By Hannah Z. Morley
A photographic record of roadside signage has put UC Santa Barbara art professor Alex Lukas in the company of artists who have responded to COVID-19 by visually interpreting this moment in time.
“I don’t know if my work is important,” Lukas said in a recent interview. “I just know that if I stop, then these images will disappear and be forgotten.”
Published in The Boston Art Review’s winter 2021 edition, Lukas’ latest project “Stay Safe, Stay Home: Road Text in a Time of Contagion,” documents the emergence and progression of pandemic-related highway signs, capturing their language and appearance.
UC-Santa Barbara art professor Alex Lukas published his photos and essay about pandemic signage in The Boston Art Review’s winter 2021 edition.
Since March 2020, these “variable message signs” or VMS, which are normally used to update drivers about road conditions, have been co-opted by local municipalities to warn drivers to stay home or to wear masks.
Lukas began taking pictures of these signs to ground himself during the pandemic, but as the world became unrecognizable he realized that his pictures captured how COVID-19 communications have evolved.
“Road infrastructure,” says Lukas, “is built around an ease of movement and speed, and these signs were doing the opposite of that.”
This sign is part of UCSB art professor Alex Lukas’ photo collection of pandemic signage. The photo was taken in June, 2020 on Boston’s Massachusetts Turnpike.
Lukas is a recent addition to UCSB’s art department who specializes in Print and Publication Arts, both analog and digital, hybrid works and site-specific installation. His past mixed media work has been featured in locations such as San Francisco’s Guerrero Gallery and the Swedish gallery Steinsland Berliner.
Lukas began this project on his drive home to Boston from Wisconsin as the pandemic began. But after receiving his position at UCSB, Lukas continued documenting signs as he drove across the country to Santa Barbara.
“Because of a complete deficit in federal leadership, this public health messaging was left up to states and municipalities and every state had its own variation,” Lukas said.
One sign he spotted last June on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston urged drivers to, “QRNTINE 14 DAYS.” In September, after he had driven to Santa Barbara, Lukas saw a sign’s orange-lit text pierce through the day’s fog, dissuading people from “sitting” or “standing” outside.
This Santa Barbara sign is featured in UCSB art professor Alex Lukas’ photo collection. He took this photo in September, 2020 after his cross-country drive to take up his new faculty positiion.
His recently published photo collection and written essay is more than a transcription of the signs Lukas has seen. It also acts as Lukas’ personal travel log. “It’s also about driving across the country,” he said, “and what that act of movement in a pandemic feels like. It’s weird and scary.”
Lukas believes these “banal signs” must be documented because they’ve been put on the frontlines of a global health crisis.
“I think that there is a role for artists as archivists,” he said. “As folks who are tasked with attempting to summarize our current condition at any given time… [it] just felt necessary.”
Since much of Lukas’ pandemic experience has been marked by isolation, he says these signs became one of the few visual “signifiers” that the world is changing at all.
“I don’t know if anybody is going to care about these signs ever,” he said. “But now that I’ve started, I’ve got to see this through.”
In the wake of his recent publication, Lukas has a new public art project underway. He has transformed his car’s dashboard into a small art gallery, exhibiting pieces created by fellow artists that explore what “road space” and “travel” mean to them. This display is available for public viewing in downtown Santa Barbara.
Artwork by Kareem Worrell ,on view at Alex Lukas’ new dashboard display, viewable in downtown Santa Barbara.
Hannah Z. Morley is a fourth-year UC Santa Barbara student, majoring in Writing & Literature at the College of Creative Studies. She is a web and social media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.