Poster, Labelled 1/8 (Refugee)

This poster, one of a series of eight designed by Mark Gowing for a personal project, was inspired by Gowing’s concerned observation that “[o]ur contemporary world seems to be in a constantly heightening state of panic over people’s origins and intents. Judging individuals on face value seems to be an increasing concern at both a social and political level as the global melting pot takes a firm step backwards.” Gowing created this set of posters to highlight what he feels is the “unjust nature of labelling an individual based on their appearance.” Gowing sourced his images from an inexpensive, royalty free image bank and printed them at large scale in black and white using a laser plotter printer. He purchased off-the-shelf stickers which he then applied by hand to the surface of the poster, creating the “labels”, such as “homeless,” “religious,” and “indigenous.” For this poster, Gowing use red stickers printed with white letters featuring the word “SOLD” to form the word “refugee” across the face of a man in glasses.

Poster, Labelled 1/8 (Refugee); Designed by Mark Gowing (Australian, b. 1970); Australia; laser plotter print with hand-applied stickers on paper; H x W: 115.9 × 82.1 cm (45 5/8 × 32 5/16 in.); Gift of Mark Gowing; 2014-32-4