Linda Montano Messages to the Public: 1+1=1

Linda Montano (b. 1948, Saugerties, NY) created 1+1=1 as a dual message intended to satisfy the left and right hemispheres of the brain. To accomplish this, two separate messages appear, each running for 15 seconds.

During the first half of the message, a heart fills the entire screen, vibrating with the seven colors of the rainbow. These colors are placed randomly throughout the heart and vibrate continuously with ecstatic energy. The heart, a symbol of love, compassion, and deep feeling, activates the emotions governed by the brain’s right hemisphere.

To balance the first half of the message, a second image, “1+1=1” flashes for 15 seconds. These numbers are very large and vibrate in random colors on a dark background. With this second image, oneness or unity is conveyed by a symbol of thought, the function of the brain’s left hemisphere.

The complete message performs two functions: It satisfies the brain’s craving for balance by uniting the many functions of its two hemispheres (i.e. thinking/feeling, intuiting/sensing), while broadcasting a message that is simple and direct—a message that can be experienced by all.

Messages to the Public formed a key part of the Public Art Fund’s long-term commitment to media-based artworks. Running from 1982 to 1990, the show featured a series of artists’ projects created specifically for the Spectacolor board at Times Square.

As Russell Miller from Ohio newspaper The Toledo Blade explained in his article on February 19, 1984, “every month, a different artist presents a 30-second animation on the Spectacolor light board—an 800-square-foot array of 8,000 red, white, blue, and green 60-watt bulbs that dominates the Times Square vista. The spot is repeated more than 50 times a day for two weeks, wedged into a 20-minute loop of computer-animated commercials.

“Jane Dickson, a painter, was working for Spectacolor, Inc. as an ad designer and computer programmer when, three and a half years ago, she first thought to use the light board to display noncommercial art.

“‘I picked that title,’ she said of Messages to the Public, ‘because I thought the propaganda potential from this project was terrific.’ The board, she noted, was regularly used for ‘commercial propaganda.’

“Dickson sought help from the Public Art Fund, an organization based here and dedicated to taking art out of the galleries and placing it in the city’s streets and parks.”

Project Director of the Public Art Fund Jessica Cusick explained, “We’re trying to do art that’s timely, has a message, is visually potent and is trying to deal with the fine line dividing fine art and commercial art.”