These NYC artists are making their feelings quite clear on the people who left the city during the height of the pandemic.
“New York is dead. Don’t come back,” is what a massive new billboard at 4300 Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles reads, aimed at L.A. transplants who fled the city.
The creation is the work of Brooklyn artists Graham Fortgang and Samara Bliss. The piece aims to be “a love letter to those doubling down in New York and choosing to rebuild, and a golf clap to those on their way out.”
“While the headlines read ‘New York is Dead’, the cultural flame of this city burns late into the night…The truth is, the city has finally been reclaimed by its citizens, as hundreds of thousands leave the city and it begins to feel smaller and smaller,” Fortgang explained.
“More people have left New York than any other city in the country. As Jerry Seinfeld said:
We’re going to keep going with New York City if that’s all right with you. Because of all the real, tough New Yorkers who, unlike you, loved it and understood it, stayed and rebuilt it.
The installation also flew over Miami in banner form this past weekend, is in L.A. now, and will also make its way right here to NYC next week (where it will live underground!).
It also acts as an official kick-off of the Winter Artist residency program at Brooklyn’s The Locker Room — an art collective, gallery, and recording studio — where 10 NY-based artists will get to create for an entire month.
featured image source: Instagram / @brothergraham