KANSAS CITY, MO.- Art in the Loop is pleased to announce the newest art commission for the ARTwall, Forever People by artist, Ascot J. Smith. The ARTwall is a custom designed billboard structure that exhibits super-sized contemporary art at 13th and Grand Streets in downtown Kansas City.

Forever People by Ascot Smith is set in the year 2200. A nameless couple sends recorded messages into the past hoping to prevent a dystopian future. However, the two begin to use the recording to confess their struggles of sustaining a relationship amid holographic love affairs and android rivalries.

Kansas City based artist, Ascot J. Smith is multimedia artist and writer who earned a BFA degree in photography and new media from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2005. His ARTwall, titled Forever People, includes a fictional story that he presents in a series of audio story episodes. Viewers are encouraged to call the free phone number listed on the ARTwall billboard to hear the audio recordings. A new audio message episode will be updated every-other-Monday and will run for nine months. The next episode will post on Monday, March 15th.

Call to hear the art: To listen to Forever People dial the number (816-412-1798) then enter the three digit code (111) followed by the pound (#) sign.

Ascot J. Smith lives and works in Kansas City and has exhibited his work at the H&R Block Art Space, the Paragraph Gallery and the Kansas City Filmmaker’s Jubilee. Smith also writes freelance for Review magazine, held a residency with the Urban Culture Project (2006) and a recipient of the ArtsKC Fund inspiration grant (2008). Smith describes his work as an “interest in the banal, the mundane, and the pedestrian, contrasted with the hyper-sensational and over-stimulated pop culture that unifies this generation.