Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Sidewalk Barrier as Expensive Art

During my last whirlwind tour of photography galleries in Chelsea, I found myself walking up 10th Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Streets, on the left side of the street going uptown, where a construction site has walled off the sidewalk. To make a passageway for pedestrians, some unassuming barriers have been put out in the road, strung together to make a small path; the other side is a plywood wall, now covered with concert posters. The barriers are made of old railroad ties, two by fours painted a red and white candy stripe, and often some orange plastic netting. As I was walking along, writing down some last minute thoughts from the previous show, I looked down and noticed one of the barriers was a little different:



There's a small little plaque mounted to the base of one of them; easy to miss if you're rushing past or talking. So I peered down to see what it said:


This for me was an "only in Chelsea" kind of moment. Paul Richard's website can be found here, with many more of these random street-side designations, among other artistic projects. I realize that this isn't photography, but it made me smile nonetheless.

1 comment:

Dave Rudin said...

Thanks for sharing this - but do you know if anybody has made him an offer yet???