Dennis Adams "Transit Authorities"

‘A short while ago new bus shelters were put up in Amsterdam. With their limited seating possibilities and the inane introductory posters by Carelman, they were received with mixed feelings, although they do seem to have so far withstood those young vandals who would love to add their personal signature to the transparent panes of glass. They are under the protection of the public facilities company Publex who are recouping the maintenance costs by making a large area of the shelters available for advertising. People waiting for busses or trams can now read 'You are what you drink'. Since 1983 the American artist Dennis Adams (born in 1948) has been involved with designing his own bus shelters. These are meant for public use but display no advertising, although they do refer to it. With texts, photographs and lighting he makes use of advertising techniques which act as hidden persuaders influencing perception and consciousness. Disguised chameleon-like in the form of ordinary street furniture Adams infiltrates daily life. A good example is the Busshelter which he put up next to an ordinary bus stop in Münster last year. He literally distorted the form by replacing the usual straight lines and corners with diagonal lines and planes. But people would not realise right away that this was a work of art. Only when it appears that the photograph is no ordinary advertisement, but a photograph of the lawyer of the war criminal Klaus Barbie, does it become clear that Adams is after something different. In other works he brings back memories of the Rosenbergs, the McCarthy hearings and other painful historical facts. Adams does not engrave products in the memory but digs up from the memory things that would rather be forgotten.’ (‘Sheltered persuaders’, Newsletter De Appel, 3 (1988) 1.)