Jean-Denis Boudreau

The Road Sign Project is a production of Centre3 for Print and Media Arts in Hamilton, Ontario, presented in partnership with Atelier Imago in Moncton, New Brunswick. The two art centres each invited eight artists to create road signs that incorporate the vernacular and syntax of email and text messaging. In Moncton, the outdoor sign project started in 1994, when Atelier Imago secured advertising space on a bus. The initiative served two goals: to bring awareness of printmaking by presenting art in public space, and to show what was being produced in the studio. Atelier Imago’s mission resonates with Centre3’s goal to engage our community in print and media arts. According to the Ontario Ministry of Transport, road signs function as regulatory, informational, directional, warning, fines and other, sometimes bilingual, guides to provincial highways. The sixteen artists in this project created a selection of markers that mimic the basic format of road signage. Their messages, posted in various downtown Hamilton locations, communicate a range of concerns from contemporary art and politics to the pathos of post-industrial urban existence and romantic relationships. Whether humorous, philosophical or authoritative, the signs may be contemplated, obeyed or ignored at the viewer’s personal discretion.

Centre3:
Will Kwan, Shelly Bahl, Tor Lukasik-Foss, Hitoko Okada Micah Lexier, Brendan Fernandes, Fiona Kinsella, Matt McInnes

Atelier Imago: Angèle Cormier, Carole Deveau, Blake Morin, Mark Young, Jean-Denis
Boudreau, Jennifer Bélanger, Jonah Haché, Mathieu Léger

Angèle Cormier

Jonah Haché

Mathieu Léger