Blog – Art in Odd Places

Thinker in Residence: Davidson Garrett

October 23, 2019 – 7:25 am

Viewing Performance Artist Pat Oleszko on 14th Street in “Caged Migration”

Walking under sidewalk scaffolding
between 3rd Avenue & Irving Place,
I witness a lofty woman

wearing a mop of red plastic hair
& wrapped in a blue plastic dress
covered by chicken wire mesh

with numerous legs—dangling from beneath—
shoed feet gently tapping on the pavement.
I’m taken aback by the unexpected

sight—as my mind is suddenly
captured by this absurd scene.
The unusual cartoonish image

soon transports me from horn-honking
Manhattan, to the Texas/Mexico border
as a face through ribbon-like strands

emerges, exposing unbearable grief.
The statuesque figure before me
bends in a slow painful rhythm

with a lone clarinet mournfully
playing sounds of sorrowful
sadness, prompting the larger than life

female—to writhe in a ghostly trance
of great suffering. Her lithe arms
slowly push against steel construction

bars—to no avail, becoming a prisoner
instead of a welcomed refugee
fleeing gang war in Central America.

A theatrical spectacle, conjuring
guilt inside myself, wondering if
I’ve made enough effort

to denounce the U.S. Government
for the horrendous crimes
against humanity—paid for by tax dollars

& ordered by a monstrous President
supported by Nationalist bigots & fools.
Like most pedestrians, I curiously glance

& depart from the metaphorical lady
cruelly separated from her offspring—
being kept in a locked cage indefinitely.

In my muddled head, I’m challenged
with reflective moments of contemplation
by the power of art in odd places.

By Art in Odd Places | Posted in 2019 Invisible | Tagged 2019 | Comments Off

Thinker in Residence: Christine Licata, Day 3 – Urban Epidermis

October 20, 2019 – 7:31 pm

Thinkers in Residence spend time on 14th Street over the festival weekend reflecting on 14th Street, patterns of movement, artists, pedestrians, publics, personal reflections, and participation. Their responses take the form of writing, walking, image-making, poetry, or on-the-spot conversations with the public.

And now the observations of Christine Licata, Day 3.

#urban #epidermis

Underneath the 6,000 miles of asphalt and concrete road lie thousands of miles of water, sewer, gas, telecommunications, and electrical infrastructure. And let’s not forget the 500 miles of underground subway tracks or Con Edison’s 100-mile steam delivery system. In its entirety, it’s known to no one. The individual details of the vast underground are hoarded and guarded by the various stakeholders. Con Edison has its electrical map; the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) keeps track of water and sewer pipes; the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) could tell you where the transit tunnels are; and so on.

Imagine the city as a living organism, a body consisting of various systems—respiratory, nervous, skeletal—that share the same space and even intertwine. Now imagine surgery performed on that body by a surgeon who knows the location of only one system, who looks at the body and sees only blood vessels or bones. This is the odd condition of New York—a body subject to what, viewed through a wide lens, looks like perpetual triage. Each year, for repairs or to facilitate construction, the streets are sliced open 200,000 times—an average of almost 550 cuts per day, or 30 per street mile every year. #excerpt from #article “Nobody Knows What Lies Beneath New York City” by #GregMilner #BloombergNewsweek #diagrams from #NationalGeographic

#invisible #sidewalk #crosssection
#aiop #14thstreet
#thinkerinresidence @edwoodham @thelululolo #day3

By Art in Odd Places | Posted in 2019 Invisible | Tagged 2019 | Comments Off