise. Want to buy a commemorative plaque for your deceased loved ones, but don’t quite have the budget to make the donation it would likely require? No problem – make your own and install it when no one is looking. That’s what a couple of brothers in Dublin did in 2004. They made a very official-looking plaque and placed it in a depression in the O’Connell Bridge left from the control box of a millennium countdown clock that had been removed. It read:

THIS PLAQUE COMMEMORATES


FR. PAT NOISE


ADVISOR TO PEADAR CLANCEY.


HE DIED UNDER SUSPICIOUS

CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN HIS

CARRIAGE PLUNGED INTO THE

LIFFEY ON AUGUST 10TH 1919.


ERECTED BY THE HSTI

It was there for more than two years before it was discovered to be a hoax; the brothers said it was a tribute to their father. “Pat Noise” was supposed to be a play on the Latin phrase “pater noster,” meaning “our father.” Word is that the plaque is still there.

Have you spotted anything like these?

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Comments (19)

  1. The plaque for Father Pat Noise is totally still there. We saw it when we went to Dublin last spring. Our tour guide told us that when the city tried to have it removed, after it was found to be a hoax, the public at large made such a fuss (leaving flowers, candles etc) the city finally gave up and left it there. Good to know the fine citizens of Dublin have a marvelous sense of humor. :)

    posted by Nicabean on 7-21-2010 at 4:09 pm

  2. Yay for Yarn bombing! I got a great picture of one done during Stampede on my street. Nothing quite as massive as the one pictured, but who ever put it up also hung knit birds and felt flowers from the branches. It made my day! I hope it wasn’t done by a tourist because I hope to see more.

    posted by Sarah in Canada on 7-21-2010 at 4:23 pm

  3. Artist D.Billy does a brisk trade in guerilla signage:
    1. http://andiamnotlying.com/2010/free-fun-prizes-new-site-intervention-from-d-billy/
    2. http://andiamnotlying.com/2009/antbattle-fountainofyouth/
    3. http://andiamnotlying.com/2009/whoyougonnacall/
    4. http://andiamnotlying.com/2008/dbilly-street-interventions/

    posted by And I Am Not Lying on 7-21-2010 at 4:46 pm

  4. In Raleigh, we had the Barrel Monster: http://www.newraleigh.com/articles/archive/barrel-monster-spotted-on-hillsborough-street/

    posted by Kathleen on 7-21-2010 at 5:43 pm

  5. Local to Richmond VA (but has also spread internationally)is the the Real Small Art League. Here’s a bit from their website (www.realsmallart.com):
    “Real Small Art League is an ongoing effort to inspire random acts of artistic kindness and creative awareness. A growing number of artists make, post, document and give away tiny works in surprise locations. We believe a little work of art can go a long way.”

    In 2007, the Real Small Art League began posting art in publicly approved areas, community bulletin boards, creative businesses or free art exchanges around the world. International collaborations lead to group exhibitions in England, Singapore, Australia and Canada. Within six months, nearly 200 artists had contributed to the project.”

    Not as guerrilla as some of the other stuff mentioned – but definitely brings a smile to people’s faces!

    posted by Kate on 7-21-2010 at 5:54 pm

  6. Do random zombie signs count? I was driving to work a couple months ago and passed one of those lighted marque signs with the flashing arrow that said “Zombies turn here”.

    I actually turned around to drive by it a second time and make sure it really said what I thought it said. It was only up a couple days before someone removed the letters (sign is owned by the city for public announcements). I’m in Texas… apparently this happens a lot down here.

    posted by Sam on 7-21-2010 at 6:02 pm

  7. Sam, I remember that sign. Wasnt it off MLK?

    posted by izzi on 7-21-2010 at 6:53 pm

  8. In a similar concept, in 1976 a lot of communities painted just about everything red white & blue for the Bicentennial. Some people thought it would also be great to paint the fire hydrants so they fit in with the color scheme.
    Small problem.
    The paint scheme of a fire hydrant quickly gives key information to a fireman before he connects a hose to it. Essentially the colors of the body, arms, and cap are a 3 digit number. Suddenly they were showing up, trying to put out a fire, and had no idea what pressure the hydrant had – or even if that hydrant was working.
    Okay, maybe not so small problem.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 7-21-2010 at 8:59 pm

  9. hi

    posted by Cilia on 7-21-2010 at 9:18 pm

  10. There’s an installation near the Berkeley-Oakland border with ‘HERE’ and ‘THERE’ facing each other across an intersection (it’s based on a quote from Gertrude Stein, referring to where she grew up in Oakland). Oaklanders, who, somewhat rightly, have Rodney-Dangerfield syndrome, are not particularly fond of this sculpture. So a group of knitters bombed the ‘T’ a little while back. Now both sides say ‘HERE’. :) Or at least they did the last time I was up that way. Folks in Berkeley weren’t too pleased with the ‘vandalism’, though, so it may have been ripped down since.

    http://oaklandnorth.net/2010/05/30/guerilla-knitters-yarn-bomb-sculpture-on-oakland-berkeley-border/

    posted by Katie on 7-21-2010 at 9:41 pm

  11. I was just about to mention the Barrel Monster,but Kathleen got it with a reference.*thumbs up* That was something that unnecessarily got a lot panties in a bunch.

    posted by lisaj6112 on 7-21-2010 at 9:54 pm

  12. I haven’t personally seen these around Indianapolis, but I’m sure they are more prevalent in the New York City/ Los Angeles areas:

    “You Don’t Need It” (Anti-Advertising Stickers).
    http://antiadvertisingagency.com/2006/11/26/you-dont-need-it-stickers-2/

    posted by TheMikeBrown on 7-21-2010 at 10:23 pm

  13. As a teenager my friends and I would glue red puff balls from the craft store on the deer crossing signs so that they became more festive. The county left one sign up for three years until they redid the road. I still think about doing it again with the sign I can see out my window.

    posted by minnesota on 7-21-2010 at 11:23 pm

  14. At my university someone put stick-on googly eyes onto bike racks, fire hydrants, and benches.

    posted by scr on 7-22-2010 at 5:00 am

  15. Toynbee tiles are all over in Philadelphia! It’s great to see the corner of one, and day by day watch more appear as cars drive over the asphalt that initially covers the tile. Some people keep track of them, and report when new ones pop up.

    posted by Caden on 7-22-2010 at 5:22 am

  16. The Sign as you enter Baltimore, Maryland has frequently been vandalized. Following the “Welcome to Baltimore” is painted the word “hon”.

    Also the railroad bridge crossing the Capital Beltway near the Mormon Temple in Silver Spirng is often painted with “Surrender Dorothy” in homage to the Wizard of OZ.

    posted by Chris on 7-22-2010 at 10:45 am

  17. I wish someone would plant poppies around the Surrender Dorothy sign in Baltimore. That would be pretty sweet….

    posted by Dex on 7-22-2010 at 12:54 pm

  18. When we were in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico there were these neon dogs spray painted everywhere (from a stencil). We never figured out what it meant, if anything, but they were EVERYWHERE.

    We tried to ask some people but they just laughed and shook their heads.

    posted by Anna on 7-22-2010 at 1:52 pm

  19. In Amarillo, Texas local artist and eccentric Stanley Marsh 3 has put up all sorts of bizarre road type signs and the Cadillac Ranch of course. More here at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Marsh_3

    posted by GinaC on 7-29-2010 at 6:25 pm

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