Work In Progress

New York City is experiencing a booming construction phase. Real estate has become one the most powerful driving forces in the social and urban development of the city. Constrained by laws, policies and codes, market forces and financial structures, and limited architectural responses, the city is being homogenized and transformed into a space for the financial elite, affecting individuals and communities throughout the five boroughs, and changing the social and cultural fabric of the city. Small businesses are closing, artistic and alternative cultural spaces are being displaced, and socio-economic shifts are driving communities away from their historical sites. Green construction fences, with their illustrated LL47 “Work in Progress” signs, often present the first visual cues of this process, and its underlying economic and legislative causes. This fall, a green construction fence will close Storefront for Art and Architecture and a LL47 sign will illustrate its future development. On these new walls, over 25 LL47 signs commissioned to artists, designers, and architects will depict alternative visions of ongoing construction sites throughout New York, offering a space of reflection and critique to current development practices and the architectures that build them. A photographic survey of works in progress throughout the city, will depict this new naturalized green New York landscape, inviting us to think about the city that is growing with our times.

Work in Progress is curated by POWERHOUSE in collaboration with Storefront for Art and Architecture, with photographs by Naho Kubota and design by PARA Projects.

Participants:
Nanu Al Hamad; Daisy Ames; David Benjamin; Felix Burrichter; Antoine Catala; Stephanie Choi; Archie Lee Coates IV; Nick DeMarco; Yulan Grant; Tom Hancocks; Yul Ho Lee; Ed Keller, Carla Leitao; Gregory Ketant; Ersela Kripa; Prem Krishnamurti, Aaron Gemmill, Marc Handelman; Lisa Park; Alan Paukman; Paloma Power, Samantha Culp; Quilian Riano; Hilary Sample; Jesse Seegers; Miriam Simun; Avery Singer; Michael Sorkin, Jie Gu; Andrew Strasser; Ada Tolla, Giuseppe Lignano

Curated by:
POWERHOUSE and Storefront for Art and Architecture

Design by:
PARA Project

Photography by:
Naho Kubota

Graphic Design by:
Bryant Wells