After reading the assignment, Zohar, Ebrahim, Nicki and Sylvia (ZENS), were excited to get started…so excited we made a catchy/witty group name ^_^! Like my groupmates I was quite skeptical on whether or not we’d find any art in Lower East Side. I know the infamous Museum Mile but that’s Upper East Side! So after some research I was anxious to go on this quest and find a mime to guarantee my A+. Alas, Lower East Side had no mimes. 🙁
Galleries. I think Lower East Side is infamous for these because as we were walking block after block we saw so many various galleries. Upon discovering these galleries I was ecstatic, thinking this assignment will be cake…unfortunately, they were all closed -_-. What was even more grrr inducing (frustrating in Ebrahim) is that all the security guards were camera shy and didn’t give us any worthwhile info.
Architecture. What I will say about Lower East Side is it has a lot of beautiful architecture. As we were walking around I saw unconventional (in the most awesome way) buildings and really awesome doorways. See Sylvia’s awesome blog post about the architectural magic in the Lower East Side
During our interviews I began to ask myself, what exactly constitutes as art? After all, I’m asking these total strangers where they’d go to find art and I don’t even know what I fully consider as art! Or do I? (dun dun dunnnn! *dramaticmusic*)
The best part of the quest was definitely going down to the Blue Man Group and talking to this fun-loving awesome dude. He told us that his favorite type of art in the Lower East Side is in fact the street art and performers you can find. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any street performers. However, I agree with him; if I was traveling to any community in the search for art, even though I’d definitely pop in some museums and galleries, my favorite type of art would be street art.
Holidays however, also allow individuals to express themselves in an artistic manner with wondrous decorations and Lower East Side was living proof of this (well technically Lower East Side can’t breathe nor would it be considered ‘living’ but you get what I mean). Halloween is of course notorious for its use of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. As we walked down blocks of homes we couldn’t help going crazy, crossing the street back and forth to take pictures of these creative pumpkins. Now you may think that cutting a pumpkin isn’t an art form but just look at these pictures!
PS. Keep an eye out for ZENS production of Inhabited, coming to Queens College this December.
