Join us in launching the first commission in PUBLIC WORKS, a series of exhibitions responding to the erosion—and reinvention—of civic infrastructures in New York City. Public Address by artist Alex Strada, is a citywide public artwork that centers the lived experience of those most impacted by housing insecurity. It will open in Lt. Petrosino Square on October 18, and will move across all five boroughs over the course of a year.
Strada is the inaugural Public Artist in Residence with the NYC Department of Homeless Services and the Department of Cultural Affairs. Public Address builds on three years of collaborative log-writing workshops hosted by Strada in shelters across the city. In this exhibition, handwritten reflections by shelter residents and frontline staff are translated onto upcycled aluminum street signs fabricated by the Department of Transportation’s Sign Shop. Transforming the bureaucratic tool of the logbook and the language of city infrastructure into public art, these signs invite public dialogues about housing insecurity, migration, caregiving, and resistance.
