A brand new installation by Wild Life went up this weekend as part of the artist's residency at These Days gallery in Downtown. The theme of change and gentrification has long been at the heart of Wild Life's public art, and it's always presented in a way that both confronts and educates the people who walk by and happen to catch a glimpse.
The sculpture is accompanied by a small placard that reads:
OUR LADY OF GENTRIFICATION
Once upon a time, an artist with desperate thoughts was walking down Broadway between 5th & 6th Streets when he glimpsed her through a dirty window of a business that was shuttering it’s doors. As their eyes met, the man saw visions of artists of past history working in the salons of Paris and Vienna and the mannequins they used as their subjects and often a source of inspiration. Immediately, the darkness that weighed heavy on his heart and mind lifted as he recognized the pure intention of the frozen figure. He saw through her eyes the decades she spent staring out at the sea of humanity, their dreams, their desires, and the inevitable tsunami of change that was to crash on the shores of Broadway and wash away those same hopes and dreams. The artist witnessed impossible tears emerge from her eyes and flow down her fiberglass cheeks as he felt her heart breaking. The sign in the window read “EVERYTHING MUST GO!” and the artist wondered if she would have to go as well. At that moment, in his mind, she had become a Saint. She was, is, and will always be Our Lady Of Gentrification.
More photos:
Our Lady of Gentrification, 2015
Mixed media
Wild Life
Photos by Stephen Zeigler.
