Four Stories Man
Waves of immigration to New York created particular neighborhoods and building types; from time to time their uses change, always with a certain turmoil and sadness.
On this block near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, tenants forced from this building were squatting in a building next door, while new housing was being constructed on the last portion of the block. The painting, a simple light blue line of a figure in frozen motion, was made without permissions, spontaneously taking advantage of this urban circumstance. The drawing was done as soon as demolition barricades were set in place, by leaning out the windows and connecting lines from window to window. Four days later the building was demolished, making the image into a kind of urban mirage.
This project, done in 1983, was an especially personal one as my grandmother used to come visit her relatives on this block as a girl. At the time I was living in a similar type of building two blocks away.
