Here’s a Follow-Up I forgot to post!

If you recall, when the two phone kiosks that housed pine trees in Astoria were removed, I simply shifted the surviving pine tree, “Calgary”, up the street and reinstalled her in the very next empty phone Kiosk!

Well, after featuring her in her new perch on the site, the empty kiosk was again removed, and Calgary, again spared.

So, well stocked with snark, I got ready to move her further and further around the streets of Astoria, fully prepared to play this game of Cat and Mouse until all of the empty Kiosks were removed- and that might take awhile as there was no shortage of empty phone kiosks!

But Telebeam was a step ahead of me! They removed them all! Every. Last. One.

Well done, friends! Here is my overdue congratulations and thanks!

If you’re curious- Calgary got retired to a deck, where I hope she is well watered and has overwintered well.

So, through direct action street art (Street Artivism? ) two public space issues in Astoria have been resolved- the junky phone kiosks littering the streets, and the scum river, Right? Well, no quite. The scum river has been diverted and dried up, yes, but work on the site has seemingly stalled. More on that soon from my partner in slime, Jason Eppink.

In the meantime, If you like urban guerrilla gardening, like Calgary and Edmonton the lil’ pines, then you will almost certianly LOVE this new shirt of mine:

Inspired by the most famous entrepreneurial guerrilla gardener to ever walk America, Johnny Appleseed, comes this modern, post-apocalyptic flavored update: Jack Appleseed!

Jack Appleseed, born (John Hammer, September 26, 1980), is an American pioneer, a wanderer who walks the sun bleached, lifeless roads of America- stopping only to turn the public parking wastelands he comes across only all too often, into public parks

Based on this stencil.

Another older sticker from a “Posterchild” Image search!

One has been hit by rains,

One has been jumbled-up!

Another forgotten WCWC! I had a goal to install one in every borough, but I only got Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Staten Island. Still need Manhattan and Queens to be a completist. I guess that’s why I forgot to post these- I was waiting for the project to be “done”.

Vidgeo:

WCWC- Brooklyn from posterchild on Vimeo.

One more lil’ forgotten thing on Staten.

Find this, and you’re also probably spending the whole day walking around as much of the perimeter of Staten Island as you can.

Here’s something I was fully intending to share with you, but then… um… forgot about.

It’s another Westminster Chime Wind Chime. WCWC! It has 4 pipes tuned to the 4 notes of the Westminster Chimes. The idea is that it is cosmically unlikely, but over a long enough timeline, inevitable, that the wind will play out the simple pattern of the Westminster chimes!

Because it is partially made with scrap found washed up along the beaches of Staten Island, it doesn’t have a regular chiming pattern and strongly favors some notes over others. I think for this reason it is especially unlikely to ever play the Westminster chimes!

Watch the video, and be calm and happy. Imagine yourself sitting crosslegged ontop the deck that this WCWC is installed under- sipping rum from the bottle and hearing the ethereal, unpredictable notes wafting up from underneath you. Look out at the lights of New Jersey and think about how you never imagined that it could ever look so pretty. Pull your hoodie up over your head, and take another swig to brace yourself from the deepening cold. There. You’re basically now right there with us as we installed this months ago:

WCWC- Staten Island from posterchild on Vimeo.

Continuing this thread of showing you things I originally didn’t intend to: Here is an old sticker that I’m 99% sure I’ve never put on the site before. It is another image from a ‘POSTERCHILD’ image search.

HEY HEY I WAS GONNA WAIT TO TELL YOU THIS BUT I HAVE AN EXCITING SHIRT ALL PRINTED UP AND READY TO BE PUT ONTO YOUR BODIES!

If you buy one it will help me avoid abject poverty. FACT.

It’s been a long while since I had an update, and that stinks.

So here’s something that I wasn’t intending on posting, but I’ve decided to share because 1: Updates Rule, & 2: The work has just lasted SO LONG. Far exceeding my expectations.

Here’s the story- While cleaning up my shit (yet again) I found a bunch of perfectly good, high-quality, acid-free, archival, dark-magik resistant mat board that I had been hoarding for YEARS. This stuff has been hanging around for at least 4-5 years (NEVER AGING!) as I originally scrounged it up while I was still in University. I must have moved it to different homes at least 3 times! I figured that it was time to use it, but I didn’t have any frames, or materials with which to build frames lying around- so I decided that a flyer box was as good a frame as any, and here we are!

I put it in a box situated in a high foot-traffic area. I could have put it in a box that was off the beaten path- perhaps a derelict one that was stuffed full of garbage- and I would have known that it would run forever, or at least until somebody unusually involved messed with it or whenever the box was finally cleaned out… (would that ever happen?).

But I decided to put it in a high-traffic spot. It wouldn’t last as long, but It would get more eyes, and it would also act as a sort of experiment to see just how long it would last. My bet was a day or two. This is just outside one of the main entrances to the Ontario Government Buildings: a quartet of very large and major Government buildings here in Toronto. It is chock’a'block full of govie-types with good jobs, situated right downtown, and must see thousands of people walk pass daily.

I put this in over a Month ago, and it’s still there. I installed it on Feb 5th. In the first photo, you can see a little bit of the snow from our wimpy Toronto winter that just ended- one of the driest and warmest in recent records. You can also see that the other flyer boxes are headlining “Black History Month” and “Chinese New Year”. The second photo was taken just yesterday.

I really thought, that of all their boxes on our cities streets, EYE would maintain this one.

I suppose that you can never be too sure with these junky things which ones are actually maintained.

Hey hey- we made change happen AND we made da paper!

I’d like to thank my partner in SLIME, Jason Eppink, again, for maintaining the bridge, handling all the media requests, and being such a good ambassador for us while I’m out of NY!

What a guy!

Original article here.

Wow!

Jason Says:

“Walking to the train this morning, I heard construction noises and half joked that maybe Amtrak was fixing Astoria Scum River. Turns out they were!

The guys were really friendly and very complimentary of our bridge. Awesome!”

As of this morning, The Astoria Scum River, that long dreaded crossing, is dead!!! (or dying, anyway!)

All photos courtesy of Jason Eppink.

The bridge has been tagged!

While I would have preferred a tag with a bit more… aesthetic appeal… I must say that I’m actually not at all upset by this- in fact, I’m happy to see it. Personally, I think it legitimizes the bridge in a way. Every other bridge in New York is tagged, now this one is too! It’s like christening a boat. Now this is truly a New York bridge, no?

Like people crossing the bridge, It can also be seen as a sign of incorporation, acceptance and use by the community. Here’s another: The other day Jason and I both received a very nice email:

Hello,

Thanks for making the bridge for residents. Our office had a meeting with Amtrak and discussed some solutions beginning with cleaning out the existing drop inlets that are filled with debris. A timeline for alleviating the problem will be developed shortly.

Thanks,

Jonathan A. Szott
Constituent Liaison
NYC Council Member Peter F. Vallone Jr.

We were very happy to get such news; here is Jason’s reply:

Hi Jonathan, thanks for the note.

Posterchild (cc-ed) and I are thrilled that the community has taken such
a liking to the Astoria Scum River Bridge. Besides just using the
bridge to walk over the “river”, our neighbors have been snapping
photographs and even writing songs about it!

But your note is especially affirming. As artists working in public
spaces, our intentions and actions are sometimes misinterpreted,
particularly by city officials.

We saw a problem and took the most direct and creative action we could
to fix it. It’s a minor improvement, certainly, but we’re both adament
about the importance of direct action and personal responsibility in
caring for our shared spaces.

So it’s very gratifying to receive a positive response from you and to
learn that your office is working to create a long-term solution. This
outcome is the best we could have hoped for!

Knowing that you’re a busy guy and that your office has a lot more
pressing matters to attend to, I’d love if you could keep us posted on
this project as it progresses.

cheers,
-jason

I’m very excited to see any positive developments that may come out of this!

All photos courtesy of Jason Eppink.