~BUSHWICK . . walls
on my way to the ‘CAP MATCHES COLOR’ – ‘TWO DECADES OF DIGGING’ – book signing at LOW BROW ARTIQUE, last week, in BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN – I had to marvel at how big the hardcore mural street art had blown-up, yet I was totally struck dumb – at the same time by all the downtown chic, hipster & very chi chi upgraded bars and restaurants, yes even the wine shops. how nightlife populated the hood had become, since the frontier days of the hardcore EASTERN DISTRICT, and then . . AD HOC, and then just a tiny bit later, FACTORY FRESH.
I mean, even in what 2008 ? it was still pretty industrial, and deserted except for indigenous bodegas dotting every corner, and then ROBERTA’S PIZZA came on the scene. and that was – it !!
flash forward a few years, and some wine bars opened up, with folk music in the basements. now it’s still deserted streets, but dotted, and densely – with ultra hip eating & drinking venues.
I vividly remembered, going to Roberta’s in the very first week it opened !! half empty to, after a great fab opening, a big . . . AD DeVILLE show at Factory Fresh, which ran in Dec of 2008 – just before the Bernie Madoff scandal – broke, lol !!
it seemed such appropriate timing.
see: DeVILLE’S HOLIDAY SPECIAL – FACTORY FRESH, DEC 2008 !!
there was a JAYE MOON lego diorama – stuck to the wall. center – second image up from the bottom – just outside where AD HOC GALLERYused to open its doors, on Bogart Street. besides the historic location – the piece also had an historic theme: the American Revolution !!
it said: NO MORE ENGLISH !!
I found it interesting that it was so clean, and not vandalized. street code of honor ?
it even had a little, clear plastic window with a lego man head, for a handle . . .
that you could swing open to reveal . . .
a miniature HISTORIC RICHMOND TOWN ‘document’, still in there, intact. and not glued down, or in any other way secured.
JAYE MOON is a young female street artist, from Korea, North or South ? Korea is as specific as the bio got. being an immigrant myself, from Montreal . . I recognized the newcomers attraction to American history, esp the part about the founding fathers. it really wasn’t that long ago either, as these things go, and so much change in just a couple hundred years. it also served as a statement to the . . violence and war – that carved this nation, just as violence and the war have carved every other territory throughout time memorial, going back to Stonehenge, and prob even past that. the gun won the West, subdued the ‘first’ natives & even settled the Civil War.
across the street from the deceptively simple lego story, things were looking decidedly, grim.
the mighty . . GOOMBA at center.
the ‘smiling’ come to get ya – grim reaper !!
a ghost army, the un-dead converge.
F.P. – a paid-by . . FORD CAR guerrilla ad ?
READY MIX
BUSHWICK, in fact all of Brooklyn, is like one big urban Disney tour of street art, yours for the cruising. get down, go free.
come to your own conclusions.
a hard hat wearing . . baby GOLLUM ?
straight outta Lord of the Rings, and onto the raw Bushwick streets.
one of my fave: GOLD POO . . !!
I think we have to give a nod here to ABE LINCOLN Jr, and his groundbreaking, poo trackin’ little birdie/chick: Char !!
a spinning, ‘baby’ – top ?!!
A.V.S.P. wheat paste, forget trying to take those wheat paste babies down.
dethhhhhh
wtf . . a vintage clothing selling mobile . . on wheels.
THE MOBILE VINTAGE SHOP – EVERYTHING INSIDE $10
a storefront . . caught at the very moment of rapid gentrification !!
talk about your . . ‘transitioning’ !!
a plate glass window is even more interesting than a brick wall – in the right hands.
#fresh #plaid by jywlkr
now, that’s what I call modernism. de-construction, and new construction – all at once.
slick, stick. raw. random, beautiful. intelligent. restrained & . . minimalist !!
with more than a nod, to BARBARA KRUGER.
amazing to reflect upon how influential, and insightful that 1987 show of hers, ‘I SHOP / THEREFORE I AM’ – was. at MARY BOONE, lol.
and ps: BARBARA KRUGER, born 1945 in Newark, NEW JERSEY. go Jersey !!
Because.
Capitalism.
an ‘indigenous’ house – still standing, there are still blocks like this.
but, for how long ?
some kind of Popeye collage, not sure if the different layers were meant to be, or were add-ons ?
great detail on the ‘foundation’ frontier figure !!
layers of paste, and layers of . . metaphor.
a girlie fairy princess – on a metal gate.
old school Madonna.
grotto / shrine behind bars – a living throwback / monument . . to the original European immigrants who homesteaded this formerly blue collar hood.
Greek myth – it was hard to tell where commercial signs began, and street art became paid commissions ?
DENTON
a great . . geo-mix / figurative genesis . . mash-up.
esp spectacular – at night !!
anybody who quilts knows that to be an Amish baby steps pattern, at the top.
change is . . a-coming.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH