Robert Montgomery. Photo by Belaid le Mharchi
“I think I was just kind of angry at how idiotic and horrible billboards are”, says Robert Montgomery of his first distaste for the advertising-overloaded world we occupy today. “I just always wanted to get my own back.” So that’s exactly what he did, making artworks by superimposing texts on billboards, bus shelters and other outdoor advertising spaces. Blurring the line between conceptual art, street art and poetry, he plays with the power of text in the public realm and works on the ways in which passersby react consciously and or otherwise to bombastic messaging.
Scottish-born and now based in London, Montgomery uses crisp design combined with unsettling and often confrontational poetry to make an impact, whether on the streets of London, the white cliffs in Kent, or in the hinterlands of Berlin’s disused Tempelhof airport. Heavily inspired by the methods of the Situationists, the writings of Guy Debord and the artwork of Jenny Holzer, Montgomery’s pieces present simple but galvanising messages, inviting a political and personal engagement.
“I try really hard to write about the subconscious of the city, so [the billboards] almost take on the voice of the city,” he says. Articulating those silent voices lies at the heart of all of Montgomery’s work, the majority of his creations being made in conjunction with activist groups such as the Occupy movement and the Stop The War coalition.
That’s perhaps the reason why his decision to work with Kris Van Assche for a Dior Homme pop-up store in 2012, where his work, “Whenever You See The Sun Reflected In The Window Of A Building It Is An Angel” was displayed at the entrance, upset a number of art fans and anti-capitalist followers. “There was some conflict for a minute, but then I think, just for a minute,” he recalls of the episode. “I mean, it paid the rent for two months. Even activists have to pay the rent, right?” he jokes.
Montgomery infuses his activist sympathies in all the poetry he writes, yet never attaches his name to his work, instead leaving it to speak for itself. “The work is anonymous enough that if you are not the art audience, it’s clear that it’s not an ad campaign. But there is nothing to tell you that it’s my work, so if you don’t know anything about me then it’s just some random statement, like the rantings of a mad man.”
Knowing how the internet has played a crucial part in the general awareness of his work, Montgomery is keen to give back to those who shared and “liked” his provocations since the very beginning. “Way back before I got invited to be in a show at the Venice Biennale, or sold any work at Art Basel, my work had this really big following of kids on the internet,” he remembers. “It’s almost like being the Lily Allen of art. Kind of. Right?”
Taken from Sleek Magazine 37 “Fake/Folk”
Robert Montgomery’s “Oscar Night Poem”, 2013, is this week’s featured artist on Sleek Art. Go to www.sleek-art.net and check it out!