Cath Campbell
About this work
Motto (2007) Cath Campbell & Miles Thurlow Painted Architectural Signage, LED Lights Installation: Sunderland City Centre Commissioned by City of Sunderland, UK Budget: 17k Timescale: 4 months The motto of the City of Sunderland ‘Nile Desperandum Auspice Deo’ (No Despair, Trust in God) is edited and installed at a height on a prominent City Centre wall. Built from grey Italic Helvetica box section steel lettering backlit with LED lighting 'Motto' inhabits the realms of architectural signage and the aesthetics of the high street. At night the piece glows subtly with a white halo emitted from within the lettering. Through this act of displacement, the phrase is opened up to embrace everyday, even banal, situations. In this way 'Motto' begins to comment upon the proliferation of advertising and slogans in a visually overloaded commodity culture and question the meaning and relevance of civic ideology in an increasingly globalised culture.