Vacant Signs is a work comprised of 80 photographic postcards made by Kaitlin Pomerantz while on a Land Arts of the American West residency, a program organized by Texas Tech University. In the months leading up to the 2016 United States presidential election, Pomerantz traveled across the Southwest, researching the history of land art and land use in Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Wherever she went, commercial roadside billboards were a mainstay of the landscape. What do these billboards tell us – even when vacant? Although devoid of messages, their emptiness speaks volumes. Like Joiri Minaya and Marisa Williamson, Pomerantz chose the postcard to convey her work. This portable format invites viewer’s voices to be included, their messages “filling” the vacant signs.
