Thursday, June 27, 2013

5Pointz doesn't want to move to MOMA


From DNA Info:

With 5Pointz facing the threat of demolition, one Long Island City resident has been publicly offering up his own solution to save the Queens graffiti mecca: move it to MoMA PS1 across the street — an idea that was met with skepticism by the art group.

Kris Schrey, who lives nearby and runs a local parents group, thinks MoMA PS1 could offer up the gray walls outside the museum's exterior as a canvas for graffiti artists, who are likely to be displaced by a plan to tear down 5Pointz to build two luxury apartment towers.

But Marie Cecile Flageul, an event planner who serves as a 5Pointz spokesperson, said the group thought the idea was well-intentioned but impractical.

"I love that people have ideas and they talk about it, but it's obviously coming from someone who doesn’t know anything about the building," she said, referring to the 200,000-square-foot factory space at 45-46 Davis St. that 5Pointz currently calls home.

"We're certainly not going to compromise and take two cement walls across the street," she added, saying 5Pointz artists produce over a thousand pieces a year and that dozens of artists work at the space every weekend.

24 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

Graffiti "art"? Aerosol "art"?

This ain't "art".

It's doodling.

Anonymous said...

Get rid of this eyesore once and for all. This is not art. It's trash tht has caused millions of dollars in private property damage throughout Queens and the city in general.This photo proves that any piece of real estate, public or private, is fair target when it comes to graffiti tagging....the graffiti- riddled elevated train stanchion is owned by the MTA.

Jerry Rotondi said...

Nice try Kris--
but PS1 has always been jealous of 5 Pointz pulling power over theirs--as a major tourist attraction.
They wouldn't have them anyway.

And why should 5 Pointz--be content with selling out their big world wide reputation--to be bribed into silence--by accepting postage stamp size walls as a booby prize?

Aerosol art is big art--and it needs a very big canvas to be fully effective!

It's far better to go down fighting the good fight--and if necessary--move on to something even bigger afterwards.

Anyway--
as the old Yankee champ Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over"!

What is this parents' group you are representing?
Please tell us more about it.

If they don't like PS 1's prison walls--then let PS 1 accommodate them by painting daisies, or something else, on them.

Anonymous said...

YAWN!

Here goes our ignoramus and self proclaimed "art critic" expelling air once again.

If art were a snake...that came and bit you on your dumb ass...you wouldn't know it!

Anonymous said...

Before the aerosol artists...I repeat, aerosol artists... came to paint at "Phun Phactory" (which preceded "5 Pointz") the building was a filthy, unsafe, tagged up mess. Drug dealers and hookers had their run of Davis Street after dark.

It was the aerosol art murals (which replaced the graffiti) that turned the place around. You (most likely) sat in your armchair with a thumb up your ass doing nothing to improve conditions in your own neighborhood!

The current "eyesore" is a product of the slumlord Wolkoff family. It's the artists who have been trying to put pressure on the landlord to clean it up.
It's these very same artist that have removed illegal tags elsewhere.

You really don't know WTF you're talking about.
"5 Pointz" put LIC on the map.

Many real estate brokers and rental agents feature "5 Pointz" in their promotion materials, to draw people to the LIC-Hunter's Point neighborhood.

It's time for you to change your attitude or move to the quiet countryside near Philadelphia, or somewhere, if you don't like urban living.

georgetheatheist said...

"That's not writing. That's typing."
- Truman Capote on the merits of Jack Kerouac

"That's not art. That's doodling."

- georgetheatheist on 5 Pointz

Great minds think alike. (Now go and sin no more.)

Anonymous said...

Lets cut to the chase.

The is the fault of self-styled cultural czar Jimmy Van Bramer, late of the Queens Library system and all those wonderful types calling the shots with tearing down Carnegie Libraries while Manhattan is trying to save them.

Instead of supporting the arts in his community, he throws sums around the city building his future political bases (so he thinks) and lavishes enormous sums on a tiny group of large institutions that have more than enough resources to be weaned off the public tit (but provide him great photo ops and are geared to provide cultural amenities to attract more development) while letting the struggling artists in the community wither on the vine.

If a developer wants the FivePoinz then the developer will have it.

Jimmy's true colors shine through.

Anonymous said...

Then, let the MTA clean those stanchions.

The 5 Pointz artists cannot legally paint over these tags without permission.That would be vandalism...otherwise, I'm sure, that they would be glad to do it.

BTW,
without 5 Pointz you will probably see more graffiti around town.

Graffiti has always been around since ancient times.
Don't lay the blame at 5 Pointz's doorstep.
In the end, a vandal is a vandal...and what's to do about it?

i.e.
Napoleon's soldiers left their graffiti on the pyramids of Egypt. They were vandals. Then there was that great all American master's work left all over Europe during the World War II era, "Kilroy was here". He was a vandal.

The 5 Pointz walls are done with permission of the building owner. This is not vandalism.

Keep on blindly bashing, so that we can all bear witness to just how deep your stupidity really goes.

FYI:
Many former vandals have been steered into successful art careers...through the mentoring programs that have been offered at 5 Pointz.

Anonymous said...

A lot of trolls are up early today.

Are they hoping to score some points online before the borough hall meeting this afternoon?

Who might they be?

"Big" Jerry Wolkoff and "putzmeister" son David ? Peter Vallone junior? PS 1? Joseph Conley & the 'ol "White" Irish bhoys?

Whomever!
Save your horse shit for growing tomatoes!

Anonymous said...

Anyone who says this is not art and is an eyesore should go visit the building and walk around it. The art you see above from the subway does not compare to the more than museam quality paintings all around the building and the talented artists who work and pain here.The parking lot and rear of teh building where it is flat should be town down and built as condos and the main bldg should be restored as artist studios, galleries, shops and places to eat

Anonymous said...

George,

Respectfully disagree. A lot of graffiti - most of it I'll even say - is vandalism. 5 pointz though is a curated, variegated collection of hard work well-crafted by people for whom spray paint is the preferred medium. I don't like all of it, but some examples really are jaw-dropping. Surely you can recognize talent even in art you don't particularly appreciate:

http://s704.photobucket.com/user/livlif/media/SN-163.jpg.html

http://www.tfcornerstone.com/new-york-city-life/wp-content/uploads/ny-mural-5-pointz.jpg

http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/86908/2151765/Taxis-01_900.jpg

There are people who would say the work of newspaper cartoonists and draftsmen isn't "art" either.

As you might put it, "de gustibus non disputandum" Don't deny it's effort just because you don't like it.

Anonymous said...

5 Pointz should buy the building from the owner.

georgetheatheist said...

Here and there a portrait, or more correctly a caricature. But look at the posted picture.

Predominantly zig-zags that have been colored-in.

Little kids do that with coloring books and crayons.

"Don't deny it's effort just because you don't like it."

OK an "A" for "effort". An "F" for "art".

Anonymous said...

The first time I visited P.S. 1, the majority of the "art" was just a bunch of video installations of pale-skinnd, barely-attractive people screaming. P.S. 1 is lipstick on a pig.

Anonymous said...

By George...most of the time I agree with you...but
when the rest of the world recognizes the ART
at 5 Pointz as ART...who really gives a damn what your backwater opinion from some tiny village in Queens is?

You're a legend only through your own posts.

I give you an "A" for spirit and an "F" for all around enlightenment.

Now shoot some more of your $25 words back at us...to remind all (beyond your "superior" intellect) that the rest of us are peasants.

FYI:
Years ago at 5 Pointz...there was an aerosol portrait copy...of the famous Rembrandt self portrait...painted by some Dutch artist.

It was a fabulous rendition!
George, don't go off half cocked or get too cocky with your pronouncements.

Jerry Rotondi said...

PS 1 is what passes for a great art institution--in what is generally perceived to be--a culturally bereft borough.

The building is great. It's even an NYC Landmark.
At least we saved some valuable architecture.

Without the "MOMA" name attached to PS 1--nobody would take the time to drop by. The exception was, those courtyard weekend summer parties (music and all) that they used to throw. It was a place for young hipsters to socialize and pick up a date.

Then you've got the "Queens Museum of Art" filled with mostly 3rd rate stuff. Contrast its collection with the Brooklyn Museum's.

LOL!
Contrast our whole borough with Brooklyn.

Does anyone really expect foreign visitors to waste a full day and ride the #7 train practically to the end of the line to be disappointed?

No!
My money is on the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the wiser choice.

As one major tour director recently stated at a CB2 meeting--"The only time I can get visitors to come out to Queens is to see 5 Pointz. They request it".

Sorry to bust the bubble but--case closed!

Anonymous said...

The aged Truman Capote became an alcoholic who (I believe) choked on the cork from a bottle of booze he was trying to take a swig from....a very sad end to a brilliant career!

Many gay men have great difficulty facing old age and turn to the bottle.
Capote was a great writer along with Kerouac.

Another tidbit of useless info:
I went to school with Jack Kerouac's French Canadian cousin (who spelled it Kirouac...which he insisted was the correct spelling of their family name.)

So what? I still have to pay my taxes.

georgetheatheist said...

"...backwater opinion from some tiny village in Queens.."

ROTFLMFAO. (Queens: 2.25 million people)

He did an aerosol copy of a Rembrant, you say? A r-e-n-d-i-t-i-o-n. (Read that again: a COPY of the Rembrandt.) Why not just use a xerox machine?

"As one major tour director recently stated at a CB2 meeting--'The only time I can get visitors to come out to Queens is to see 5 Pointz. They request it' ".

Here's some footage of those happy tourists on their way to 5 Pointz. Check out 3:06 as the #7 pulls comes into Court Square.

The rest of the world comes to see this "art" because there is a psychological need see "dreck". It has to do with toilet training. A drecky dilapidated building covered with dreck masquerading as "art".

Kunst ist Scheisse.

And graffiti/aerosol "art" is the Scheissiest. Now flush the bowl and get your crayons. The walls are waiting.

Anonymous said...

George, you've been pulling on your schvance too long.
your brain has shrunk.

meresone (curator of 5pointz) said...

i love how people say graffiti isnt art.....so tell me..what is art then??instead of being a closed minded indivisual who sits at your computer spewing your garbage..why dont u come down and ill walk u around and break down the artform for u..

Anonymous said...

Thanks George for all your perceptive commentary here and over the years. It's a pleasure here in Queens to walk the ground you walk on and to breath the same air you breath. You're A#1.

Anonymous said...

Dontcha luv the way George sprinkles his discourses with foreign words in a vain attempt to impress us?

In his imperious manner he spits down at us peasants from his box seat in the theater.

georgetheatheist said...

George, you've been pulling on your schvance too long.
your brain has shrunk.
--------------------------------

Erratum.

"Schwanz"

Peasants, get your umbrellas.

anon123 said...

Are ancient cave drawings "doodlings"?

Are Jackson Pollock splashings "trash"?

Are Picasso paintings "Degenerate Art"?

Is Eminem an "artist"?

Many people considered Warhol art garbage during his time. I suppose some still does.

With that said, my opinion is that 99% of graffiti taggings is trash and vandalism :)