School of Art, Media, and Technology

MFA Fine Arts Student Mark John Smith Has Work Showing in the London Underground

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Mark John SmithThe work was one of 20 works selected by the curators of public arts enterprise Art Below. With a wide range of international artists and its various campaigns in cities worldwide, the organization has an important position within the movement of contemporary art in public space. Art Below uses billboard space in underground stations to display artworks in London and overseas. Brothers Simon and Ben Moore (founder) first experimented with this idea by displaying the works of their friends on billboard space in major stations in the London underground. Since then the group has nurtured an international community of artistic talent and has displayed the works of over 2000 artists.

After working with London 2012 as an Inspire Project Director and creator of the LIVELIVE Project (www.liveliveproject.com), Mark has been able to continue the pursuit of his interest in the role of art within every day as a tool to inspire, educate and interact.

We got Mark John Smith (MFA ’14) on the line to discuss this project:

“This particular work is part of a much larger series of works exploring the notion of public space and thus perception/reception of art within these spaces. Designed to echo the esthetic of advertising posters, the work combines my photography with socially sourced text lifted from twitter using the location of the original image as a key for a newly appropriated context.

It was my intention in making the work to explore the notion of location and site, whilst highlighting the often overlooked discourse of the public on social platforms and its inherent transient nature.

Included on the poster is my twitter handle @untitled2010 it is hoped that this will evoke discussion and a new dialogue within the contextualizing media.”

Current iterations of the work include ‘Brooklyn’ ‘Singapore’ and ‘Hong Kong’.

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