CULTURE JAMMERS

Since about as long as there has been advertising, there has been culture jamming.

From Guy Debord and his Situationist International pranks, to the often elaborate billboard jams more familiar to modern urbanites, the irreverent anti-corporate spirit has been alive, well, and fighting back against the homogenising imagery we are saturated with in our day-to-day lives.

Culture Jammers, just opened at the Museum of Sydney, documents the life of Sydney’s very own jamming chapter, The Lonely Station. Featuring the photographs of Dean Sewell, the exhibition documents some of the often-risky escapades undertaken by the group between 2003 and 2007.

Curator Inara Walden remembers the early days of Sydney’s billboard bandits. “I remember vividly being a teenager riding the bus to school in the 1980s and noticing BUGAUP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions) billboards all the way along Parramatta Road [. . .] These actions made such an impression on me as a young person, and it was always the humour that stayed with you and got you talking about it later.”

The Lonely Station artists built on this early legacy, taking advantage of an increasingly visual culture to subvert advertiser’s glossy images. “I think that people these days are very visually literate – we’re all looking at images and advertising every day via news and online social networking or web browsing – so there’s the opportunity to have an impact with clever, humorous interventions that challenge people to think differently or to question what corporations and governments are doing and saying.”

Until Jun 10, Museum of Sydney, cnr Bridge & Phillip Sts, Sydney, $5-10, 9251 5988, hht.net.au/museums/mos