While I was on a recent trip to New York, I had the opportunity to view an art project that was displayed on the Bowery close to the New Museum. The piece, created by Christine Finley, was a wallpaper-wrapped dumpster. Finley is an acquaintance of mine, and I was excited by her concept, so I grabbed my camera and headed over. When I found Finley, she and her assistants were just starting to wallpaper the second of two dumpsters, and the piece was as much a performance as it was a pure display.
As it turned out, she had a videographer documenting the event as well as The New York Times, but she asked me if I would shoot stills throughout the day. I was more than thrilled to be a part of the project. Here’s what I saw:
Upon completion of the day’s work, I found myself extremely moved by what I had witnessed. There was, of course, Finley and her compatriots battling the elements (and it was extremely cold) to make a public statement about the importance of beauty. This in itself would have been enough to warm my soul, but there was also an unexpected beauty throughout the day: dozens of passersby became personifications of what Finley was trying to display in her work. I saw hardened face after hardened face soften in delight, joy, and yes, beauty.
Even the reporter from the NY Times was moved:
Thanks Finley!
The Christmas tree in the dumpster with green and red wallpaper — classic image.
LOVE THIS photo essay. There is something oddly satisfying about seeing the dumpsters wrapped in wallpaper – especially that blue design which is so classically wallpaper-y.
BTW, here’s the NYT story. Good for Finley!
God, I love wallpaper! Dumpsters, too.
i love these photos. farrell wants me to say he does too.
what a great project.
the blue wallpaper reminds me of the wallpaper we have in our kitchen.
lovely photos.
did you resize them at some point today? they are reading much better it seems than they were when i looked at this post first thing this am.
xoxoxo
the smiles on the passerby’s faces are just as beautiful as the re:done dumpsters. excellent.
The photos look better on this page — the click-through page that has an /archives/8731 URL up top — because photos on the TGW home page are squished a little bit due to the site design. That’s why they looked different when you saw them yesterday; you probably didn’t click through, but just looked at them on the home page.
love,
http://parrish
I hear little Charlie was there as well.
I especially liked the photo with the dumpster next to a dented garbage can which was worded “keep New York City”, I’m sure underneath the sticker says “clean.”
Well, the gangsters won’t claim those as their property or part of their territory.
9: the Art gangsters will!
cute.
i like the blue and white one.
I love this project. Finley told me that she hopes to do these wallpapered dumpsters in a bunch of major cities… Seems like a pretty worthwhile project to me…