Jeppe Hein

Please Participate (2015)

We are accustomed to seeing neon on marquees and in shop windows, the vibrant words shouting out to us from the wall: Open! No Vacancy! Buy One Get One Free! We equate neon with a sales pitch, with a forceful message powered by an ulterior motive. Jeppe Hein’s Please Participate uses the attention seeking language of neon to a very different end. From a distance, the paragraph could be an advertisement or a warning but as you approach, the cool neon glow spills over your face and the work’s calming message becomes clear. Be grateful. Breathe. Wonder. Jeppe’s words are a grounding force, a quick check in as you enter or exit the stadium. The work is a call to take care of yourself, to observe and appreciate your surroundings, to be an individual in the swelling crowd, to participate in the spectacle, and remain true to yourself. In the world of Jeppe Hein, the only thing you are being sold is your own wellbeing.

In a practice spanning neon, large-scale sculpture, design, furniture, and public fountains, Danish artist Jeppe Hein engenders joy in audiences of all ages. Playing with perception, interaction, and light, Hein believes his work is not complete until people engage with it. Since his artwork is completed in the mind of its viewer, Please Participate is only fully realized when the words take shape as intention and action in everyone who reads them.