Clet Abraham
I was walking through a small town in Tuscany recently and did a double take on this road sign that someone had modified into a witty graphic statement. Two things struck me about it beyond its cleverness. First, that the town was comfortable leaving this road sign in place, rather than freaking out about its mildly subversive nature. Secondly, that humor, while essential to our psychic well-being is rarely designed into our human-made world. Try to find examples of humor in any form of design, products, architecture, landscape, etc. and this becomes obvious. You might find a witty bumper sticker or billboard, but examples of humor on our streets are quite rare.
This is only logical. When it comes to the design of streets and public spaces in general we must first concern ourselves with issues of safety, no laughing matter. And we sometimes use design to make the urban environment friendlier by lining freeways or streets with trees, creating parks and fountains and public spaces that give us relief from the severe concrete character of the cities. But we stop short of injecting humor. Humor almost always pokes fun at some constituency, so it’s by definition not politically correct thus unlikely to get civic approval. So if we want to find humor we have to create it on our own as French artist Clet Abraham did with this piece.
Abraham has been performing these interventions around Europe, much to the displeasure of many city councils. Abraham does intend a serious message with his art – asking us to think twice about following instructions blindly. He believes that much public signage is done with sensitivity to the urban landscape. This may well be true, but I think the underlying humor far outweighs the didactic message of his work.
How refreshing and optimistic it would be if cyclists and motorists alike made their way through the streets with a sense of humor and with smiles instead of resentment on our faces. Imagine a Critical Mass of Comedy or a city bus with witty messages on its interior and exterior. It might be the antidote to aggression and road rage, or at least one way at coming at this problem.
 | Rob is the Chief PUBLIC Servant. He founded PUBLIC because of his belief that well-designed PUBLIC spaces are the bedrock of civilization. |