construction art - The Lardner Report

(Pic #1) Cement floor with spray paint guides for electricians and engineers. Midtown Manhattan corporate renovation project.

If you look closely, way cool images just emerge from the floor.

I’m pretty sure the temperature reached close to 8000 degrees in New York this week. The sweat poured off my brow, and my hair stuck stubbornly to my neck. I hated life. Then, on a tour of a construction site in a skyscraper I’ll be working on in midtown Manhattan, I looked down and found reason to smile.

Spray painted markings used to communicate placement of electrical wiring and other conduits that keep a corporate machine on the grid. They could have been rough sketches for a Hieronymus Bosch painting, some secret codes from a tech convention, or a faraway glimpse into the cosmos.

In any case, these images were just waiting to be found; I’m glad they found me. Because suddenly, the brutal heat gave me a break, and I got inspired from the simple act of observation.

(Pic #1) A voluptuous curve at Kunstpark Ost

Pure Abstraction: A German factory complex produces many quirky, unexpected works of art — and it’s been closed for years.

The twists, turns, and torn edges of a German industrial park have me asking – “Why am I obsessed with pipes and vents?” Why am I drawn to decaying wood, broken glass, and rusted metal? The only answer that makes sense to me is — “because it’s art.” We can probably argue that one all day — but to me, if it has texture, if it has sensual lines, if its colors make you feel something, OR if it messes with your head — it meets the criteria.

(Pic #2) Industrial Graffiti

The structures I encountered in Munich’s Kunstpark Ost, (also known as Kultfabrik) did all of those things. I tried to capture their essence with my Canon Digital SLR.

The complex is now home to dozens of trendy nightclubs, with asthma intentional graffiti on the exterior walls (Pic #2). But the structures function basically the same as when they served as a dumpling manufacturing plant. The exposed brick, bulky flex ducts, and shiny air vents, all add to the artistic experience. I even love the shredded concert posters layered and peeled like a Rauschenberg assemblage (Pic #13).

Artist Beatrice Wood once said, “The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges.” Well, I’d just like to add a few pipes from my own collection, 6000 miles away.