For this installation within the 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial, Justseeds created a series of mock billboards, largely from scrap materials and with simplistic construction. Working loosely with themes of immigration and international borders, the individual artists generated images that toy with the concept of billboard advertising – whether simply using the standard horizontal rectangle as a springboard for messaging that parallels their usual printmaking methods, or by lampooning the billboard concept itself. Each billboard is a gesture towards mass messaging to the general public, sketching out a world open to graphic expression and debate rather than one controlled by market capital. Many in Justseeds have worked graphically in the public sphere as non-commissioned “street” artists or as commissioned mural- ists, occasionally altering actual billboards where they stand—however, there are few in the co-op who are practicing painters or designers in the traditional sense.

The installation was conceived and organized by Justseeds members Shaun Slifer, Bec Young, and Mary Tremonte. The exhibition was curated by Astria Suparak. Special thanks to Margaret Cox, Tesar and Claire Freeman, Ana Begoña Armengod, Hallie Boas, Ashley Brickman, Anna Busdiecker, Rose Hermalin, Drew Lightfoot, Morgan Ress, Christina Rosas, and Miller Schulman.