SARDONICAL

Sardonical is a three-part public art installation that uses the familiar language of advertising and institutional authority to deliver uncomfortable, ironic messages — in a format usually reserved for persuasion and control.

The project consists of three billboard designs placed in Sioux Falls, SD in July 2025. Each billboard presents a phrase that sounds like it could belong in a dystopian manual, a corporate onboarding video, or a government memo — but here, isolated and unbranded, it forces the viewer to ask: Is this serious? Is this satire? Do I agree with this more than I want to admit?

Sardonical was created as a kind of psychological test, a huge ink blot, in public space. I wanted to use the language of control — the phrases we accept without thinking — and throw them back into the world, stripped of their packaging. It’s about conformity, comfort, and the weird things we call “normal.”"

Because they’re built to be believed. They are blunt, high-volume tools. In Sardonical, the form is weaponized to critique itself. Instead of selling products, the signs confront the psychological norms of obedience, conformity, and comfort-seeking in modern life.

Bretstad is a conceptual artist working in public space, visual media, and critical design. His work interrogates mass messaging, cultural assumptions, and the ways modern life numbs us. Sardonical is the launch of an ongoing body of work designed to challenge — not entertain — its audience.

Future works expand this theme: “Are you better than me?” a project designed to question your own biases and judgements.  And "The Spiral", a confrontation with the negative media messages we create and ingest every day.  You can walk past. Or you can look in. Your reaction is part of the art.