philly

I just read a depressing article in the NY Times on how the building currently covered with amazing international graffiti at 11 Spring St in Manhattan is being converted into condos. The article started:

It was as if someone had told devotees of Picasso's "Demoiselles d'Avignon" or Matisse's "Dance” that the Museum of Modern Art had changed hands and would soon be shut down for residential "redevelopment, with all the art inside to vanish as part of the deal.

That's about how I felt when I read the tagline underneath the article title on the front page of the NYT site.

It's a landmark which has been a canvas for some time. I used to walk by it all the time when I worked in NYC. It was close enough to walk by when I needed to get some air when I worked in SoHo on Spring & Broadway. It was worth a quick stop to take a look at what was new before meeting my friends for a night out of drinking or a quick stop at the end of the night after getting a slice of pizza at Ben's. The last time I walked by the wall and gave it a good once over was back in June of 2005 and I have a flickr set documenting parts of the wall. I love this wall. I'm very sad to see it go. But it won't go without a bang.

The owners of the building have let a large group of streetartists converge on the building's interior 30k square feet and have at it. The end result is going to be a ridiculous installation of tons of graffiti. From the article:

Now, after nearly two months of work by 45 artists, the show is almost ready. The building's doors will be unlocked tomorrow for an open house that will continue through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. On Monday work will begin that will eventually seal most of the interior artwork behind pipes, wires and drywall.

"In a way the art is all going to disappear, but it's also going to be sealed up in this incredible time capsule," said Mr. Schiller, walking through the building Tuesday afternoon as more than a dozen artists continued to work on their pieces in a haze of aerosol fumes and sawdust.

I think I'm going to take a daytrip up to NYC on Saturday to take one last look and walk through the place for the first and last time.

More info via Gothamist.

Photo taken by one of my favorite photogs Joseph Holmes. The photo can be found in his flickr stream here and in a nice big size here.

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