PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS OF SOCIAL VALUE
martin@martinfirrell.com
www.martinfirrell.com
OOH is a commercial powerhouse, we all know that.
But it is also one of the last places where different views can be aired in public for all to see equally. (None of that sneaky stuff socials indulge in.)
As the out-of-home industry’s no.1 public artist, I hear from people from all over the world, and this is what they tell me. They write to tell me a piece of my artwork on OOH has made their day. Or made their day more bearable. Sometimes they write years later.
They say they found a work affirming. That’s terrific and I love those reactions.
one of the last places where different views can be aired in public for all to see equally
But even more compelling are the people who do not agree. Often they ask me why I made a work and why did I choose to show it with OOH. ‘What’s that all about?’
I tell them I believe ‘art is for everyone’. And ‘liberty dies where there is agreement without thought or argument’.
One man told me he saw a work of mine with his young son at a bus stop. He asked his son what he thought about the poster. Then he told his son about public art. He asked him why art might be important, even if you don’t like it. They talked about free speech and creativity. The man told me he appreciated this opportunity to talk with his son in this grown-up and thought-provoking way.
“In the argument is where life is…” as my lovely friend, the novelist Howard Jacobson, put it.
I experience OOH as a profoundly important place of public debate. That is the ace up OOH’s sleeve. I believe different positions expressed openly and respectfully in public space are the safeguards of any democracy.
I experience OOH as a profoundly important place of public debate. That is the ace up OOH’s sleeve.
We all know OOH has its detractors but I would advise them to think about the value of a medium characterized by openness, by equality of access; and the immense importance of freedom, not just as an idea, but as something enacted, said outright, upfront and out there.
Without public debate — and without OOH as a channel for debate — our cities would be poorer. Art freely given in public space, even when it expresses a view different from your own, makes life undeniably richer and fuller rather than poorer and meaner.
And richer and fuller is better.
The public artist Martin Firrell is internationally renowned for showing socially engaged artworks in collaboration with the global OOH industry.