Thursday, July 13, 2006

OBJET TROUVE


The City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs Percent For Art Program new site-non-specific work installed today.


Juxtaposition! There was a time in my life ("Hey sonny, might you please crank-start the way back machine for me, my replacement hip is acting up") when I couldn't even get through a single day with out having said that magic word at least once. These days my vocabulary tends to stay clear of three syllable words, unless you count go-pee-pee as three. Maybe I'm forgetting the basic rules of writing haiku, but I might argue that by saying go-pee-pee real fast, over and over again during the day, that those tiny little pauses begin to blur together.

There are people who think that all developers are monetarilly-motivated monsters bent on destroying what little happiness the status quo offers. Change is bad, period. "These South Slope guys take, and take, and take, but never give anything back to the community". There is some truthiness for not wanting to cross swords with these developers, as they have aquired super-villain-like strength from squeezing every last drop of F.A.R. out of a building site with their bare hands. I have seen their drafting pencils ladies, and it's true what they say.

But wait, forgive me my nonsequiturs, here is someone who is finally giving back. The Percent For Art Program, or P.F.A.P., has recently unveiled a new site-non-specific Artwork somewhere on 16th Street, I think, between 4th and 5th Avenues maybe. Let us as a community rejoice. The developer, by sharing this Fine Art sculpture with us outside the traditional museum or gallery setting, will undoubtedly bring us closer together as a neighborhood.

Complex in a Rube Goldbergian way, this work examines site specificity as a complex cipher of the unstable relationship between collation and identity in our era of late capitalism......Or until the dumpster shows up tomorrow, which ever comes first.

"To remove the work, is to destroy the work" --Richard Serra

To find out more about The Percent For Art Program visit your public library or never leave your home again and visit their website at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/panyc/panyc_main.shtml

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