South London based art activists CutUp tries to disrupt and raise awareness of the colonisation of public space by reconfiguring billboards, by turning these commercial message bearers into public talking points. Street adverts are a privileged form of address and the space they commandeer is disproportionate. Advertisements and the mass media depict life and how we should live it in a spectacular way. We find it increasingly difficult to know how to express our inner thoughts and feelings, which seem mundane in contrast to the emotional saturation in the plethora of advertising surrounding us.

CutUp’s billboard are created by slicing up a billboard and then collaging all the pieces into a newly ordered image. The results are portraits of people who are suffering or have suffered under the strain of this spectacular society. They are accompanied by slogans expressing thoughts that are not usually articulated aloud.

First exhibition of CutUp at Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Rd, Shoreditch. on 5 April – 30 April 05 (via Artshole and Design Week, March 3 edition)