(View it larger on YouTube)
edited by Matt Adams / “The Dogs Were Let Out by Whom?” song by Tyler Walker
For Improv Everywhere’s latest mission, over 2,000 people walked “invisible dogs” down the streets of Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon. The leashes were on loan from the current owner of 51 Bergen Street, the factory space where the invisible dog toy was invented in the 1970s. Participants of all ages spread out from Red Hook to Brooklyn Heights, very seriously walking their very silly dogs.
Ron English takes graffiti to new heights this morning by skywriting the word CLOUD five times across lower Manhattan. The text soon dissipates into… actual clouds.
I just received an interesting letter in the mail.
At first I thought it was a wedding invitation, but then I noticed there was no return address. After opening it, I realized it’s definitely an invitation but that’s about as much as I can figure out. It’s from someone named Selma for an NYC event on October 17th. I feel pretty confidant in stating I have never met anyone named Selma in my life.
I have a suspicion what this might be about but I’ll hold off until I get confirmation. (This isn’t the first cryptic invite sent to the Urban Prankster offices!) I’ve transcribed the copy below.
7pm
October 17th
New York City
The Cardinal Case
Secrets stole I, treasures too;
I invite you to pursue.
How to win my worthy gifts?
I am one of many shifts.
This Hermaea worth shall prove
And the chaff from wheat remove.
Will you my fond pageant see
And earn this purloined property?
Place to place, we’ll celebrate.
Kindly, gentles, save the date.
~Selma
Thanks to the real estate bubble bursting and the ensuing recession, there are tons of vacant retail spaces all around Manhattan. What to do with all this prime space? One solution is to cover it with illegal advertising.
No Longer Empty has a much more elegant solution. The group is working with landlords to turn vacant storefronts into temporary art galleries that are free and open to the public. They currently have a gallery in the ground level of the new Caledonia luxury hotel on 16th Street and 10th Avenue by the High Line. I checked it out last week and it was awesome. What a novel idea! Using empty space for the public good!
The Putting Lot is the awesome new putt putt course built in an abandoned lot in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Their site explains:
Each hole is designed by a different team of artists and architects around themes of urban sustainability. Playing a round at the lot is an interactive experience, requiring golfers to step inside the artist’s visions and the ideas that have inspired them. Through the transformation of the lot, the construction of the holes, and a series of events held in the public area, we hope to provide a forum for discussing urban sustainability in a new context.
Ghost Hole, pictured above, is a hole created by artist Ben Roosevelt. Ben describes the hole:
To make my part of the course, the exact area of the vacant lot in Brooklyn where my hole would be built was photographed prior to any cleaning or building. Then the photographs were used to make an outdoor, high-traffic decal for the actual playing surface of the hole. A player could look down and see what was in the exact spot before building: trash, debris, rocks, etc.
Cool!
This project happened six years ago, but this video just popped up on the net last month. In August of 2003 the Madagascar Institute had a massive “condiment war” in DUMBO Brooklyn.
Daniel Maurer was there and wrote up an awesome first hand account. Here’s an excerpt:
There were supposed to be four armies: Madagascar Institute, the Toyshop Collective, the Greenpoint-based art collective WAMP, and “the bloodthirsty public, banded together in an Irregular Militia.” (Several civilians also posed as pacifists, meditating in the Lotus position even as they were pelted.) The teams were demarked by the color of their armbands (civies in yellow) and stationed in opposite corners, but as soon as the schnitzel hit the fan, all was chaos.
Noise makers and blow horns filled the air, as did a dizzying plethora of condiments. Suddenly I felt like I was in Saving Private Ryan. Men and women in plastic coveralls ran around spraying each other, or throwing chunks of hot dog, dough, pretty much anything edible. A woman wheeled an ice cream cart into the center of the staging area and pulled a hose out of it, spraying everyone around her. Another combatant hid her condiments in a baby carriage disguised as an elephant. Someone with a Super Soaker pumped vinegar into my eye.
From the rooftop of an adjacent 10-story building, people threw balloons full of god-knows-what onto the street below. At one point I looked up to see an operative rappelling off the side of the building. The figure stopped halfway down to drop a cluster of condiment bombs. All the while I ran around squeezing my wimpy squirt bottle of ketchup, feeding off the thrill of soiling total strangers while trying not to slip on a lava bed of spent ammo
(thanks Kevin)
“Chris” put up some hilarious photos around New York asking people to meet up with him for a range of bizarre interactions.
via zoomdoggle (also see Craig’s postings in Melbourne)
Aakash Nihalani is a Brooklyn based artist who works with the medium of tape in public places around New York.
He explains:
My work is created in a reaction to what we readily encounter in our lives, sidewalks and doorways, building and bricks. I’m just connecting the dots differently to make my own picture. Others need to see that they can create too, connecting their own dots, in their own places.
Current has a great profile on Brooklyn street artist Ellis Gallagher and his shadow-based street art. Also check out his recent Gothamist interview.
Free Bouncy Rides is a new project from the group Club Animals has been staging in subway cars and platforms. In the description for the project the group simply states, “This is a free public service.”
Elsewhere on their site they add:
Club Animals (Est. 2008) is a regression from adulthood. Obama said that now is the time to put off childish things, but we could not disagree more. In these times of job loss, government bailouts, and even a potential Depression, Club Animals has turned from adult concerns of money and finances and concentrated our minds on to those of children. Can you think back to a time when you didn’t care how much money you had in your pocket? Can you remember a time when you just wanted to play? Club Animals has embraced childhood, and the time when what was valued most was fun, horseplay, and experimentation without worrying about “reality.”