“Under Construction” Transforms Abandoned Downtown Building into Artistic Playground
Some time last month, I posted a photo of myself on Instagram holding three spray paint cans with the caption #help. I’ve held onto the cans for quite some time now and used them probably once so I wanted to see if anyone could possibly save me–and my cans–from this sad state.
Street artist Eyeone mentioned he knew a space where I could perhaps experiment with the cans but due to scheduling conflicts, I never could visit that site. Until Saturday night.
The downtown spot where Eyeone and other artists worked ended up being the ground for an impressive one-night show on February 16, 2013 entitled “Under Construction.” Curated by fellow artist Tanner Goldbeck, the show made fantastic use of an abandoned Downtown building’s two floors. The somewhat-hidden locale stood right next to La Cita and visitors trekked up stairs to witness the two floors of art.
Inside, everything from three-dimensional works to photographs to spray-paint pieces surrounded the viewer. The spacious interior provided an ideal space for artists to work in large scale and take over whatever space they wanted. Walls, posts and even an antique elevator transformed into art objects under the talented hands of artists like Vyal, Kozem, Gronk, Goldbeck and more.
The building also gave attendees the chance to gaze wistfully out at the Downtown landscape. Cleverly, Vyal transformed two windows into the eyes of a figure. When people perched themselves on these windows, they also looked out at the streets where many of these artists walk and sometimes create. Each piece inside showed a collective sense of humor – take for instance the giant cardboard duck by Richard McDowell near the stairs – and attention to detail both artistically and architecturally. Adict turned two holes in a post into the eyes of his own character; each piece came to life inside a building that from the outside looks anything but. “Under Construction” demonstrated you never know what you might encounter inside even the most ancient-looking buildings of the city.
Top: Richard McDowell