In order to make my piece site specific, while also a painting, I decided to make a mural. A mural is of course by definition fixed in place, painted on the wall, and so site specific. I also wanted it to be site specific in concept, and so the mural should be a product of its location, just as a chandelier made of old belt buckles found in the factory would be (another piece in the show). I decided that I would paint a mural of the L&L taxi service / detective agency from Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn (1999).  In Lethem’s novel, L&L was located at Smith and Bergen – the same block as the Invisible Dog, so this mural refers to the history (albeit fictional) of the city block that is its location. It would also be a tribute to Lethem, who grew up in the area and still lives around the corner.

As we (I was helped by  Don Liestman, Michael Hilsman, and Josh Jordan) worked on the mural, passersby would recognize the subject matter and tell us that they knew Lethem as he lived in the neighborhood. So, once the mural was done, I asked a friend who works in publishing if she might be able to get a message to Mr. Lethem. Within an hour or two Jonathan was in touch and was very kind to agree to meet me at the mural. Jonathan was super generous with his time (especially as he was only a few days from the launch of his latest book Chronic City) and spent some time with Josh Jordan and I checking out the mural. He even came to the opening a few days later. 

 

Motherless Brooklyn has an ongoing theme of (as Frank Minna would say) “Wheels within Wheels” – or different layers of truth so that things are always more complicated than they might seem at first glance. With this in mind, I asked Josh Jordan to paint Frank Minna’s portrait within my mural, so as to create a painting within a mural, wheels within wheels. Josh generously agreed and his portrait of the departed Frank Minna is my favorite part of the piece. It turned out that Josh is also a big fan of the book (and lives on the same block in Greenpoint where Frank Minna was killed and stuffed into a dumpster in the book). While the Motherless Brooklyn mural is my piece, I think of the portrait of Frank Minna as an autonomous work of art functioning within the mural – or at least a reference to Josh, and this text serves as its footnote.

One of the featured artists, Tom Sanford, has created a site-specific (both location and subject matter) mural for the exhibition, called “L&L Taxi (Motherless Brooklyn)” based on Jonathan Lethem’s novel “Motherless Brooklyn” (1999). Sanford chose this subject matter because the Invisible Dog is located on the same block as the fictional L&L taxi / detective agency in Lethem’s novel (Bergen & Smith). The 12 x 22 ft mural imagines L&L in the present day, ten years after the story ends in the novel, with characters Lionel Essrog, Gilbert Coney, Loomis & Danny Fantl (left to right in the painting) still on Bergen street operating the L&L taxi service (no longer a detective agency) with a portrait of the departed Frank Minna on the wall in remembrance. The mural celebrates the history (albeit fictional) of Smith & Bergen, and honors one of Brooklyn’s many important contemporary authors.

Sanford claims that he “also decided to make the mural because I understand that actor Edward Norton in producing a film adaptation of “Motherless Brooklyn”. Norton will play Lionel Essrog, the orphan detective with a poetic case of Tourette syndrome from whose prospective Motherless Brooklyn is written. While Norton is a fine actor, he is nothing like how I imagine Lionel, and I thought I would take this opportunity to put my two cents in with regards to making the visual version of the characters of the book. A sort of one man insurgence against the Hollywood, the dominant force of visual imagination in our culture.”

Other artists in the exhibition include: Thomas Bell, Ryan Brennan, Amanda Browder, Gina Czarneck, Jeanette Doyle, Richard Garet, Monika Grzymala, Guerra de la Paz (Alain Guerra & Neraldo de la Paz), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Sarah Modiano, Miguel Palma, José Parlá, Rey Parlá, Ian Rawlinson & Nick Crowe, Tom Sanford, Keith Schweitzer, Francesco Simeti, Alfred Steiner, Giuseppe Stampone, Giles Lyon, Steve deFrank.

NO LONGER EMPTY was conceived as a meeting point between art and the economic crisis.  The organization seeks to provide a challenging platform to artists whose opportunities have been similarly curtailed by the economic ravages and to revitalize empty commercial spaces by creating more traffic, showing the sites filled with positive energy instead of bordered up shells. The organization also hopes to encourage the local business community of each area through the increased flow of visitors that these exhibitions will bring. A supporting program of events has been planned that will include band nights and performances.

The Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn.