The artwork in this exhibition referenced the current urban issues taking place on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where Spencer Brownstone Gallery is located. To understand present-day issues, I research the the history of a site: the neighborhood, the street, the building in which I will make the work. For this show, I mined the figurative and literal history of the space at 170 Suffolk Street. I not only cut into the gallery walls and created in-situ plaster arched mouldings, but I also combed archives for historic maps and archival photographs, dug up deeds, work permits, and certificates of occupancy. I also read the local news and historic destination reports for the area.
Two main sources inspiration for this exhibition were The Rivington House, and the site of the gallery itself at 170B Suffolk St. (Once 172 Suffolk St.)
This is some of the archival material I have utilized in the making of the work. Most images and text link to source.
at right: Monument (Tripartite Arch) Found wood moldings, wood, plaster, hardware. 2018
The Rivington House was embroiled in scandal in 2018. Once a school, then nursing home for people with AIDS, it was sold by The City to private developers in 2015. The developer paid the city $16 million to lift deed restrictions on the property, and then quickly flipped the building for $116 million, walking away with a profit of over $70 million in one year. Neighborhood activists are asking that this site continue to serve the community. This piece uses the Rivington House scandal as a symbol of backward government, historic beauty and unbridled capitalism.
172 Suffolk St. 1999 by Dylan Stone
Film still from The Naked City (1948.) Halloran chases Garzah through a Jewish Monument Lot on the Lower East Side. The Naked City was filmed in a variety of real LES locations.
Rivington House 2018
The site of the gallery itself: a former Jewish stone monuments business, was the point of departure for the installation. The gallery had been a show lot for the purchase of gravestones. Historic images of the building, and scenes of the Jewish Lower East Side from the film The Naked City, provided useful source material.
Certificate of Occupancy 172 Suffolk St. 1933