Enjoy!

I walk out of work one day and then BAM the new billboard had already begun!

Crews work long and late.

They finished the dude’s face and began the info below the mugshot.

I didn’t work down in SoHo for two days, then it was finished. This photo is from Saturday 8 March.

This photo from this afternoon, Monday 10 March, shows the billboard in exactly the same state as it was on Saturday. Odd, the crew haven’t removed the scaffolding equipment, hopefully tomorrow I can get a full shot (with blue sky?) without any hardware in the way!

p.s. – maaaaaaaaaan that dude looks TOUGH! 

Google Map link

Thursday 11 October: sorry everybody I am off work today, so I don’t have any updated photos at the moment. It is raining here at the moment so I don’t suspect they’ll get terribly far today, but I will post updates as I take them.

Friday 12 October:

you can see the scaffolding is missing from the left side now, so that side is done; the wires are hanging on the right side; they have to whitewash the wall first, then draw out the design before painting.

they did the whitewash so fast!

how to draw a billboard on the side of a building! the art is printed on some paper, they roll it out a couple feet at a time, line it up, and do a rubbing. sort of like a giant paint by numbers.

by evening, nothing new to report really. they finished the template art and obviously paced themselves to take a solid day to lay it down.

i might add, those guys are having so much fun! they hoot and holler at streetwalkers and are just making the most of being 30 feet off the ground painting a building! it’s hilarious to watch.

Saturday 13 October:


morning! Indeed, they are at work today. I too am at work and will step out a couple times to take some extra snaps. unfortunately in the template art that is on the wall, I don’t see any text. but the graphic-to-be looks incredible!

Sunday 14 October:


unfortunately I won’t have another update today because I’m going kayaking in the East River and won’t be heading to that part of town! so I’ll leave you to mull over how it was at dusk when I left work on Saturday, yesterday. will they be working on Sunday anyhow? actually, probably, yes. I’ll have images up Monday then!

(she’s got those big brown eyes…. hey, is that a cherry she’s popping in her mouth?!)

Monday 15 October:
updated photos coming shortly. you should all be quite pleased with the progress!

finish tomorrow??

Tuesday morning 16 October:

you can see the building, and thus the billboard, from a couple blocks away!

walking back to work I overheard on the street,
man 1: Whoah. Is that paint?
man 2: Yeah.
man 1: Holy shit!

it’s a very impressive piece of work! but it looks like it will take one more day yet. Lola’s cleavage is done but there’s still a fair amount of hair to paint, the Rockstar logo, and touchup on the ‘V’ in ‘IV’ for the game title.

Wednesday 17 October:

overcast and cloudy day. they’re finishing up on the logo, then will probably blaze through the rest of the right side. unfortunately i can’t say i see room for a release date or any last-minute guerilla tactics, but it’s still a fucking impressive ad campaign!

lunchtime:

nearly done!

packing up the gear a little after 7pm. I wasn’t able to get a ‘finished’ shot in the daylight because they were literally still touching up at dusk, and didn’t remove the scaffolding and equipment out of the shot until after sunset. will post completed shots ASAP (i’m not supposed to be at work tomorrow, but maybe I make a special trip for all of you!).

Thursday 18 October:


Finished, final shots. This post is officially closed! Sorry it was an overcast day again, so the photos aren’t saturated with color. But you get the effect. It’s an impressive billboard. It’s been fun watching this thing transform, and I really appreciate all the visitors and comments. But alas, we wait for a release date, and more importantly, to play! GAME ON!

update:

one more final shot that shows the building in good sunlight with saturated color, and also exemplifies the number of pedestrians who parade up and down Canal Street every day – tourists #$^!&*!! and thanks to Patrick from WikiGTA.org for the animated gif!

(see here for previous incarnations)
(or here for these images larger from my Flickr)

Update 2 Jan 2008:

As you can see, the billboard has been painted over. It ran for just over two months. Thanks everyone for watching!

it’s here baby! well, in October that is.

download the 720p trailer (torrent).

Full-size images on my Flickr.

There’s a good bit of billboard art going around these days.

Last week I was flipping through some magazines and found an ad for an exhibition by Richard Hoblock at the Kim Light Gallery in LA, which showed an image of his first public space artwork, a large billboard work that was based on a photo but looked like a painting and was entirely abstract, a flow of lines and swirls and brushstroke-like marks (you can just imagine someone up there with a huge 3-foot brush!). When I saw the image of the work, all I could think of was that is soooooooooooo West Coast.

What would an East Coast example typify?

Probably not right on the mark, but pretty good, was the Color Shift work by the terraswarm artists. The Columbia architecture school website described the piece as such:

On a series of evenings in the months of February and March 2007 the billboard was illuminated, transforming the urban area around it and the Queen’s grocery facility.

The Columbia text likely comes from their press release to coincide with the exhibition for the work (opened last week), which happens to be about the only bit of text that locates the work in Queens. Even the architect-artists’ website never mentions Queens as the borough in which their ‘urban’ art took place. The opening of the exhibition was proceeded by a lecture, which some reported back from. David, a commenter over on BLDGblog said,

I went to the “lecture” the other day.

Sometimes it’s better to admit that something just looks cool.

Another blogger writes,

The colors are linear and have no connection what so ever to the immediate environment and the public spaces. They dont really care about feeds and corresponding changes in the colors because it doesnt work “technically�. Ofcourse, a long contorted architectural theory ensued to explain why the piece wasnt a contextual misfit.

Ahhh the ol’ architectural theory schtick, eh? Oh well! Billboard public art, it’s a tough business after all!

(Myself I’ve been documenting a billboard rig near where I live for several months now, taking photos of it in different atmospheres and climates. Still thinking about what to do with the documentation (thus just thumb-teasers, no full-size images yet, still compiling them) – why is one intrigued by a billboard? These structures are domineering, and all for a flashy ad or two. Yet they are engineering marvels, and have developed into an industry within themselves. They are here to stay for some time – we might as well work with them.)

Related websites:
Wikipedia Billboard_(advertising) article
Gothamist – Illegal Billboard Crackdown article (they close mentioning Houston Street)
Gothamist – nearly two years later! 40 ft. beaver shot on Houston Street

funny, idinit?