FREE!
In the summer of 2018, I began collecting homemade “free” signs (replacing each sign I took with a handmade sign of my own so as not to disrupt the exchange of goods) and accumulated a growing collection of roughly 350. The word FREE, repeated over and over along local roadsides, began to seem like a mantra— or a call to action. FREE! has been exhibited at Gravity Gallery in North Adams (MA) and at Gallery Kayafas in Boston, both times as site-specific installations with the collected signs hung densely from floor to ceiling. The intended effect is a meditation on the meaning of the word “free.” Taken out of the original roadside context, the word shifts in meaning from free of charge to freedom, from a description to a command. Through intense repetition, even that meaning can change in the viewer’s experience. What does it mean to be free? Who is free? Who isn’t free?
Select Signs From the Collection:
