Greenpoint Avenue (Photo: QueensPost)
Jan. 13, 2015 By Christian Murray
A piece of public art went up today on a large billboard on Greenpoint Avenue—between 45th and 46th Streets.
The artwork has been installed by “14X48,” a non-profit organization that takes vacant billboards and then brightens them up through public art.
The Greenpoint Avenue billboard is now covered with a collage of 80-plus posters that all start with the slogan “Keep Calm.” Each poster has a separate message, such as: “Keep Calm and Kiss Me,” or “Keep Calm and play basketball.”
The slogan originated in Britain during WWII, with “Keep Calm and Carry On.” While the British did not use it, the slogan has since been used for marketing purposes.
The artist, Margeaux Walter of Brooklyn, said that that she chose the slogan since it addressed the “overlap between individuality and commerce as well as the various guises of advertising and propaganda.”
The artwork will be up for at least four weeks.
The artist also invites people to tweet messages using the hashtag #keepcalm14x48. These tweets will be made into postcards and distributed along Greenpoint Avenue and at Ave. Coffee House.
For more information, please click here.
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14 Comments
hey krissi… graffiti anoint stupid its art. KEEP CALM DO SOME GRAFFITI
It’s colorful, engaging, and current. It is way better than an empty frame. Keep ’em coming, but how about using local artists, rather than out-of-towners.
Not sure of the point of it, but I like it! There’s some empty billboards atop Rite Aid… wonder if they can do something similar.
Better btw than the fucking dickhead that keeps on tagging my end of the neighborhood with that stupid ghost thing.
It’s the same bitchers who bitch about the color of lights atop the Empire State Building! It appears these folks are dealing with some sort of childhood psychological imbalance that started with them not receiving the colored sprinkles they asked for on their cones. D’oh!!
i like it and I’m not a robot!
Keep calm, you got any chaaaaaange?!
That looks great.
Great for any neighborhood. Better than an advertisement or nothing at all.
That sign should be taken down along with the carnival arch on 46th St.
…
What a miserable person…that arch has been here for 30 years, it’s got as much a right to be here as anybody
Interesting that the artist adopted a phrase used in WWII. For that stretch of Greenpoint Ave., there should be a poster stating “Keep Calm and Say Hi to a Prostitute” or “Keep Calm and Sleep on a Park Bench”.
Dana, you’re seriously a dumbass. Sorry, but you are.
@ Dana you really have no idea what you are taking about do you? Prostitutes..what medication are you taking that has you seeing prostitutes?
For the sake of this quaint neighborhood, please take that down! That belongs in Long Island City!
Ignorant.