45-46 Davis Street is difficult to get to by Google Maps. It doesn’t have its own subway stop and you certainly can’t find it by following a roar of voices. Local art and event guides would be of no use if you were trying to reach the collection of graffiti that lives there. The Long Island City neighborhood that surrounds it is relatively grey and dirty. But aside from the screeching seven train that runs above it, it’s a quiet place.
5Pointz Aersol Art Center has one on site staff, free admission and no advertising campaign. It’s a head turning mecca of graffiti, a public space rented to the world’s best in the fresh style of art. Artists have come from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, and even further reaching areas of the globe to work on the site (“5Pointz”). Yet Jerry Wolkoff who owns the space says the attraction only gets “ten to fifteen visitors a day.” Maybe it is because of the apparent lack of enthusiasm that this living, morphing collection has plans for demolition and eventual development (Wolkoff).
How, you might ask could a location of such notoriety be torn down with no backlash? Why is a site that is internationally renowned, still not that well known amongst its own community? Who decided that graffiti art doesn’t deserve the recognition and attention that visual and physical art do? How can New York let this living, breathing monument go unappreciated, underrepresented and flat out unnoticed, nonetheless destroyed? It’s complicated
There seems to be a dichotomy regarding the following of 5Pointz. There are those who have discovered the gem while doing some urban spelunking and have fallen in love with it (I challenge you to find anything less than an intricately passionate review of the place). Mary Flageul, an event planner at 5Pointz commented, “What the landlord doesn’t understand is that 5Pointz is a brand and an icon, and if he knocks it down it will be missed. 5Pointz is the United Nations of graffiti” (Finn). One blogger states, “Its walls and spirit have saved lives. Artists from all over the globe aspire to paint there. The kind of progress we need is transforming it into a permanent showcase of urban street art, the most significant art movement of our times” (Wolkoff). These folks might represent some of the 11,000 signatures and comments that have accumulated on the online petition “Show Ur Love to 5Pointz,” a pretty low number for a city of over eight million. Then there are those who simply don’t know what 5Pointz is, and thus do not even give themselves the chance to devote their time and effort to its preservation.
With the exception of some in smaller galleries throughout the city, graffiti is virtually absent from the New York art scene. Yes that same scene that we all thought was at the forefront of the global art movement. The Met, the Guggenheim, and even the MoMA have yet to display an exhibition of the hip form. The only New York museum to display graffiti was the Brooklyn Museum in 2006 (“Exhibitions”).
This stark lack of a following is exactly why Wolkoff is proposing two towers where the paint can sanctuary stands. Over two million square feet of residential development is slotted for installation, although no clear timeline has been established. And while he’s often pin pointed as the enemy, the seventy five year old Wolkoff has in fact been an art enthusiast and promoter for some time. “I like street art, otherwise I wouldn’t have let them do it all these years. I’m a lover of the arts. I appreciate the work that the artists do, especially on our buildings” remarked Wolkoff a while back, when the hellfire around the development had just started (Wolkoff). Yet he still seems adamant about his proposition. “There is an evolution going on in that part of Long Island City; the building is old, it doesn’t warrant repairs, and no matter what, it has to come down.” So maybe Wolkoff isn’t the money grubbing, corporate nemesis that he has been portrayed as, but shouldn’t he still be fought?
He’s hard to argue with when so little attention is given to the place. If New York was informed that the Museum of Natural History would be converted into apartments, I have a hard time believing the city would act as complacently as it is now. For an urban population as devoted to art as we are, or at least as we claim to be, we are letting the art of our communities peel away on walls that deserve to be preserved. Why is this happening? Well it’s simple; we just don’t care.
But why don’t we care? Is it because of graffiti art’s exacerbated ties to vandalism and gang activities? Was 5Pointz simply unlucky to be born in Queens, where the art scene is infinitesimally small when compared to the big island to the west? Or maybe it’s due to the simple fact that graffiti is a far younger form than those supported by absurdly large donations on 5th Avenue.
5Pointz resides in a dilapidated little pocket of Queens but the art that clings to the cracked concrete gives the area new life. Your day will surely brighten up after turning the corner onto to Davis Street and letting the celestial palette of colors come into view. If it’s your first experience with 5Pointz you’ll begin kicking yourself for all the uninspired time you let pass without it. But if you’re a loyal fan, and most who return are, you can’t help but wonder if this visit will be your last.
Works Cited:
Finn, Robin. “Writing’s on the Wall (Art Is, Too, for Now).” New York Times 27 Aug. 2011: n. pag.
New York Times. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/nyregion/
5pointz-arts-center-and-its-graffiti-is-on-borrowed-time.html?pagewanted=all>.
Wolkoff, Jerry. "Owner Says Queens Graffiti Mecca 5Pointz Will Stay For Now, But Not Forever."
Interview by Averie Trimm. The Village Voice [New York] 8 Apr. 2011: n. pag. Village Voice.
Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/04/
5pointz_owner_interview.php>.
5Pointz. N.p., 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://5ptz.com/graff/>.
"Exhibitions: Graffiti." Brooklyn Museum. The Village Voice, n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/graffiti/>.
