Fiona Jack’s first major public artwork Nothing™ (1997) convincingly promoted ‘nothing’ as a product available to purchase. Nothing™ was brought to the public’s attention through a campaign of 33 billboards across Auckland City. To promote Nothing™ Jack satirically replicated advertising language in a series of billboards: “Nothing — for the person with  everything”. So realistic in its codes and scale, the campaign prompted inquiries as to where to purchase Nothing™ – artwork turned advertisement, advertisement turned artwork.

Twenty-five years since Nothing™, Jack’s new work on The Lightship’s LED screen references the 1997 campaign in its typography and imagery, but instead of many ‘nothings’ throughout the city, she offers one ‘everything’.

Where Nothing™, was a foil for the desire and the consumerist tendencies at the heart of modern economies, Everything is an alert — a silent siren that reminds of us what we all know – that everything must change. Jack cites a parallel with author Naomi Klein’s thinking path over the same 25-year period. Two years after the Nothing™ billboards, Klein released No Logo – “the first book to put the new grassroots resistance to corporate manipulation into clear perspective.” Her latest book, How to Change Everything, published off the back of This Changes Everything, is a guide for young humans to protect the planet and each other.

Text courtesy of → The Lightship