7: Afterglow
Reactions to the Billboard
Tours of Vision and the students and teachers at Palmyra-Macedon HS celebrate the message of LOVE
Bernard Stolmann, ESP Records, about the Love Billboard
I wasn’t able to be there for the whole time it was on display, but I managed to spend some time doing som video-interviews with people in front and around the Billboard. Most people didn’t know what the billboard was about, but when I pointed out that it was an artproject, most people connected the symbolism to peace. There was no indication from myside, that I wanted people to copy the idea, and do it alike. I was hoping that it would trigger that inner wish for peace inside of them, and that they then would act accordingly to that. I thought there might be a chanche, but of course the stakes where very high.
I also got introduced to Alvenia Bridges who lives around the corner. She used to be a famous model, very close the the rolling stones, friends with Jimmy Hendrix. She wanted to bring the story to the rolling stone magazine but wanted to know first, where the project is going to go afterwards. She wanted a clear goal and message, but there was no real plan from my side how to keep going and that kind a made the story obsolete for the magazine. That was it.
I keept thinking about what could be a clear goal… To promote a world in peace, to help… to inspire, to.… Whatever I thought it was never really right, maybe to big, to vague, to undefined. For some people peace means war. So it should for shure be clear that its about non-violence. One thing as a message I came up with was «Don’t turn violent in a moment of crisis». When the world get’s crazy, and people only see enemys, then maybe that might be the most important message to be remindet of. What ever you believe is right, dont use violence. Calme down, think again, try not to be part of the problem.
So I figured that its not so easy to define peace. Even we think that we know what it is. If we start to dig deeper, it might get complicated. What you read in the ABOUT page, was not that clearly formulated when the project happend. Its the result of many relfexions afterwards.
In the process I got contacted by Harold W. Becker who happend to create a global love day, right on that same day that we had our opening. And he as done it ever since, every year on May 1. You can read more about his project here. In general a similiar idea, but a bit different in its execution.
Mary Martin about the Love Billboard
More Interviews can be seen here
Below you see the only pressclippings we got:
