“THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF NEW YORK CITY”

Made with over 45 “WET PAINT” signs from New York City subway stations and even more recycled Amazon boxes.

Creating this piece was how I channeled my anger during the year 2020. I’ll remember 2020 as the year too many souls (including some close to me) were lost to Covid-19; when George Floyd’s murder by the State set off days of rage and caused a police precinct to be rightfully burnt to the ground in Minnesota; when 93,000 people died from overdose in the US; when Jeff Bezos became richer than God as millions of people went broke.

During the hell of 2020 I rode the subway and heard a message broadcast over its loud speakers advising riders to *not* give money to people begging for it. With the surging crises in housing and mental health playing out in plain view, it became crystal clear that human lives only mattered if they made money for somebody. A train ride inspired the piece’s central phrase: “DO NOT FEED THE HOMELESS.” It was made by obsessively collecting discarded Amazon boxes (a hallmark of the pandemic) and “WET PAINT” signs from New York City’s subway stations. I layered Amazon boxes, symbolic of the soaring financial rewards reaped by billionaires during the pandemic, beneath cut-up “WET PAINT” signs, representative of the essential work performed in life threatening conditions by so many. The materials suggest how greed and sacrifice occupy either side of the equation of our money driven society. Will society change? Can it? Broken caution tape suggests it’s under construction to be either built better or demolished altogether.