Tim Rollins + K.O.S. Messages to the Public: Everyone is Welcome

Tim Rollins (b. 1955, Pittsfield ME) + K.O.S. (a group of 13–18-year-old students from the South Bronx and upper Manhattan) come from the Art Knowledge Workshop Incorporated, a not-for-profit studio program founded by Rollins in 1980. Their message, Everyone is Welcome, is influenced by Franz Kakfa’s Amerika, written in Prague in 1912. In the last chapter, “The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma,” Kafka described the artists’ community that represents, in Rollins’ words, “the greatest promise of democracy.” In his Amerika, Kafka asserted that everyone could be part of the artists’ community; Rollins + K.O.S. share this belief.

Rollins + K.O.S. begin their message by quoting the first few lines of “The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma”: “TODAY ONLY AND NEVER AGAIN,” “IF YOU MISS YOUR CHANCE NOW . . .” “YOU MISS IT FOREVER,” “IF YOU WANT TO BE AN ARTIST,” “JOIN OUR COMPANY,” “EVERYONE IS WELCOME.”

The word “EVERYONE” grows larger and larger until it no longer fits in the lightboard. All that remains is the letter “Y”, which metamorphoses into a series of fantastic golden horns. Each horn was created by a different student and appears on the lightboard with the student’s name and age. Rollins + K.O.S. worked on the Amerika series and the horn image for three years. Rollins asked the students to create their horns “representing freedom and individual voice. ” The result was a series of self-portraits in the form of golden horns. Together, the horns are also a metaphor for democracy.

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.”