5 Pointz spray painted white overnight
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#1
Posted: 11/19/13 at 11:19am
Why must this be done in the secrecy of night? The new owners have the property to build their creamy, view-destroying condos...why not just start tearing it down? But the message is clear: People with money must lord their power over artists.
So long 5 Pointz, I'll miss staring at you on my 7 train commute.
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#2
Posted: 11/19/13 at 2:32pm
Other possible messages:
Building owners have the right to paint the buildings they own.
If you want your Art to last, select a medium other than the application of spray paint on other people's property.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/13
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#2
Posted: 11/19/13 at 2:35pmTo be fair, there is a report out there claiming that the new owners plan to provide an outside wall and space - even larger than the old one - exclusively for graffiti artists.
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#3
Posted: 11/19/13 at 2:59pmYa know…I might be in the minority here. They are Graffitti Vandals. I like my building unadorned with "Tags".
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#4
Posted: 11/19/13 at 3:08pmSorry... if it is that much of a "loss" then buy the building and do what you want with it. Otherwise - it is vandalism whether or not it is "art".
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#5
Posted: 11/19/13 at 3:14pmI was just commenting while taking the train this morning the incredible amount of tagging and with the new thick spray paint.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/15/13
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#6
Posted: 11/19/13 at 3:47pmi like how one vandal gets mad at the other vandal and they write all over their awful "art" its like two flies fighting over a turd
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#7
Posted: 11/19/13 at 3:51pm
I prefer reverse graffiti.
There are large sections of San Francisco that are bona fide works of art, that just happen to be painted with spray paint on the outside of a building. These are usually done in private alleyways.
One just went up near my work. It was cool seeing the artists transform the plain white building into something.
Graffiti can be artistic.
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#8
Posted: 11/19/13 at 3:51pmAnd you see that happening around your head constantly.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/15/13
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#9
Posted: 11/19/13 at 3:57pm
Graffiti can be artistic.
so can box of broken dishes on the floor if they fall right
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#10
Posted: 11/19/13 at 4:02pmJungle Red, they recently did that here in DUMBO as a citywide beautification project. It was sanctioned and paid for and it looks great. All the underpassed to the Brooklyn Bridge were painted by various Artists.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#11
Posted: 11/19/13 at 8:49pmDOuble post.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#12
Posted: 11/19/13 at 8:51pm
Do any of you know what 5 Pointz actually is/was? Oy, the reactionaries!
I loved coming in from the city every day to be greeted in Queens by this big, colorful, garish warehouse that seemed to have new paintings on it every day. They were dazzling, sexy, and utterly cool. It was like the New York I had wanted to be moved into a warehouse. People were gasping on the 7 train today when they saw the warehouse covered in white.
Now we'll get greeted by housing absolutely no one will be able to afford. The symbolism of it all is just so...ugh.
The History of 5Pointz
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/13
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#13
Posted: 11/19/13 at 9:47pmDid you read my post? The new owner will be providing a bigger and better "face" for the artists once the building is erected.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#14
Posted: 11/19/13 at 9:59pm
I haven't heard anything about a wall. That would have to be one long-ass wall to have the same amount of space that 5 Pointz did. More important than just a place for graffiti art, 5 Pointz stood as a cultural center. The name 5 Pointz was to bring the 5 boroughs together.
I find it hard to believe that the new owners care one whit about the (mostly Black) culture it stood for. If so, then why paint over years of art on a building that you are going to demolish anyway? It's a message and a foul one at that.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/13
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#15
Posted: 11/19/13 at 10:16pm
I can completely understand how difficult it can be. Especially for the artists. It is too bad.
For the record, 5NY News just interview the councilman who helped broker the deal and he confirmed that the new owner voluntary agreed to provide over 10,000 square feet of canvas space (an entire outside facade) to the artists and a gallery "tribute" to the old artwork inside of the building. The owners thought the whitewash would ease relations between them and the artists before they tore it all down, according to the councilman.
Always good to have every side to the story.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/15/13
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#16
Posted: 11/20/13 at 7:49am
t""the (mostly Black) culture it stood for""
I didn't know that graffiti was a (mostly) Black thing.
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#17
Posted: 11/20/13 at 8:03am
Graffiti is a "mostly black" culture?
Hmmm, that's news to me.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#18
Posted: 11/20/13 at 9:12am
Some of the great artwork that was on 5Pointz
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#19
Posted: 11/20/13 at 11:22pm
I'll allow that the issue is *somewhat* more complex than a building Owner simply painting a building that has been 'vandalized' with graffiti. Wolkoff--the Owner--had apparently agreed to allow the building's walls to be painted and it had certainly become a widely- and well-known attraction.
I can't agree, however, that the graffiti painters acquired any ownership of the building by virtue of having sprayed paint on the building's walls--unless, of course, some sort of Contract was executed explicitly giving the graffiti artists some share in the building's ownership in exchange for their work.
This is simple property rights. The guy owns the building. He let them spray-paint pictures on the building. He still owns the building.
On a more philosophical level--graffiti is, essentially, ephemeral. Kids sneak onto bridge abutments and into train tunnels in the middle of the night and tag them. Maintenance crews remove the graffiti. The notion that the graffiti on this building had somehow become 'sacred' or inviolable is explicitly ad odds with my understanding of the nature of the art form.
Borstalboy, I don't doubt that it was a vibrant and interesting thing to see on your commute, but constant change is the very essence of this City--for better and for worse.
And your statement that "absolutely no one will be able to afford" the proposed luxury housing has no basis in fact. The seemingly insatiable demand for "luxury" apartments has created an overheated residential real estate market in New York--which is precisely why the building Owner has decided to proceed with demolition of the existing building.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/13
5 Pointz spray painted white overnight#20
Posted: 11/20/13 at 11:24pmAlso, something like 30% of the building will be dedicated solely to affordable housing. For the record.
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