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NON-PERMISSIONAL SITE-SPECIFIC PUBLIC INSTALLATION (1993-1994): i created my own versions of the department of transportation’s crosswalk signs, and installed 20 new site-specific messages on the streets of los angeles and nyc.

i did the first of these pieces in response to a foundation year 3-dimensional design homework assignment. they were a direct refutation of the eurocentric bias that i had been inundated with that suggested that the only proper place for art was inside venues officially ordained by the art world and its institutions.

the challenge of these pieces was that they were not linear – that is to say that i could not control if a viewer would see only the top half (the 2 lines that would normally say “don’t walk”), the bottom half (“walk”), or whether they would see the top first, bottom second, or vice versa.

each sign, then, had to be conceived in such a way that the message(s) would make sense in any way a viewer encountered them (i.e. top only; bottom only, top first; bottom first).

an unintended consequence of the pieces was that they bore witness to an unspoken race / class dynamic in the city – although the d.o.t. claimed that they were a danger to public safety, signs in affluent “majority” neighborhoods were replaced within hours; signs in less affluent “minority” neighborhoods lasted up to 3 months.

“why not? / try” was the first sign i created. it was part of a series of 6 signs whose site-specificity was not literal, but rather tied to the metaphor of crosswalks as crossroads in life, and the questions one may have to consider at such a juncture.

this village voice snippet was the first bit of press attention. the story soon went out on the wire, and news agencies around the world were running stories on it.

“no limits / strive” is a message that i send to everyone, but i specifically chose the intersection of Malcolm X and 125th street, because i feel it is a message of particular importance to disadvantaged communities – one that Malcolm himself would have espoused.

“to be / not to be” had a double meaning. its first was obvious to anyone noticing the immediate context, but the second was more nuanced…a chain mega-bookseller had just opened down the street from this small, independent book store. whether small shops like this one could continue to exist when faced with competition from the big box stores – that was the question.

“¿que pasa? / fiesta” was my attempt to capture the electric vibe in the air in the loisaida that summer – in a way that was culturally-appropriate for the community.

incidentally, this sign (on avenue c and 5th street) could be used to make the case that the “traffic safety” of this predominantly puerto rican neighborhood was somewhat less important to the department of transportation than others – it lasted literally 1,000 times longer than signs in more affluent (and paler) neighborhoods.

this sign was more of a personal message. i had had a rather harrowing experience in an attempt to procure a sign to modify a few nights earlier (involving cops and dogs), and was having difficulty overcoming the fear that the experience had instilled.

as i thought of the message that i should put on it, i thought that my need to move forward with my art, and the city’s need to move forward from the bloody experiences of the previous year were both dependent upon our abilities to overcome the fears that threatened to paralyze our growth.

although i chose to do the pieces anonymously – so that people would focus on the messages, rather than the messenger – many people were able to track me down regardless. there were countless offers by advertisers for me to do the same projects over again – with their commercial messages inserted, of course.

when i flatly refused, it didn’t take madison avenue long to create their own.