Don't Forget to Write by Baron Batch

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Elephants are a favorite theme for Baron Batch. I had heard him say before that they represented community, but when I reached out with a few questions about this piece his studio assistant expanded on that:

“The elephant is a beautiful creature and symbol for community. Baron has said, “he always felt like the elephant in the room, or out of place, and longed to be part of a community.” Because elephants have their own societies and communities, Baron could always relate to them in that way.”

We were also told how much Mr Batch enjoyed creating this piece with the participation of onlookers and followers on social media. All of the writing on this piece are words contributed to the project via twitter, using the hashtag #DontForgetToWrite or from people in the live audience.

Baron has expressed how special it is to know that people arriving through the airport are introduced to our city with those words and his art. When he watched a group of kids later admiring the piece, he reflected on the collaborative effort used to create it and how it's presence here was introducing art to the next generation.

Baron has been conducting his own campaign to bring art to the people. During the lead up to the creation of this piece Baron would leave original artwork somewhere in the city and post a photo of it on instagram and twitter. Whoever found it first got to keep it! Many different versions of his elephant have been left along trails and leaning against buildings as fans raced to snag it for themselves. After completing this art at the airport, The Artist (as Baron is known on twitter) has continued to leave art for people to find. He promotes art in general with the phrase “Art Is Not Dead”, and he's creating art fans as he goes.

Don't Forget to Write is a four sided design, with elephants on two sides and writing on the other two.  This is a temporary display at Pittsburgh International Airport through Dec 2015.  We'll let you know where it goes from there if we can find out.