Israeli-American street artist Addam Yekutieli aka KNOW HOPE is probably one of the most interesting artists out there today.
Over the past decade Know Hope has developed an unique visual iconography based on the the observation of real-life situations and the modern human condition.
Vicariously Speaking is an ongoing project based on correspondence with incarcerated people currently serving sentences on death row in a Nashville prison.The project, commissioned by OZ Arts for OZ Art Fest, started earlier this year and incorporates Yekutieli’s correspondences with inmates transforming them into text-based works placed on eight billboards throughout Nashville. By doing so the phrases are taken out of their original context and placed in a new one where a newfound presence for the inmates takes place generating a dialogue within an interactive environment and creating a link between two separate realities. According to the artist, this dynamic process allows a reflection on notions such as ones origin and permits an intuitive and empathetic understanding of a commonly complex issue..
The billboard works have been photographed by Yekutieli in the context of their new urban surroundings. These images will, according to the gallery, be paired in a diptych with the letter from which the featured text originated, and exhibited in the entrance hallway gallery at OZ Arts throughout the festival and the month following.
Vicariously Speaking is an ongoing project, with more manifestations and stages to reveal themselves in the future and the exhibition will be on view through August 31st at OZ Arts located on 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle, Nashville, TN 37209
The billboard exhibition is currently on view throughout Nashville until the end of July, 2016, The locations are:
1108 Gallatin Ave @ Greenwood St
701 Main St @ 7th St
8th Ave @ James Robertson Pkwy
1000 Charlotte Pike @ 10th Ave
8th Ave Nth @ Wedgewood Ave
12th Ave Sth @ Gilmore St
2504 Franklin Rd @ Craft Brewed
708 Thompson Ln (across from Hundred Oaks Mall)
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
