LOW PROFILE: Signs Of / For Change

LOW PROFILE: Signs Of / For Change

Signs Of / For Change was a commission for Tavistock Place by Plymouth-based artists LOW PROFILE for the 2020 Plymouth Art Weekender and The Box's Preview Weekend.

Across The Box’s Plymouth Preview weekend, a double-sided trailer sign was used to present a series of regularly changing large-scale flyposted texts.

LOW PROFILE conceived the artwork in response to their on-going interests in hopefulness and resilience, the importance of community, and their requests and desires for a system that treats all with respect, equality and care.

Throughout the weekend, the artwork was activated by a number of specially recruited artists who live and work in Plymouth (including LOW PROFILE themselves). Each statement was pasted on top of the last - operating like a slow, human-powered, DIY gif, with passers-by seeing messages being reformulated and their meaning changing over time.

LOW PROFILE’s carefully chosen wording pointed towards the need for us all to be accountable - and to demand a fairer, more equal and inclusive society. The commission reflected on how we take care of and look out for each other, how we might find ways to not give up, and how we can hold tight to one another, even at a distance.

As the layers of the fly-posted texts continued to be applied on top of each other and built up, passers-by were able to see visible traces of the duration, human effort and labour that goes into changing the sign. For LOW PROFILE, insistence through repetition is often an important and recurring strategy in their work. In Signs Of / For Change this action also acknowledged the effort involved in changing something from one state to another and the role that people play in making change.