Nearly three and a half years ago, we closed out the first year of Art in Ad Places (which was really all we intended for this project to be, when we first conceived it) with a message from FAUST. Borrowing from Oscar Wilde, FAUST reminded us, “Everything is going to be fine in the end. If it's not fine it's not the end.”

Things are still not fine: The steady rise of surveillance capitalism continues, exemplified on city streets where out-of-home advertising is increasingly digital and “smart” (aka, spying on you).

Nonetheless, this appears to be an end. In a matter of weeks, there will be few (if any) pay phones left in New York City. We have taken Art in Ad Places as far as it should go: A dozen curators, 117 artists, and 152 different artworks installed over four and a half years.

David Graeber said it best: “Direct action is, ultimately, the defiant insistence on acting as if one is already free.” With Art in Ad Places, we have tried to live that idea. As Hank Willis Thomas told us, Art in Ad Places came about “because ads are in art places.”

But an end is not the end. We still believe in defiantly insisting that we are already free, and that ads are showing up in art places. And so, we decided to take this last opportunity to bring things full circle.

Without Jordan Seiler, there would be no Art in Ad Places. Jordan has been involved in the “ad takeover” community for more than 20 years. His projects, like installing his own work in ad spaces for two decades or mass takeovers like NYSAT, paved the way for Art in Ad Places. Jordan was one of our inspirations, as well as a trusted advisor along the way. And so we are wrapping things up on a very long-overdue installation from Jordan: Titan Smash.

Titan Smash by Jordan Seiler. Photo by Luna Park. — *Titan Smash* by Jordan Seiler. Photo by Luna Park.

Jordan (the one who first suggested that we get statements from all of our participating artists) told us:

Why work with Art in Ad Places to illegally reappropriate public space from outdoor advertising?
Because commercial media in public space is extractive and predatory.
Because pursuing our collective interests requires having space for a collective voice.
Because we deserve a public environment that nurtures our minds and challenges our hearts.
Because when all is said and done, there is no fucking spoon, only the reality that we make for ourselves, and Art in Ad Places knows it.

We are honored to work with our close friend. However, Art in Ad Places has also been a reaction to what Jordan and others before us had done. Jordan insisted that everyone get their hands dirty and do their own ad takeovers. We told artists that we would do the risky bit for them. Projects like NYSAT and Brandalism saw dozens of artists taking to the streets for one day and then fading away the next. We chose to trickle out slow and steady updates over a sustained campaign. We stuck to payphones, because we thought the argument against their advertisements was the easiest to make. We tried a different approach, reacting to what we thought was missing on the streets. Now it’s someone else’s turn to react.

And so there’s another reason to end with Jordan: This is a call out to anyone who has seen Art in Ad Places and thought, “Maybe I should try this, but I’d do it my way." If this project resonated with you, or Jordan’s words resonate with you (or David’s, or FAUST’s), we hope that you’ll pick up a high-vis vest and whatever other tools you need to get your message out there. The world needs people to keep fucking with public space, especially with advertising. This end of Art in Ad Places is really just us stepping aside at a natural pause point, asking who’s got next.