The sculpture includes two 17.5-foot-tall, 40-foot-long billboards with opposing messages: “Now” and “Never.” Positioned to create a spatial tension and symbolize polarization in society, one boasts white text with a black background and the other, black text and a white background. The installation will also include a ground mural in middle gray and radiating lines, resembling an hourglass to represent the element of time.
In putting together her piece, Alicia was inspired by the impact of commercial signage in public spaces, specifically billboards. “I’ve always been interested in the way they capture our attention and deliver messages. They’re hard to ignore,” said Eggert. “I also really love the architectural structures of these old billboards. I think of them as very sculptural.”
She also was inspired by Alexandria’s close proximity to our nation’s capital and how viewers will conceptualize the area in between dichotomies— “Now” and “Never,” polarizations, past and present. Additionally, while the piece looks black and white from afar, it becomes more complex at a closer look, composed of a matrix of colored dots. The gray area in between both billboards underscore how life’s moments are more complex than they appear—and are held in a single moment in time. “You are kind of like a grain of sand passing through the hourglass, and it’s reminding you about the passage of time,” said Eggert.
