The lifespan for Roosevelt Island graffiti? short or eternal? Hard to tell, and these example show why.
By David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
The varying lifespans of Roosevelt Island graffiti
Midday, a RIOC contractor was busy cleaning the iconic bell in front of Good Shepherd Plaza.
The artist or artists’ work lasted just a few days because RIOC called in help on its first day back at work. Residents report first seeing the freestyle artwork on Saturday.
But there’s another more legitimate artwork defaced years ago and still ignored by the state agency.
RIOC and internationally known New York artist Tom Otterness
Tom Otterness contributed three sculptures, The Marriage of Real Estate and Money, to their East River home in 1996. They’re in the water but close to the shore just north of Manhattan Park’s “technicolor” swimming pool.
Tastes vary, but these assert cynical comments about real estate developers. But RIOC, under massive campaign fundraiser Andrew Cuomo, loves them.
There’s no direct evidence that distaste for the content led to leaving the smears intact, although the only other rational excuse, simple neglect, is not a sign of honor either.
It hasn’t got as much love from RIOC as the Good Shepherd bell. I took the above photo in September, 2017, after the graffiti’d been there awhile.
It’s still there.
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The WIRE: Two Futures, One Empty Chair
It is December 6, 2015, and David Stone is writing to Dr. Jack Resnick about a chair that will soon be empty. Dick Lutz is preparing to leave the Main Street WIRE, and Stone has been encouraged to ask whether he might replace him. Seven years of covering art, Cornell Tech and questionable practices inside Public Safety have taught Stone how the paper tells an Island story.
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