Neighbors
October 3 – November 21, 2020
John Raymond Mireles
Neighbors at First Street Green Park – Manhattan, New York 2018
“ On one of my walks through the Lower East Side I came up with the idea for my portraits to run the length of the exceptionally long and public fence running most of the distance between First and Second Streets along Houston Street. Once installed, New Yorkers of all ethnicity, lifestyle and economic station would be able to both enjoy my portraits and gain a sense of unity with — or at least knowledge of — their fellow Americans from across the nation. I’ll never forget the older Latina woman who stood before the prints just after we finished their installation. “Que preciosa!” she exclaimed, her Puerto Rican accent ringing clear. “- Mireles
86 portraits of Americans from all 50 states (plus the District of Columbia) were installed along almost one-quarter mile of fencing on Houston Street in Downtown New York City in April, 2018 near the artist’s former studio.
After a five week run, the portraits were tagged, defaced, pulled down and altered. The New York City Parks Department, who were the collaborators for this installation, asked for them to be cleaned or removed. Due to the materials used both by the artist to create the work and the viewers who altered the work, the former was impossible.
To deny that he was disappointed with the city that is New York on the warm June morning he discovered the graffiti would be dishonest. He had just walked the length of Houston Street’s First Street Green Park where he had installed the portraits. Of the 86 large-scale portraits combining to extend 350 feet in length — longer than a football field — 52 had been heavily tagged by one or more vandals. On some, the tagging partially obscured the face or body, on most however, some form of semi-legible commentary about the subject was scrawled in large loping letters next to the subject’s head. Visually, the effect was devastating.
“Though witnessing the scars to my work may be unpleasant, I embrace the creation of new works. I look forward to the day that these revised works may be exhibited in their own right. I welcome art that pushes both its viewers and its creator outside of their comfort range.” – Mireles
The New York Times proclaimed it to be among Eight Public Installations to Excited About and the Guardian declared it to be among the Best Public Art in the US. Given its prominent location in a highly trafficked section of Manhattan, it’s been conservatively estimated that over 500,000 individuals viewed it during its two month run in the Spring of 2018.
