space type: art gallery | neighborhood: wall street | active: october 2011 | links: website
Over the course of doing this site, I’ve gotten away with profiling a few spaces in
Ridgewood, since they were only a block or two from Brooklyn. Obviously no such
gloss of proximity is possible for Wall Street, but as I’ve watched and
participated in the #OWS movement over the past month, I’ve been struck by
how it represents so many of the things I love about Brooklyn creative culture,
like the familial bonds of those working in close proximity, the willingness to
struggle together in the face of bad odds, the tendency toward horizontalism and
consensus-based decision-making, the starry-eyed idealism born of the desire to
make the world more beautiful, more exciting, more fair. If that’s not
enough, the “No Comment” art show put on by #OWS in the old JP
Morgan building on Wall Street was by far the Brooklyn-est thing
I’ve ever seen in lower Manhattan.
The massive show, which
featured art made at and inspired by Occupy Wall Street, was put on in
collaboration with Loft
in the Red Zone and had all kinds of work, from painting and photography
to quilting, from illustrated protest signs to a spray-painted tent, from video
installations to a gigantic flag made of actual dollar bills. There were
spontaneous performance-art pieces throughout the night, there were bands, there
was even on-site screenprinting. There was also, of course, an intense police
presence out front, and to get to the show you had to wind through an endless
maze of barricaded streets and blocked-off intersections, but the show itself
was sprawling, joyous, challenging, beautiful—just like Occupy Wall Street. Just
like Brooklyn.
I don’t have an
interview in this post, but I do have lots and lots of pictures (sorry for my
shitty camera, as always). Interspersed with the photos I’ve shared links
to some of the most moving or fascinating or spot-on articles my friends and I
have found about the OWS movement. Enjoy—and then get out there and occupy
something.
By the way: If anyone knows the names of the artists whose work I’ve posted
pictures of, please get in touch so I can give credit! brooklynspacesproject
[at] gmail [dot] com.
Douglas Rushkoff’s “Think Occupy Wall Street is a phase? You don’t get
it.” on CNN
Keith Boykin’s “Everything the Media Told You About Occupy Wall Street Is
Wrong” on Huffington Post
“Why We Support #OccupyWallStreet” by Move On,
includes an incredibly galvanizing video.
“Bushwick DIY Takes Wall Street” on BushwickBK
(featuring Ray from Bushwick Print Lab!)
Max Udargo’s “Open Letter to that 53% Guy” on Daily Kos
Danny Schechter’s “Why Are So Many in the Media Threatened by Occupy Wall
Street?” on Disinformation
“Man Uses Occupy Wall Street’s People’s Mic to
Propose to Girlfriend” on The Observer
Joshua Holland’s “The Stunning Victory that Occupy Wall Street Has Already
Achieved” on AlterNet
“Protesters Against Wall Street” on New York
Times
Matt Taibbibi’s “Wall Street Isn’t Winning—It’s
Cheating” on Rolling Stone
imgur’s “What OWS
is about and data behind the movement”
favorite feeds from my anarchist sister: OWS official site, Occupy Together, Occupy NYC
livestream, Global Revolution livestream
written by my friend Jillian for Guernica: “In Defense of Youth”
recommended by Beka, who runs Not An Alternative: J.A. Myerson’s “Some Unsolicited Advice to the Democratic Party: Cave to the
Occupy Wall Street Movement” on truthout
recommended by Megan, lawyer & activist: Justin Elliott’s “Process is politics at Occupy Wall Street” on
Salon
recommended by Erica, activist & writer at Free Williamsburg:
Josh Harkinson’s “What the NYPD Really Thinks of Occupy Wall Street”
on Mother Jones
recommended by Jeanice: David Graeber’s “On Playing By the Rules – The Strange Success of
@OccupyWallStreet” on Naked Capitalism
recommended by Miss Scorpio of Gemini
& Scorpio: Henry Blodget’s “Here’s What the Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry
About” on Business Insider
Sally Kohn’s “What will victory look like for Occupy Wall
Street?” on CNN
“Here Are Occupy Wall Street’s Plans for a National
Convention that Could Change the Face of America” on Business
Insider
***
Like this? Read about more activism: The
Illuminator, Time’s
Up, The
Brooklyn Free Store, Books
Through Bars, No-Space, Trees Not
Trash, Bushwick
City Farms
