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.
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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