Public art billboard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Last Billboard in 2015 featuring a text by artist Kim Beck.
40°27′37″N 79°55′31″W / 40.46038°N 79.92516°W / 40.46038; -79.92516 The Last Billboard was a
public art
billboard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The art piece consisted of a 12-feet-by-36-feet steel frame billboard on which letters were arranged.
[1] Each month, artists were solicited to place a message on the billboard. It was curated by
Jon Rubin . The billboard was located at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Baum Boulevard in the
East Liberty neighborhood, above what was originally the building for
Waffle Shop: A Reality Show , a restaurant that was also conceptualized by Jon Rubin.
Schedule of guest artists 2013
Months
Artist
Message
January
Packard Jennings
these words hold / no power over you
March
Michael Crowe
intellect versus emotion / intellect wins / emotion starts crying
May
Anthony Discenza
think game of thrones / meets okcupid meets car / talk meets gertrude stein / meet duran duran
June
Maude Liotta
questions for my new blog: / who invented tape, / how were feelings discovered, / when did "skinny" become / fashionable.
July
Nina Katchadourian
the person standing / beside you, pointing at this / billboard, has brought you / here because it was too hard / to say "I am sorry" out loud.
August
Marc Horowitz
? / (323) 541 6361
November
Joshua Beckman
poem 206 427 7792
2014
Months
Author
Message
January
Matt Shain
photo / food / beauty / liquor / rx
April
Charlie Humphrey
i wonder some days / if facebook isn't a broad / all encompassing / cry for help
May
Adam Frelin
let's put loudspeakers / on the roofs of hospitals // let's announce births / and deaths as they occur
June
Lenka Clayton
think about / all the hours / forgotten plays / were rehearsed
September
The Janks Archive
you're so ugly that / you should be in a / museum of modern art
December
Jason Fulford
S A T O R / A R E P O / T E N E T / O P E R A / R O T A
2015
Months
Artist
Message
January - March
Kim Beck
today only / last chance! final day! / nothing held back / closing forever!
April
Sarah Keeling
ford & daughter / used tires / 704-370-3793 (varied by day)
May
Pablo Helguera
anulala a la luna
June
Milena Bonilla
the whole town's sleeping
July
Paul Ramirez Jonas
a i a / sky you sea / cloud crowd brook / hilltop company rivulet / highpoint multitude tributary
August
Taylor Shields
spry texts keep ducking up / ducking / duck / duck / nevermind
October
Jonn Herschend
close your eyes / and imagine that / i'm dancing so crazy fast
2016
Months
Artist
Message
February
Jim Christensen
anything / but / this
April
Lenka Clayton
tragically, / the world's oldest person / keeps dying.
June
John Riegert
just saw a hipster with / big headphones on top of / a knit cap, wearing a coat / i had worn for 20 years / and gave to goodwill.
July
David Horvitz
rachel carson / is my hero
October
Micah Lexier
a. f. k. / b. g. / c. h. / d. i. / e. j.
August
Neil Farber and
Michael Dumontier
you don't have to / open every door. / a door labelled hell, / for instance.
2017
Months
Artist
Message
March
Jon Rubin
a man whose daily work / is rewriting history / tries to rebel / by falling in love
May
Eric Gottesman
do not react to this.
June
Joseph Del Pesco
you don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows (following Part 1, a poem from Eugen Gomringer's book CONSTELLATIONS)
July
Tamara Shopsin
a tow truck / pulling / an ambulance
September
Brett Yasko
. / . / . . / . / . . / . / . / .
November
Laure Prouvost
ideally everything / will turn quiet / now
2018
Months
Artist
Message
March
Alisha Wormsley
there / are / black people / in the / future
Controversy
In March 2018, The Last Billboard's landlord, We Do Property, in response to complaints from community members who felt the sign was racist, removed Alisha Wormsley's text from the billboard.
[2] Jon Rubin, the billboard's founder and creator, responded in a statement in response to the removal:
I believe in the power, poetry, and relevance of Alisha’s text and see absolutely no reason it should have been taken down. I find it tragically ironic, given East Liberty’s history and recent gentrification, that a text by an African American artist affirming a place in the future for black people is seen as unacceptable in the present.
A public panel discussion about the text and its removal was hosted by the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in April or May 2018.
In April of 2018, The Last Billboard was removed.
Early billboard messages From mid-2009 to late 2012, while Waffle Shop was still operating, the billboard included content proposed and submitted by artists and regular people.
[1] Unlike the version of the billboard from 2013 onward, this early version switched out messages several times a month. Below is an in-depth, but not comprehensive, list of those messages.
[3]
2009
Months
Contributor
Message
May
Lenka Clayton
number of people who have / looked at this sign: / 55 (as it suggest, the number was updated manually when people looked at it)
2010
Months
Contributor
Message
February
Anonymous
community
amateur radio / all weekend long / in our bathroom / inquire within /
kf7nse
April
Anonymous ten-year-old boy
people think i'm a ghost. / i don't know, it's really / hard to tell. i'm kind of / like a ghost, and i might be invisible.
July
T. Foley
the airspace is public / property for the purposes / of sonic transmission.
July
Waffle Shop
things we need at the waffle shop / 1. a beautiful leafy plant / 2. three talk show hosts / 3. $75,000 / 4. a few 60 watt lightbulbs
August
Waffle Shop
things we need at the waffle shop / 1. a mostly leafy plant! / 2. one talk show host / $71,743 / 4. a new tv show idea
October
Waffle Shop
things we need at waffle shop / 1. a magician / 2. one talk show host / 3. animal masks / 4. a zookeeper
2011
Months
Contributor
Message
March
Steve Lambert
it's time to fight! / and / it's time to stop fighting!
March
Anonymous
is night worth preserving / or is it too much to ask / a void to fill a light / let the vacuum of / a lightbulb answer
May
Anonymous
global vegan waffle party / be kind / be healthy / redd up our planet n'at
June
Anonymous
capitalism / is / over! // if you want it
June
Anonymous
tell me who / your friend is / and i can tell you who / you are not! / ferhat ozgur
July
Anonymous
i was hoping / you might be interested, / but didn't know how to ask.
July
Anonymous
bring home the / international / space station
August
Anthony Discenza
we've tried everything
August
Anonymous
because we are / playthings of the gods, / playing is the most serious / of our activities
September
Anonymous
you may leave the 'burgh / but the 'burgh will never / leave you. / farewell justin & kristy!
November
Black Male Leadership Development Institute (BMLDI)
attention boosters! / athletes are paid to play / but will you pay academics / to learn
November
Anonymous
pokarekare ana / nga wai o waiapu, / whiti atu koe hine / marino ana e. (lyrics from "
Pokarekare Ana ", a traditional New Zealand love song)
November
Anonymous
empty every night.
December
Anonymous
facebook / hides in plain sight / nick yetsco state, / you cannot understand / unless you are in spy club.
December
Anonymous
shatter the chariots of kings
2012
Months
Contributor
Message
January
Anonymous
capturing adolf eichmann / is one thing. / freeing people's minds / so there are no more like / him is quite another
February
Anonymous
contendo ad astra
February
Anonymous
grow wilder
March
Kari Marboe
i love you is such an / enormous gift that i need / to house it here for a / week so that we can / use the apartment.
April
Lautanen
fate / (making connections / where there are / no connections) / you are mine
April
Anonymous
"like a tragic comedy, the u.s. / gov's actions have actually / helped the iranian gov / hurt the people of iran" / iranian american
May
Anonymous
love come / save me / may 28 2011
May
Anonymous
we offer / complete detachment / from all your / material needs
Anonymous
nature will regulate us.
References External links
