« Profle: kokz | Main | Small Canvases from Galo (Amsterdam) »
August 3, 2004
Crosby Street Luggage Lock Installation... An Explanation
Photo by Allan Molho
One of our favorite examples of a street art "installation" can be found not far from where we live, on Crosby Street here in Soho. For months we've been obsessed with a series of the luggage locks that can be found on a chain link fence at 97 Crosby Street. One each of the locks there's a photo of a small child. We've must have showed the locks to a million people, including Kirk Semple a writer for the New York Times. Recently Kirk mentioned the luggage lock installation in a piece he wrote for the Times.
We couldn't have been happier when the other day we received an email from Allan Molho, who until now was the "unknown" artist of the installation (at least he was to us).
Here's what he had to say:
"the children on the locks are my daughter willa and my son nicky. they really serve as an "everychild" though. i wanted a kind of critical mass of children where the installation was placed. i also wanted to use a lock in a different way than it usually functions.
i'm not sure where mr. semple got this idea in his ny times article, but the locks do not change placement. they are "permanent." i do not rearrange the locks to make a new design.
it's possible he may have seen another photo lock installation nearby that i created 8 months earlier a block away at 49 crosby street in soho. (the child photo lock installation is at 97 crosby street). the installation at 49 crosby street had closely cropped photos of scenic scenes and situations that i had photographed. unfortunately the fence where this installation was placed has been torn down recently due to the construction of a new building there. the installation has been lost.
the work on the streets these days (and documented by your site) reminds me of the really great stuff that used to be on the streets in the late 1970's and 1980s in the east village and soho. (besides haring and others like him, during that time there was a great painter who put his stuff on the streets named "larmee." have you heard of him? and don't forget the famous upsidedown cocktail glass of the "missing foundation.") are we returning to those days? in street art terms, i hope so."... allan molho
Posted by marc at 3:05 AM in | Recommend this! |
|