Happiness

Happiness, a site-specific project for Indianapolis International Airport, mimics the airport signage style and video-graphics aesthetic to comment on our reliance on signs for locational directions. The sign purportedly directs us to “happiness,” but is this a state that is so easily accessible?

• Artist: Jamie Pawlus
• Location: Ticketing Hall
• Installation: February 9 - May 4, 2014

About the Artist: Indianapolis-based Jamie Pawlus is a conceptual artist with a focus on the urban environment. Much of her work repurposes materials commonly found in the public realm, including her frequent use of commercial or transportation signage. Her practice is to create new signs with new thoughts that physically blend into our environment so well that only those who are truly paying attention will notice them and consider their implications. Pawlus earned her B.F.A. from the Herron School of Art and her M.F.A. from the University of Kansas. She has exhibited her work in a variety of cities including Chicago, St. Louis, New York City, Kansas City and Cusco, Peru. Venues have included city buses, metro trains and stations, parks, hallways, restrooms and city streets. Her interactive installation CARE/DON’T CARE is permanently placed on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail on Massachusetts Avenue.