Economy of Gesture
Where Sign Spinners Meet Poetry
On Saturday August 21st, 2010, pedestrians, bikers and drivers toured Los Angeles’ Union Station/Little Tokyo/Olvera Street area and found “human directionals” spinning thoughts from:
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Sign spinners – aka ‘human directionals’ – are a Southern Californian advertizing phenomenon. The spinners’ movements are paid for but, from within the constraints of economic neccessity, some create highly expressive physical forms. While the figure of the spinner has already been absorbed into popular culture, such physical expression of personality in public space is striking and rare.
Coupling the commercial form of the spun sign with non-commercial content, Economy of Gesture is a series of site-specific, poetic and performative interventions into public spaces. On Saturday August 21st 2010 Performing Public Space and Felipe Zuñiga will presented Economy of Gesture around the Chinatown/Little Tokyo/ Olvera Street area of Los Angeles.
Operating across the binational region of Tijuana and San Diego, Economy of Gesture was started in 2007 by Susanna Bielak, Katherine Sweetman and Felipe Zuñiga. It has evolved with Zuñiga as the principal producer, working in collaboration with several artists.
In June 2010, Performing Public Space and Felipe Zuñiga put out a call for entries in search of four new collaborators to engage with the project and create sign content – a word, phrase, design or similar – for Economy of Gesture’s first Los Angeles outing. Performing Public Space presented Economy of Gesture’s first visit to Los Angeles on Saturday August 21st 2010.
Review previous Economy of Gesture collaborations at:
youtube.com/user/economyofgesture
economyofgesture-economyofgesture.blogspot.com