Billboards Become Landscape

Instead of reading about the newest washing powder, you can regress to enjoying (nearly) pure nature again while driving down the Gene Autry Trail in California.

Artist Jennifer Bolande has upgraded the billboards that are scattered along the highway in the desert landscape of California’s Coachella Valley. The billboards now display photographs of the thing that is so often overlooked or blocked — the landscape behind them.

The billboards magically align themselves with the horizon while one is driving — but it is a kind of magic that can only be seen and experienced from a vehicle moving down the road. Only for a very short while, the rectangle will be perfectly aligned with the space behind it. The artist is thus advertising the space that is always overlooked in deserts full of roadsigns and billboards, and might even make us appreciate nature even more.