The Color Wheelz in Long Island City project was a resounding success! We made around 15-20 new installations in and on the Color Wheelz van, and talked with another 50-60 people passing by, visiting the neighborhood, taking a daily constitutional, or otherwise enjoying a really lovely day in Queens!
painted linoleum arrows lead pedestrians passing through the nearby intersection to the van; I also installed some triangles across the street to get people to glance eastward and see our activity
artist Julia Vallera talking with passers-by, describing the project, talking about Flux Factory, notions of neighborhood and community, color, and participatory art
a wonderful shot of the Manhattan skyline from 45 Road and 21 Street in LIC – that building tip is the Chrysler Building, and that van is the Color Wheelz!
the Bigger Bird public sculpture (yellow thing), the Citi building, and the Color Wheelz van parked on 45 Road
Written on August 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm, by nick
Category arts, local | Tags: Color Wheelz,Long Island City,Queens
You can imagine that if today the 12-story spherical globe structure known as the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park still holds the distinction of being the Biggest World on Earth, back in 1964 that certainly was a title of acclaim! And with the recent repairs – after 15-20 years without operation – of the fountains surrounding the Unisphere, there’s the feeling of a new hope in Queens! Check out the awesome videos below for some remarkable footage of the Unisphere during its birth, including Robert Moses addressing the city, some “high-speed computers” doing mathematics, wind-tunnel tests and awesome construction shots!
(these photos courtesy of LIFE)
Written on August 14, 2010 at 11:35 pm, by nick
Flux Factory is a not-for-profit arts organization supporting innovation in things. Until November of 2008 we were located on 43rd Street near Northern Boulevard, in an industrial wasteland – surrounded by warehouses and bordered by the edge of the Sunnyside Yards. After our eviction by the MTA to pursue development on the East Side Access project, we spent some time in limbo before eventually relocating to the Dutch Kills sub-neighborhood of LIC, on 29 Street just north of Queens Plaza. Both of our facilities were located in LIC, yet the two are worlds apart in terms of operation and our interaction with the surrounding community. We’re learning there’s still lots to learn from LIC!
Inviting artist Julia Vallera and her Color Wheelz project to Long Island City is part of that learning process, an investment back into our community and an exploration of identity of the surrounding neighborhood at large. LIC is a very large neighborhood! Like the Queens borough, LIC is extremely diverse and is not typified by any one singular identity, ethnic group, language or architecture.
The John F. Murray Playground presented itself as an ideal location for this exploration and understanding because of its location and relationship to other spaces: it is equidistant between the Pulaski and Queensboro bridges – structures that lead to other boroughs and worlds unto their own; it is sandwiched between an Avenue and a Road, and between two Streets that are somehow numerically 10 streets apart, typical of the street-ordering system of this borough; on one side of the park one is greeted with incredible skyline-views of Manhattan, on the other the irony of the tallest building in NYC outside of Manhattan all by its lonesome surrounded by much lower mixed-use neighborhoods.
The Playground itself also includes a little bit of everything: a dog run, handball and basketball courts, public art (Bigger Bird), game tables, sitting areas, a ballfield and playgrounds for children of all ages. It is my hope that the Color Wheelz van will allow all who interact with it to explore and express their relationship to this playground, to the surrounding neighborhood, to our wonderful city within a city!
Nick Normal for Flux Factory
http://fluxfactory.org/
Julia Vallera and Color Wheelz:
http://www.juliavallera.com/
http://coloriumlaboratorium.com/
this text will be made available at the project site as a trifold – download PDF
Written on August 14, 2010 at 12:40 am, by nick
Category arts, events, local | Tags: Long Island City
It’s my pleasure to bring Julia Vallera’s project, the Color Wheelz, to Long Island City this weekend. I first met Julia about 4 months back and pitched her the idea, because I saw it as something to help me understand LIC and what this neighborhood means to its inhabitants – which I’m curious to know what they think! We’ll be parked at the Thomas Murray Playground, which I feel is a quintessential NYC park and playground: very urban (basketball and handball courts), very lively (its always occupied), ideally located (just blocks from PS1 and near all the major Western Queens subways, its sandwiched between two main roads, 21st and 11th Streets).
MAP | TWITTER | PROJECT BLOG | JULIA’S WEBSITE
Color Wheelz is designed to transform a 1997 Ford van into a traveling, participatory installation. This van travels through the five boroughs of NYC filled with playful activities, which facilitate exploration into how color relates to community . Visitors at each destination adapt the inside and outside of the van using an array of color related items. These items include glowing neon wire, cling paper, velcro shapes, magnets and fabric. Visitors may turn on neon wire, cut shapes out of cling paper, apply velcro to the seats and walls and/or choose from an assortment of colorful fabrics to cover the interior. They consider the color of objects that surround them, such as buildings, people, clothes, food and nature. These observations inspire color patterns and designs that represent the current environment. Visitors of all ages are welcome and encouraged to create things they never thought they would or never thought they could. Every visitor’s unique color story is archived and supplimented with their personal audio recording or a written record. Meet us at one of our locations to participate in this funfilled exploration and be sure let us know how you think color relates to culture, communication and perception.
Written on August 9, 2010 at 6:00 pm, by nick
Category local | Tags: craft,Long Island City
This guy rocks my forging world! Anyone know how to get ahold of him? He should be in World Maker Faire! Guess I might have to make a trip to Central Park soon, track him down.
Written on August 9, 2010 at 8:11 am, by nick
Category local | Tags: blacksmith,NYC
( recent gathering by the Maker Faire team on the rooftop of Edelman in Lower Manhattan – was a great group of people, really diverse group, from Makers to press to fashionistas to crafters and TV personalities! )
It seems I’ve been taking 3 photos of potential-stitch environments and settings now for some time, but even I didn’t know I was doing this – it wasn’t planned anyhow.
I haven’t taken anything with 4 photos – for some reason 3 seems to capture the landscapes or crowds I encounter. Looking back it all started with the Sunnyside Yard panorama I put up a couple weeks back, which got reblogged at a couple other places. That wasn’t even a very good stitch because, again, it wasn’t shot with intent to be a stitched photo – it was just something put together for the sake of giving a wider perspective in a single frame. And of course stitch photography is nothing new these days. I used to do this stuff by hand, but now it’s the click of two or three buttons or menu commands – and frankly I don’t care if some data gets blurred out, smeared, rubbed or removed – these aren’t meant to be pro, they’re just meant to capture moments of places I’ve been. Captions to follow.
( probably the best stitch of this bunch, this is a view from the Pulaki Bridge between Queens and Brooklyn; that’s a sliver of Brooklyn on the left side, mostly Queens in the foreground with Manhattan in the background – I love overcast days like this, the buildings have a really solid and stoic feel to them, with great color )
( this was the crowd inside the Casa Galicia in Astoria, Queens – before the match that Spain eventually won! This was about 40 minutes before the match even began, so you can imagine another 100+ people eventually crammed into this room! )
( also not a great stitch because it wasn’t conceived as one, still these views offer some great dichotomies: in particular I love the little sinkhole in the bottom-left in contrast to the towering buildings of Manhattan and the Citi building in “downtown” Queens )
( a recent art performance piece by Douglas Paulson and Santo Tolone – there are 32 pieces but some of their heads are chopped or obscured – two “players” and one announcer, that’s 35 people total )
( and the first 3-photo stitch, celebrating the Sunnyside Yard’s 100th anniversary this year )
Written on August 5, 2010 at 8:45 pm, by nick
Category stuffs | Tags:
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS) | normalblog is proudly powered by WordPress.org | Log in
