Advertising Space: Q&A With Lead Pencil Studio

Last week we saw images of an amazing art installation circulating around the web (photos above). The deconstructed faux-billboard “advertising” empty space and cloudy skies captured our imagination and was a welcome and refreshing break from the constant barrage of product placement we’re confronted with each day. Intrigued, we decided to reach out to the artists responsible, Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studio, to find out more about the public art project, their inspirations and the construction of the piece.

The installation, which is situated in the town of Blaine, Washington along the U.S.-Canada border, was commissioned by General Services Administration as part of their Excellence in Design and the Arts program. It seems quite a provocative work to be funded by a federal organization, but we suppose that only makes the piece more special. It just goes to show, everyone appreciates being reminded of natures stunning beauty from time to time, and the simple sense of wonder one can experience just staring at the sky.

The Creators Project: What was the inspiration for the project?
Lead Pencil Studio: Obviously, there’s some commentary on the advertising/billboard-saturated landscape…In a word, to turn advertising against itself and, if only for a moment, to see again the world beyond. We generally take our inspiration from conditions found in the everyday and for this site there is nothing more so than the ubiquity of signage along the freeway.

Why the decision to lend the structure a deconstructed, scaffold-like aesthetic?
Going back to a couple of studies we did in 2000 and 2002, we’ve long been interested in giving substance to the vectors surrounding solid objects, drawing with straight wire and describing the atmosphere around solid forms as a way to dematerialize the world. We like the way it is neither here nor there, both coming and going.

Did you draw inspiration from the work of Antony Gormley for the arrangement and construction of the metal pieces?
No, but I can see how you could think that. Though the technique is similar, it really goes back to the 1950s at least. If we had to pinpoint our artistic inspiration it would be Giacometti’s early line paintings and a Japanese sculptor, Katsumi Murakami, whom we met in the late ’80s. The direct antecedent of this piece was created in 2002 and titled Inversion I employing the same sculptural technique as Non-Sign II. It’s smaller in scale but the desire to capture negative space by building an atmosphere around the form is the same.

How did you install and construct this piece?
It was constructed in our studio in six parts with the help of two assistants during a nine month period. We transported pieces to the site and spent two weeks welding them together to create the final form.

What role does technology play in your artistic practice?
We use technology primarily as a research tool (lately using LIDAR to scan negative space in Rome and New York) and occasionally during fabrication (laser cutting, CNC and 3D Printing).

How did you come to carve out this niche of architecture meets art installation? What is most compelling to you about this particular intersection?
We worked as studio assistants under established artists and took a lot of art courses when we were going through architecture school and worked at nights in an art studio while interning at architecture firms. The overlap was inevitable because our primary interest between the disciplines was space and it always seemed like it was more interesting and useful to approach the subject from multiple perspectives.