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CREATIVE TIME and TIMES SQUARE ALLIANCE PRESENT CHRISTINE HILL A CONSUMER’S GUIDE TO TIMES SQUARE ADVERTISING

OPENING EVENT AND TOURS: JANUARY 19, 2005, TIMES SQUARE ARTWORK AVAILABLE JANUARY 19 – APRIL 19, 2005 (DOWNLOAD ONLINE OR PICK UP AT VARIOUS DISTRIBUTION POINTS IN NYC)

“ADVERTISING IS THE GREATEST ARTFORM OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY” - MARSHALL MCLUHAN

(December 9, 2004, , NY) Did you know that Times Square is the only neighborhood with a zoning ordinance requiring tenants to display bright signsit’s actually illegal for a sign NOT to be illuminatedor that the average person is exposed to 5,000 advertising messages per day? Artist Christine Hill has compiled captivating facts and figures about Times Square advertising into an imaginative and thought-provoking artwork cum resource. For one hundred years, Times Squarethe iconic, vivid, audacious, and often, garish nexus of outdoor advertising, entertainment, and public display—has mesmerized audiences from every corner of the world, yet few visitors have the means to comprehend the vast resources and sometimes amusing regulations involved in the ultimate urban setting.

A Consumer’s Guide to Times Square Advertising continues Creative Time’s tradition of enlivening Times Square with art on the media capital’s 100th anniversary. The artwork is a playful interpretation of commerce and marketing that decodes the process by which an outdoor advertisement reaches the public’s eyes. Consumer’s Guide was designed with 1950s imagery and typography, recalling typical consumer guides of the time. Hill’s work fuses an ‘aesthetic echo of the American dream and a mix of 1950s American corporate optimism.’ The artwork responds to the growing symbolic force of brands and trademarks, and the reality that, with each passing day, increasing amounts of our public space is sold off to the highest bidder. This domain, formally rejected by many artists, is now embedded in the dialogue of public art due to its presence in everyday life.

HOW TO USE YOUR CONSUMER’S GUIDE

To begin your Times Square exploration, stand on the traffic island at 45th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, look south to find the Budweiser sign, and set the wheel to display 8 different facts including impressions per day, company slogan, and size and type of signage. Spin the wheel as you walk around and observe details about the other 18 companies featured in the wheel. Notice that the TOYS “R” US sign spans 110,000 square feet, the Cadillac sign protrudes five feet above the street below, the Walt Disney Company spends over a billion dollars a year in outdoor advertising, and the Budweiser sign represents 11.67% of the company’s total advertising dollars! The facts illuminated by Christine Hill resonate in our modern world where branding and advertising saturate the everyday aural and visual experience.

WHERE TO GET YOUR CONSUMER’S GUIDE (January 19 – April 19 online and while they last at locations!)

• Times Square Information Center (1560 Broadway, between 46th and 47th Streets)

• AXA Gallery (787 Seventh Avenue at 51st Street)

• Printed Matter (535 West 22nd Street)

• www.creativetime.org Print out your own wheel online! OPENING EVENT

Paying homage to old-time glamorous entertainment distribution, a nostalgic 1950s aesthetic that Christine Hill has employed throughout her artistic practice, performers dressed as classic ‘cigarette girls’ will distribute the Consumer’s Guide while interacting with the crowds in Times Square. The performers will also offer guided tours of the spectacular billboards in Times Squarean artistic and humorous alternative to the popular, commercial tours of .

EVENT ‘Cigarette Girls’ distribute Consumer’s Guide DATE Wednesday, January 19 TIME Noon–3 p.m. and 5–7 p.m. LOCATION Various locations throughout Times Square

EVENT Guided Tours DATE Wednesday, January 19 TIME 5:30pm and 6:30 p.m. (30 minute tours) LOCATION Departing from the Times Square Information Center (1560 Seventh Avenue, between 46th and 47th Streets)

THE ARTIST

Christine Hill (b. 1968) lives and works in New York and Berlin. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, MD in 1991. Her work has been exhibited extensively internationally and in the in museums and galleries. She has exhibited most recently at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York (where she is represented), MOCA Cleveland, OH, Institute of Contemporary Art, Leipzig, Germany, Deitch Projects, New York, and Artspace 1%, Copenhagen, Denmark. CREATIVE TIME

From Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, Coney Island, the skies over Manhattan with Tribute in Light and cloud skywriting, to storefronts, milk cartons, deli cups, and billboards, Creative Time has worked with artists for the past 33 years to invigorate the urban landscape and enliven New York City.

Creative Time is renowned for its consistent presence in Times Square. Notably, with The 42nd Street Art Project in 1993 and 1994, and with The 59th Minute since May 2000. The 59th Minute is a continuous showcase of video art on the NBC Astrovision by Panasonic that presents a rare opportunity for contemporary video art to be viewed by the public within the context of the most exciting center of media culture in the world. TIMES SQUARE ALLIANCE

Founded in 1992, the Times Square Alliance works to improve and promote Times Square so that it retains the creativity, energy, and edge that have made it an icon for entertainment, culture, and international urban life for a century. In addition to providing safety and sanitation services, the Alliance co-ordinates numerous major events in Times Square like New Year’s Eve, manages an Information Center, and advocates on behalf of its constituents with respect to a host of public policy, planning and quality-of-life issues. SUPPORT

Christine Hill’s A Consumer’s Guide to Times Square Advertising is presented in collaboration with Volksboutique and the Times Square Alliance. This project is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency; Speaker Gifford Miller; New York City Councilmember ; New York State Senator Thomas K. Duane.

Special thanks to Ron Bromberg at Flexigroup for the production and to Gianpietro+Smith for the design of A Consumer’s Guide to Times Square Advertising.