On April 24, 2005, Heavy Trash volunteers deposited bright orange viewing platforms in front of three Los Angeles gated communities; Brentwood Circle, Park La Brea and Laughlin Park. The purpose of these viewing platforms is to draw attention to the phenomenon of gated communities — the fastest growing form of housing in the United States. “There are now more than 1 million homes behind such walls in the greater Los Angeles area alone,” according to Setha Low, a professor at the City University of New York….
WHY VIEWING PLATFORMS?
Like the historic viewing platforms at the Berlin Wall that allowed Westerners to see into East Berlin, the Heavy Trash viewing platforms call attention to the walls of gated communities and provide visual access to parts of the city that have been cut off from the public domain.
Check out their site here. Their past projects are equally smart and impressive, and the bibliography they’ve compiled on gated communities is super useful for people nervous about the mall-ing of Brooklyn (and beyond). (Thanks to Zack for the tip).
Speaking of public art and gated communities, VR members rancor & gravel wrote a wonderful short essay on The Gates that touched on similar themes a while back, tying these threads together better than I could do justice to in a short summary. Check it out here.
On Tuesday I came across an anti-war activist standing on traffic signal pole in Astor Place. A sign attached to the pole read, “WAR?” and on his chest was written “All American.” The “ONE WAY” signs were changed to read, “NO WAR.”
I haven’t been able to find any more information on the action or the artist. Anyone with info — especially regarding charges and legal support — drop a line in the comments below. UPDATE: Emilio has more pictures on Flickr. Thanks!
When I was growing up, I used to ride the MTA bus for two hours, from Echo Park to Brentwood, to get to school. Everyday, I got on that bus half asleep. It was so early that the sky was still dark and the stars were still out. The nannies, cleaning ladies, gardeners and I road across town. We passed through Silver Lake, Hollywood, Westwood and West Hollywood. After West Hollywood came the gated communities: Bell Air, Brentwood and the Palisades. Mansions hidden behind tall walls of hedges. I felt like we were infiltrating a fortress, a forbidden area where we did not belong. The public bus navigated through this maze of shrubs like an insular community of others. When the doors finally opened, Echo Park spilled out on to the street (many gated communities in LA don’t have side walks on the major streets because they are not meant to be walked. People stay in their SUVs and sports cars). We spilled out and were scattered.
When I was on the Bus, I used to day dream that our bus was actually a great big ship. It would be Columbus day and we would arrive in our Mexica ship of counter-conquest. We would roll up into gringo-landia, bumpin’ militant Chicano hip-hop (some Aztlan Underground, some El Vuh). And, we would take our land back. Silly dreams of a pissed off Chicano adolescent commuter.
I’m really glad this group (Heavy Trash) is doing what they do. Their installations are fucking brilliant. Keep up the good work
Peace.
-de los angeles
Workers at Astor Place Kmart may know… They were talking about it quite a bit…
“and he repented for oil spilt for blood!”
“and he repented for blood spilt for oil!”
“and he repented for blood and oil spilt for war!”
His name is Eric. There are pictures posted in Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltiodelasfotos/sets/316247/