Today I have something great to share with you that I’ve been excited to share for some time! Do you recall that one project that Jason Eppink and I came up with? No, not that one; this one!

Well, Jordan loved it, and with his help, we were able to take it to another level. This time we got the new signage printed “professionally”, and we did a lot more of them. It took Jordan and I about a day to assemble the vinyl, and we took another day (…and a good bit of the night) walking all around New York installing them! We had a close call with a couple police officers, close encounters with a couple bars along the way, and very tired feet by the end of it all!

Jordan Writes:

“Back In February PosterChild created an altered placard for the NPA city outdoor illegal street level billboards. He was aware of the fact that these placards were a lie being perpetrated on NY City by NPA as it made its transition to a new company called Contest Promotions. Under this new company, NPA’s illegal operations would be shut down and only those that could pretend to be running a raffle box would remain through a twisting of legal language. PosterChild’s single placard flew under the radar while still informing the public of NPA’s little secret, in a stark contrast to more overt actions we tend to carry out here at PublicAdCampaign. Needless to say, I wanted to see more.
At this same time I had been toying with the idea of running a micro-grant program. The grant would be on a rolling submission/review basis and the only stipulations would be that projects facilitate critical public interaction with outdoor advertising, and cost under one hundred dollars. Along with this small amount of production money PublicAdCampaign would help by tapping any resources we might have which could facilitate potential projects. PosterChild’s Truth In Advertising was a natural choice. In total the entire project ended up costing $91.48 and produced about 40 fake placards. You can see all of the images [Here]
I would like to thank PosterChild for inaugurating this micro-grant program with such a fantastically simple and effective project. In doing so I would also like to open up the next cycle of grant submissions. A clever idea can go a long way, alter how people think about the spaces they live in, and change what they come to expect from the streets that surround them. We hope that even in a small way we can facilitate this process and enrich the cities of this world with innovative and fun public works. Please take a look at the simple guidelines for submitting a proposal.”

I highly encourage you to submit to this new, fantastic and generous micro-grant program offered by PublicAdCampaign!

You can see my “Under One Hundred” project page here!

Jerm IX is a fellow Canadian artist out of Vansterdam running a nice ad takeover project called V-TARP. You can find out more and how to submit your own work here!

When I was preparing to send my submission, he told me to “Send a Fat Pack” as he would happily put up all sorts of art- so I found and included this old pasteup of a stencil I cut some years ago: It’s a large stencil of a temple I visited while I was in Korea- printed on thrift-store wallpaper. If you look closely at the image you can see that it has animal sounds printed all over it! Tee hee!

Well, look what came in the mail today:

“hey Poster Child,

just got your pack. I was pasting your giant piece to an empty billboard when I got stopped by the cops tonight. they let me go but the piece was sopping wet. I had no choice but to carry it into the alley and adhere it to this dumpster. once it was on the dumpster I couldn’t resist adding a FOR RENT banner to it, as a commentary on the illusion the government puts forth each year regarding promises of affordable housing in Vancouver. really hope you approve, the whole mission was painful. it’s an honour to put up your work though. cheers, here it is…

jerm IX”

Ha! I’ve had similar nights, where everything has gone wrong, and you are left holding a sodden wet, rapidly-tearing-and-turning-into-useless-pulp pasteup, and stubbornness is forcing you to look for somewhere- anywhere- to paste whatever you can salvage. I’m so glad Jerm pulled this one through, and that he decided to add his own voice to it- making it a collabo- I think it turned out great!

So thanks so much to Jerm!

And here’s to looking forward to seeing my V-TARP submission push an ad out of it’s perch!

Astoria Scum River Bridge from Jason Eppink on Vimeo.

As Jason mentioned a few days ago, the repair work on The Astoria Scum River has finally been completed!

So, I am now proudly able to present this fantastic video made by Jason, which does a wonderful job of summing up the project, and telling the story of it from start to finish!

ENJOY!

From Jason’s Video Description:
Astoria Scum River Bridge is an unauthorized city improvement by Jason Eppink and Posterchild:

http://jasoneppink.com/astoria-scum-river-bridge
http://bladediary.com/tag/astoria-scum-river-bridge

For more than twenty years, a leaky pipe on 33rd Street beneath the Hell Gate Bridge viaduct approach submerged more than a hundred square feet of heavily-trafficked sidewalk under a festering cesspool of standing water. Astoria Scum River, as it was called, stretched the entire width of the sidewalk, and as winter approached, the river iced over and became particularly hazardous to cross.

Astoria Scum River Bridge was constructed to offer Astorians an opportunity to safely cross this hazard. The unauthorized bridge was a gift to the pedestrians of Astoria in the absence of successful municipal efforts to ameliorate the problem.

The bridge was made at zero cost entirely from recycled materials: an old work bench found on the curb, rescued screws from a disassembled desk, and a metal plate from an expired electrical component. It was installed and dedicated on December 30th, 2009.

On January 25th, 2010, Astoria Scum River Bridge was the subject of a commendation from the office of NYC Council Member Peter F. Vallone, Jr., accompanied by a pledge to work with Amtrak to re-route Astoria Scum River off the sidewalk.

Two days later, Amtrak workers began construction work. Astoria Scum River was quickly routed off the sidewalk, and within a couple months, custom-made grates were installed to complete the project. The bridge, no longer needed, was de-installed on March 20th, 2010 and returned to the curb whence it came.

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.

Ah, yes, yes y’all.

Another sweet ol’ collabo from Jason Eppink and myself.

As the inimitable Eppink explains:
“For years, a leaking pipe on 33rd Street beneath the Hell Gate Bridge viaduct approach has submerged more than a hundred square feet of a heavily-trafficked sidewalk in a festering cesspool of standing water. In the winter, Astoria Scum River, as it’s called, ices over and becomes particularly hazardous to cross. Posterchild and I constructed this bridge as a gift to the pedestrians of Astoria.”

Some very interesting things have developed since the bridge was installed, the least of which was the dedication plaque slowly developing its full-blown patina!

More on all that soon!

All photos courtesy of Jason Eppink.

while working on this project I AM and I were thinking ourselves rather clever and original, and imagined we were doing something for the first time!

As is so often the case, it turned out that we were not the first at the party. The knowledgeable and talented Luna Park relieved us of that notion!

Regardless, I loved this stick as soon as I saw it; sneaky. We had decided to ape the colours and culture of gate stickers in order to allow our art to get through customs unmolested, (Tags get stopped and deported, graff stickers are removed from the airport, but, for some reason, gate stickers are often allowed to ride first class, why?) Spazmat takes this one step further by completely copying the whole sticker, and just making a little addition. What I didn’t consider when I first saw it, but is really interesting in light of I AM’s encounter with Gates ‘R’ Us, is how this method keeps the phone numbers the same! I wonder if Spazmat knew that he was making a peace treaty with NYC gates by doing so!

Of all the companies getting up on gates in New York, only a few crews are truly all-city. Some focus on a borough, some, their neighbourhood- just a handful hit gates all over NYC.

Here are three, sharing a gate, and a bit of black paint from a tag: Gates ‘R’ Us & Iron Works, NYC Gates & Iron Works, and these upstarts; POSTERCHILD – I AM International Gates & Fencing- who haven’t yet gone all city, but have put up well over a thousand stickers in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, (in that order of saturation) just a couple in the Bronx, and none (to my knowledge) in Staten Island yet.

A thousand plus stickers is a lot of stickering. It took us a couple days of dedicated walking, I AM on one side of the street, myself on the other, to hit all those gates up- plus whatever few we would hit up casually on our travels around the city- but the bulk was done as hours and hours of continuous walking. Sore feet and sticker paper. A great way to see the city! It was a lot of stickering, but, I think, not all that much stickers- especially compared to the big boys who have been steadily bombing the city for years. Still, enough to get noticed!

That’s where this gets interesting.

I AM had a really interesting talk with one of the other crews, who have indeed, noticed. He relays the story in this email he sent me, below. There’s not much more I can say on it, as I AM does such a good job- so I’ll just say “You should really read it”;

“I had a fascinating (if not absurd) conversation with a gate repair guy.

On my walk to work, I noticed a guy peeling stickers off the side of a
gate, and then I noticed a van parked at that intersection that had the
Gates ‘R Us logo on it. It looked like the guy was peeling off
competitors’ stickers. This was an opportunity to learn more about the
Gates ‘R Us stickers! (So I thought.)

I told the guy I’d noticed his stickers before and that I was really curious
about them: how many the company puts up, how often, how many
people they employee to do it, stuff like that. He was immediately wary
(perhaps I approached it wrong?) and said he didn’t have anything to do
with the stickers. Pressed further, he referred me to a co-worker.

A side note: both of these guys were large (the “well-built” but “not fit”
definition) guys in sweatshirts. Working class. Maybe a little
thug-looking.

I asked him the same thing. I was curious about how that part of their
business works. He asked why I wanted to know, and I told him I had
noticed the stickers everywhere – it wasn’t any sort of law enforcement
thing – and that I and a friend were doing a project inspired by/a spoof
of all the gate stickers that we see. One of the stickers we’d put up was
nearby, so I showed him.

The Gates ‘R Us guy had seen our stickers. He was aware of them, and the
first thing he said is, “Oh the one with the phone number that doesn’t
work.” I explained to him that it wasn’t a full phone number (it has a
fraction!) and it was not intended to be something anyone would call. I
explained how the gate stickers are a pervasive part of the urban
environment and the similarities and variations are really interesting.

He was really stuck on the phone number and was upset that it wasn’t real.
Clearly he’d tried to call.

“If you’re going to put a number on it, why don’t you put our number on
it?” he asked. I explained that I couldn’t favor one company; it wasn’t
an ad. The idea was to spoof all of the stickers.

He seemed to think this non-working phone number would hurt his business.
He was concerned someone would call the fake number and then not get through
to anyone and then…I don’t know! I couldn’t pull it out of him. “Then
they would just try a different number from a different sticker, right?” I
asked. I thought it worked more in his favor that the phone number DIDN’T
work. That didn’t assuage his fears.

He asked why we would spend money on this, and I told him it was an art
project. He claimed the project was just like graffiti, like “drawing on a
sticker and sticking it up”. “Well that’s exactly what you’re doing,
right?” “No, we’re a legitimate business.” But neither of us have
permission to put them up!

He said our project cluttered the gates. “This is bad enough,” he said,
pointing to a bunch of stickers from actual gate companies. “But your
stickers are cluttering the gates, too. You guys were here before we
were. We were inspired by yours!” “But we’re a legitimate business.”

He said he was getting really heated, and he was clearly getting upset.
“Look, we’re out here busting our asses. You’re hurting our business.
Why would you do that to us?” “We’re going to have to agree to disagree
on that. I don’t see how we’re hurting your business, but I’m sorry
you’re so upset. That was never our intention. It’s not like we’re
covering up any of your stickers.” (He admitted that he knew we weren’t,
so at least he noticed our courtesy there.)

He asked how many we’d put up, I told him, and then when I asked how many
stickers they had put up, he said it was none of my business. And then he
proceeded to say the project was retarded, and that I’m a retard and a
reject. That’s when I decided to leave!

I understand the class conflict here, and why our project might be so
mystifying to the guy. Those stickers are the man’s livelihood, and he
can’t separate the aesthetics of the sticker from his day-to-day business
like we can. He probably doesn’t spend much time thinking about any sort
of aesthetics anyway, and he may even have thought we were making fun of
him.

But I was being really friendly, curious, open, and generous about myself,
and nothing I did could calm him down or open him up. And I just don’t
think there is any excuse for someone behaving like that, class difference
or not.

I didn’t necessarily expect the gate repair guys to pat our backs for the
project, but I never expected them to have such animosity towards it! The
guy acted really entitled about the whole thing. I suspect the gate
repair business is a mafia-like controlled market.

I was afraid I drew more attention to the project and these guys would be
more active in taking down our stickers, but I haven’t noticed many more
removed than usual.

–i am”

In New York, there are a lot of roll down security gates.

They have become kinda a thing. Taggers love them, and so, those that hate tagging hate them: it was recently announced that in an effort to beautify the city and curb graffiti, gates are going to be gradually banned from the streets of New York, with a total ban in 2026. In a story about the ban, The New York Times poetically described the impact of New Yorks gates : “New York City’s storefront gates, like its fire escapes and stoops, are there but not quite there: the unnoticed wallpaper of New York at night. They have been battered by vandals and defaced by graffiti taggers. They have secured diamonds, handmade tortellini and other valuable commodities. They have provided the clattering soundtrack of dawn and dusk, the steel canvas of struggling artists, the most compelling evidence that the city does, indeed, sleep.”

“the clattering soundtrack of dawn and dusk”: Can’t you just hear it? Picture the noise rising out as you walk along Brooklyn, the morning chill in the air, the early sun rising, and a warm cup of coffee and greasy egg sandwich thing in hand- from a bodega that just a few hours earlier rolled up their own shutter.

Romantic notions aside, not many will miss these big imposing gates- but writers will. An artist I greatly admire, ESPO, or, as he backronymed during the course of this project: Exterior Surface Painting Outreach, famously made use of these gates, going over all the tags and turning each gate into giant letters, forming his name.

But while taggers have been running around trying to get ups on these gates, another type of crew has been more quietly getting up like mad: gate companies.

I started to notice all these stickers after I AM pointed a few out to me. There were so many types, I began to keep my eyes on the gates, and eventually starting collecting them! Here’s a pic of my final collection. It actually could be alot bigger- I had to stop because I ran out of room! Click for a larger view!


If you look closely, you can see the one that I AM and I designed together. It took us awhile, but we had alot of fun (way too much, really!) looking at the styles and conventions of gate stickers and taking them to the absurd!

So todays update: An absurd gate we found in Brooklyn. An absurd gate sticker for an absurd gate!