NY Diary #3 - Art in the City

I love New York because it pulsates with so many creative people that you can see art when and where you don't expect it.

I was looking for a sublet when I met Heidi Cody

As soon as Heidi lets me in to show me her huge loft in Brooklyn, I run into an enormous stack of toilet paper. I ask her with curiosity how many roommates she shares the apartment with, but she answers that she lives there alone. Then, noticing my astonished look, staring at that mountain of toilet rolls, she smiles and reassures me that they are not for personal use. They are part of "Ads on TP", one of her art projects, which consists of the replication of ads on toilet rolls.

"I was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. During that time I witnessed advertising on a toilet stall door, positioned so you could see it as you sat on the toilet. Talk about a captive audience! I thought, this has gone too far. I've been making art work about consumer culture ever since," explains Heidi. I continue my tour of the apartment, but by now it’s more about an open studio tour than apartment hunting. All around it’s full of works in progress, mostly giant reproductions of logos which crowd the City streets and grocery stores.

Even in her "American Alphabet", letters taken from well-known logos, such as "M" of M&M's or "C" of Campbell’s, compose the whole alphabet. If you happen to come to New York, take a look at the Deli’s crowded shelves and you will discover where the remaining Heidi Cody "American Alphabet" letters come from.

The New York metropolitan landscape is a source of continuous inspiration for many artists and that’s how it is for Heidi too, who affirms to have a love-hate relationship with Times Square, “It makes me sick but I love the visual noise of it” she says. She also loves the concentration of galleries and museums in New York.

The city is definitely one-stop shopping for art viewers. Just think of the Chelsea Galleries, maybe the most dense and significant agglomerate of contemporary art in the world. In the area from 20th to 26th street, between 10th and 11th avenue, each door, each lift and each flight of stairs take you to an art gallery; in only 6 blocks, there are more than 150 of them.

Not to mention the museums, a focal point for seeing art, but also for having fun. Yes, museums in New York are never cold exhibition spaces to wander through in silence, interrupted only by the noise of echoing steps.

The New Museum, for instance, with its modern architecture of staggered parallelepipeds, perfectly integrated with the Bowery street decadent buildings, represents a cool destination for the many young people who hang out in Lower East Side. Or, during warm summer nights, the Moma garden becomes “the place to be” in the city, where, between a couple of glasses of wine, in an international atmosphere, you can watch some artists’ performances.

So, when you are in New York, keep your eyes open! Because every opportunity can lead to some good art and should you be searching for a new apartment, you too could come home without concluding any real estate business, but with a roll of toilet paper covered in ads instead, as happened to me.

Nick Landucci