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| Photo by Robert Stolarik for The New York Times |
But on Monday night, it was the owner of a building in Queens who used a
crew of painters to work overnight and paint over graffiti on a
warehouse in Long Island City, wiping clean a canvas that was used by
thousands of artists over the years to transform an otherwise
nondescript, abandoned brick building in a working-class neighborhood
into 5Pointz, a mecca for street artists from around the world.
By Tuesday morning, the work of some 1,500 artists had been wiped clean,
the Brobdingnagian bubble letters and the colorful cartoons spray
painted on the building’s brick walls all covered in a fresh coat of
white paint.
“We are supposed to be the vandals, but this is the biggest rag and
disrespect in the history of graffiti,” said Marie Cecile Flageul, an
unofficial curator for 5Pointz.
The plan to convert the three-acre site
into a $400 million development project that will include two glass
towers and 1,000 new luxury apartments had provoked opposition from
artists and their supporters. But after months of public debate, court
hearings and political maneuvering, opponents had little left in their
arsenal.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the development, they were hoping to have
the building designated as a landmark. That option is now likely gone
as well.
“I don’t know how you can erase 12 years of spectacular art,” said Hans
Von Rittern, a guide who arrived with a busload of tourists, only to
find the building’s art gone. “It’s cruel.”
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| Photo by Robert Stolarik for The New York Times |
The property has been owned by the Wolkoff family for over 40 years, and
for most of that time they allowed artists to use the building’s facade
as they liked.
It was the 1970s when Jerry Wolkoff bought the warehouse. At the time,
people who tagged storefronts, subway cars and street signs were widely
viewed more as menace than artist.
Today, graffiti is more mainstream than outlaw, used in commercials, sold at auctions and stamped on clothing.
The British street artist and presumable millionaire Bansky ended his recent monthlong residency in New York with the words “save 5Pointz.”
The Wolkoff family said they long planned to develop the site, but only
in recent years has it become financially feasible.
As a concession to the artists, David Wolkoff, Jerry’s son, told the
City Council in October that he would raise the number of affordable
apartments to 210, from 75, and include 12,000 square feet for artists’
studios, up from 2,200 square feet.
He said he was a fan of the work of the people who turned his building into a work of art.
“The artwork is absolutely fabulous,” he said at the hearing. He did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Still, the painting of the building – which started after midnight and
finished around 7 a.m., according to witnesses -- was met with anger and
surprise.
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| Photo by Robert Stolarik for The New York Times |
Mr. Carrol said he moved to Williamsburg from Seattle in September, and,
while he was not a street artist himself, 5Pointz “was on the list of
cool things that I should see.”
He would return occasionally to check out what was new on the building, but he knew time was running out.
Tuesday morning, he said, he was greeted by a police officer stationed
at the warehouse and was told that if he caused any trouble he would be
arrested.
The graffiti was painted over before it could be formally celebrated,
and supporters said they would hold a vigil Tuesday night.
Graffiti has long been ephemeral but Mr. Carrol said he had hoped that 5Pointz would be granted a “stay of execution.”
“I guess I got to see it just in the nick of time,” he said.
Source: NY Times
To see more about 5 Pointz, CLICK HERE.
R.I.P. 5 POINTZ.
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