There is no need for me to keep a skull on my desk,
to stand with one foot upon the ruins of Rome,
or wear a locket with the sliver of a saint's bone.
It is enough to realize that every common object
in this sunny little room will outlive me.*
Yet another vacant lot in Asbury Park where urban blight is being reimagined daily as art (or kitsch?) The long abandoned foundation pillars were wrapped in colorful fabric months ago by a local artist; the stone cairns and mementos left behind lately seem a futile offering to the fickle gods of real estate development.
*from Memento Mori by Billy Collins
7 comments:
Wonderful! I have a postcard from a former roadside attraction called Palace of the Depression, in Vineland, NJ, which suggests that New Jerseyans have been making art out of junk and blight for a long time.
Cool. How long has this been going on? Are new items added and are they moved around?
(And have you added anything?)
And I like your use of black and white and vignetting.
Very cool.
It is so wet and dank and dark here for so many months of the year that any place left untouched for more than 2 years or so gets overgrown with wild blackberries!
Your black and white photographs say it all- except then there is this wonderful bit of poetry. I like this post but the underlying theme is sad.
I hope that Asbury Park is revitalized soon. It's a real shame what has happened to it, especially to a piece of the Jersey shore.
http://www.newjerseymemories.com/2010/08/giveaway-win-free-tickets-to-see-my-big.html
I love urban art that pops up in odd places. People can be creative with anything you give them and it's reassuring that they are!
Nice.
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