FUNGUS PRESS RESIDENCY // Laura Eldret // 07427397776
07427397776 by Laura Eldret is a poster project commissioned by Fungus Press and Turf Projects in Croydon, South East London.
Invited to produce a series of posters for display across various sites in Croydon, Eldret has reverse the traditional mechanism of a poster that tells you about a product or service. Each poster confronts the viewer with a combination of elements: a telephone number (which the audience can ring or text and leave messages on) alongside the coordinates of the posters location and a background image of an undisclosed place. Messages left by passersby will be made anonymous and presented by Eldret at a later date.
Eldret’s new works question the way commercial and public-service posters ask viewers to use their imaginations to think of another space or time. For example, posters often ask us to imagine an upcoming event, the joy of acquiring a new product, or the potential dangers to be avoided in everyday life. Continuing Eldret’s socially engaged practice as a form of portraiture, the posters are meant to be of the people, not for the people. They could be read as versions of a ‘your ad here’ billboard, where the content comes from the viewer.
This is the first time an artist has been invited to produce work that is located in all the Fungus Press/ Turf Projects sites across Croydon, London. A Fungus zine will be produced to accompany the project in January 2018.
