Sunday, June 2, 2019

The Graffiti Wall at Hudson Yards

Hudson Yards 3-2019 crop.jpg


The development of New York's Hudson Yards is controversial. Overlooking the Hudson River, it combines residential, commercial, hotel and retail space with an arts centre, and is definitely designed to cater to the 1 per cent, if not the .01 per cent. Its shopping mall is not even supposed to be referred to as a mall. Are we to call it a "retail experience?" Some have described it as dystopian. It made me question the whole premise of NYC as a liveable space.



But one of the small delights I noticed amidst all the glitz was a graffiti wall, made of stitched sequins in many colours. I hadn't ever seen anything quite like it. By brushing a finger or hand "against the grain" of the sequins, you could expose the underside of them, revealing a second colour. Brushing with the grain returned the surface to its original colour, erasing your marks.


detail shot of sequins


The wall was getting a fair bit of attention when I passed by early one morning.

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