moca: art in the streets recap (part 2)…
…today i’ll be taking you into the street market installation, an urban block recreated through the eyes of artists barry mcgee, todd james and stephen powers. initially conceived in 2000 as a jeffrey deitch project, street market is a collage of seedy convenience stores, liquor marts, storefront churches and hodge podge semi vacant shops representing prime targets for hits. i felt it looked better in all it’s glory in it’s original home as obviously because of space issues, the installation had to be cut down to fit the geffen:
nothing wasted: the shops provided opportunities for mini exhibits within the exhibit as artists showcased their sketches and process
loving the dimensional ‘signage’:
realistic looking taggers:
street market provided me with way too many photos to choose from but if you’d like to see the native setting, you can click here for a link to the archived images from the original deitch installation.
also featured was a memorial tribute to the late proclaimed gothic futurist, rammellzee. like quite a few artists, it was a posthumous display which encompasses an entire room. lit with black light, it was the perfect way to showcase the future-tribe effect of his work. i was blown away by the figures and sculptures featured in his portion of the exhibit and was glad to catch a glimpse of the world through his eyes. you could wind back the clock and see traces of childhood’s transformers. it was difficult to take photos in this environment so you’ll have to excuse the grain in some of the images:
the following isn’t the work of rammellzee, but the artist has definitely been touched by it. this room was a favorite, small, intimate and jam packed with pop iconography and consumer relics. make sure you click on the images as sometimes i’ve linked others beneath:
collage was used extensively throughout the exhibit and what i loved best was the re-purposing of lo-tech items within the works. without a doubt music is to street art like picnic baskets are to yogi bear and i was stoked to see old boom-box’s, a much cherished childhood item, being incorporated and elevated to new status! i carted mine with me all summer:
there were a few instruments placed in front of the work to encourage viewer participation but no one wanted to join in for an impromptu jazz session:
whew! so i’m going to end it here for now and yes, there will be a third and, i’m determined, final installment. be sure to come back because the final post will feature cars, fashion and vintage paint. peace and blessings….