Stop! In the Name of Love …

View Where the Love Sign hangs out in a larger map

Today, Love Signs can be found hanging in bedrooms and boardrooms from Noosa to New York.

In the map above are some of the places I know about …

Some 50-something cities and towns in a dozen or so countries.

If I’ve missed yours, please drop me a line. Or reply below.

I’d love to hear where you and yours hang out.

The Love Sign is now available at State of Boho in Torquay.

Download interactive PDF

I’m having a small exhibition in the toilet corridor of a gallery far, far away … But, hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

This is the first time my stuff has been exhibited collectively in a solo show. Well, it’s the first time I’ve had enough stuff to constitute a show of any sort. It’s also the first time my work has been exhibited in a public gallery.

There’ll be the road sign stuff, along with new works in other media—again, multiples—plus some one-off textual assemblage things I’m calling “sign writing”.

Hope to see a few of you at the opening. Hope a few others can get along to see the exhibition. Would love your thoughts and feedback.

Download invite.

Signs of Life website.

Another parental Love Sign owner tells me when the kids see a stop sign, they yell “That’s my Love Sign!”

I’ve now heard this from several different friends with Love Signs and kids.

Makes me smile. Just hope it won’t have repercussions when kids reach driving age …

[Pic: TW Moran]

Love Sign #400 in a bundle to Ardleigh Cleveland Gallery at Hyatt Regency Coolum. Hooray!

Out the back at Jamie’s Espresso Bar.

Determined to get hung alongside a real artist, by hook or by crook. (That’s Vernon Ah Kee to the left.)

Lovely old empty frame, crying out for something to fill it. Wonderfully aged and falling apart. We were very careful not to bump. Left behind by AP Signs—a former tenant of the building—Jamie tells me.

Thanks to my very handy mate Felix.

The  Gutteridge Gang, Brisbane

Greta, 10

Reilly, 8

Vincent, 5

Zara, 3

Fenna, 2 1/2, Haarlem, the Netherlands

Lily, 10, Brisbane

Elijah, 7, Brisbane

Jemima, 8, Brisbane

Stanton, 6, Brisbane

Hmmm … suspicious. Can’t vouch for the provenance of this one. It came in the Jemima/Stanton bundle, but it looks a lot like Jemima/Stanton’s MUM to me!

And the one that started it all …

Phoebe, 5 3/4, Brisbane

More about Love Kids! here.

Photo: Tim Pasmore

Signs of Life: text-based artworks by Alan James
Redland Art Gallery | 4 December 2011 – 29 January 2012
Middle & Bloomfield Streets Cleveland
Opening 11 am Sunday 4 December

 

Alan James is a freelance scribe based in Brisbane. He puts his pen to everything from marketing communications to interpretation.

In 2003, Al “wrote” an artwork—a stop sign that said “LOVE” instead of “STOP”. He called it “Stop! In the Name of Love”. The multiple edition piece came to be affectionately known as the “Love Sign”.

Since that time, Love Signs have been hung in group exhibitions and sold at galleries and shops in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. More than 400 have been produced to date. Today, Love Signs can be found hanging in bedrooms and boardrooms from Noosa to New York—some 50-something cities and towns in a dozen or so countries.

More recently, Al has been creating more verbal artworks. New roadsign works. New works in other media. More multiple editions. And some one-off poetic/textual assemblages.

Al’s wordy artworks spring from a love of the iconography and vernacular of signage—a desire first sparked by the work of Rosalie Gascoigne. They celebrate the visual and verbal elegance, the inherent beauty and wisdom—or otherwise—of the humble sign.

Conceptually, they respond to what the author sees as an increasingly heartless, mindless, humourless world—encouraging us to think, care and smile a bit more. Or to chill out, wise up and lighten up a little.

The Signs of Life exhibition at Redland Art Gallery will bring Al’s various text-based artworks together for the first time.

Remo (the man) at REMO (the general store) in Bondi

With Remo (himself) and Melanie (Mrs Remo)

Dear friends with Love Signs and kids

The other day I received this gorgeous pic from my friend Alison. Her daughter Phoebe made her own Love Sign.

Isn’t it beautiful? I think it’s better than the original, but don’t tell anyone.

Then another friend Jane saw it on Faffbook, and said she’d get her young Lila Jean on the case.

So I thought I’d spread the word, plant the seed, and see if some other kids would like to join the party. Should keep them occupied and out of trouble for an hour or so.

If you and yours would like to take part, I’d LOVE to see the results! And—if OK with you and the artist—post a pic on my website. If you like, you can post on the Love Sign Faffbook page.

If we get enough together, perhaps we could have a little exhibition or party or something.

There are no guidelines. Any medium/size will do. Pencil on paper, pastel on card, paint on face, spaghetti on floor, icing on cake.

I’ve attached a Love Sign template, if this helps. But don’t let it hold you back. Feel free to start from scratch, like Phoebe. Hell, it doesn’t even need to have eight sides!

How fun! I do love my friends’ children. They’re hilarious. And such cheap labour.

Thanks to Phoebe (and her parents) for spreading the Love.

big love

al

PS. If anyone can think of anyone I may have missed—especially retailers/galleries and your customers—please pass this on, or drop me a line.

Check out the Love Kids! gallery.