John Fekner (b. NYC), is an innovative artist who created hundreds of environmental and conceptual outdoor works consisting of stenciled words, symbols, dates and icons spray painted in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
,
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
in the 70s and 80s. A seminal figure in the
Street ArtStreet art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art,...
movement, Fekner participated in recent urban art exhibitions such as
Wooster CollectiveWooster Collective is a website founded in 2001 that showcases street art from around the world. It is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world...
's 11 Spring Street Project in 2006. Art writer Lucy Lippard writes, "Fekner does in public what a lot of art world artists don’t even do in galleries: he dispels ambiguity by naming his visions, his viewpoint."
In 1968, Fekner painted the words
Itchycoo Park in large white letters on an empty building in Gorman Park, New York, and in 1978 he curated the
Detective Show at the same outdoor location in Queens which included the words
street museum on the invitational card.
In reaction to the desolation of the abandoned burnt-out buildings of the South Bronx, Fekner stenciled
Last Hope in large letters above one crumbling structure so that every time you passed it you couldn’t block it out of your vision. Now you know you can’t change the world, but you can’t sit back and watch it implode either, so you’ll do your part, have your own little victory, and so will the next guy and the next, and maybe things will start to change.
Fekner's output includes paintings, cast paper reliefs, video, audio and performance works, sculpture, photography and computer-generated work. Fekner creates multiple versions of work in entirely different media and will use whatever means are necessary to communicate a vision or message, and whose work changes as that vision expands. Throughout his entire career in the arts, Fekner has made a commitment within his work by consistently addressing issues that demonstrate an interest involving concepts of perception and transformation, as well as specific environmental and sociological concerns such as
urban decayUrban decay is the sociological process whereby a city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude, with depopulation or changing population, economic restructuring, abandoned buildings, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and a desolate,...
,
greedGreed in psychology is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.-Theology:...
, chemical pollutants,
mass mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
and
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
Indians. Fekner's stencil
Wheels Over Indian Trails greeted motorists and international travelers arriving in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
at the Pulaski Bridge Queens Midtown Tunnel from 1979-1990. The message remained untouched for eleven years, until Earth Day 1990, when Mr. Fekner, feeling the piece had run its course, painted over it.
Early years
Fekner attended
Our Lady of FatimaOur Lady of Fátima is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary with respect to reported apparitions of her to three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on 13 May. The three children were Lúcia Santos and her cousins, siblings Jacinta...
, a Catholic elementary school in
Jackson HeightsJackson Heights is a place name used in the United States:*Jackson Heights, Queens, an area within the Queens section of New York City*Jackson Heights, Tampa, Florida, a residential neighborhood in within the East Tampa district of Tampa...
together with John Genzale a.k.a.
Johnny ThundersJohnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. , was an Italian American rock and roll/protopunk guitarist, singer and songwriter....
of the
New York DollsThe New York Dolls are an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1971. In 2004 the band reformed with three of their original members, two of whom, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, continue on today and have released two records of new material...
. Fekner began writing poetry as a young teenager, and his first outdoor
graffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
in 1968 were the words
Itchycoo Park"Itchycoo Park" is a psychedelic pop song written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane of the group Small Faces. The song reached number three in the UK Singles Chart, 1967.-Song profile:"Itchycoo Park" was released by mod band The Small Faces in August, 1967...
painted at Gorman Park 85th Street Park in Jackson Heights, Queens. Along with a few buddies on the park house roof, he painted the phrase in large white letters across the front of the building. Fekner appropriated the name of the popular hit written and recorded by the Small Faces about a park in
Newham-Places:U.K.* London Borough of Newham** Newham North East ** Newham South ** Newham North East * Coulby Newham, a housing estate in MiddlesbroughAustralia...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Subsequently, the Jackson Heights local football team took the name,
Itchycoo Chiefs in the 70s. Ten years later, Fekner used the park as a base for his stencils projects. In May 1978, he curated the
Detective Show with help from the Institute for Art and Urban Resources (P.S. 1). A group of thirty artists including
Gordon Matta-ClarkGordon Matta-Clark was an American artist best known for his site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He is famous for his "building cuts," a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls.-Life and Work:Both of Gordon Matta-Clark's...
, Don Leicht,
Lucio PozziLucio Pozzi is a Milanese painter and performance artist.His work is in the collections of the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; the Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the New York Public Library; the Detroit Institute of Arts; Giuseppe Panza;...
, Lou Forgione,
Richard ArtschwagerRichard Artschwager is an American painter and sculptor. A native of Washington, D.C., his parents were European immigrants; his father was Prussian by birth, while his mother, a student at the Corcoran School of Art, was a Ukrainian Jew. He grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where the family...
and Claudia De Monte hid art and created subtle art work
in situIn situ is a Latin phrase meaning in the place. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may work but interference from...
throughout the park.
Queens projects
Fekner's
Warning Signs project focused on accentuating deteriorating conditions that dominated
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and its environs in the 70s. In 1976, Fekner began to create
site-specificSite-specific is used in a range of contexts:In art Site-specific artIn molecular biology Site-specific recombination...
temporary ‘word-signs’ using hand-cut cardboard stencils and spray paint on a relentless crusade concerned with social and environmental issues. First seen on the industrial streets and highways of
QueensQueens is the largest in area, the second-largest in population, and the easternmost of the Five Boroughs which form New York City. The Borough of Queens' boundaries are identical to those of the County of Queens , a subdivision of the State of New York in the Northeastern United States.Located on...
, the
East RiverThe East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
bridges, and later in the
South BronxThe South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. It strictly refers to the southwestern portion of the borough, and should not be confused with the southern Bronx. The true South Bronx, which was a legal designation through the 1960s, was a very small area which extended from...
, his ‘messages’ were spray painted in areas that were in need of construction, demolition or reconstruction. By labeling the structures, Fekner's objective was to draw attention to the accumulated squalor by urging city officials, agencies and local communities to be more responsible and take action. His first stencil projects,
Industrial Fossil,
Urban Decay, Decay/Abandoned,
Instant This Instant That, and
The Remains of Industry were not intended to remain for long periods of time. The projects succeeded when the existing condition was removed or remedied. In 1979, Fekner began experimenting with video and audio, working with Fred Baca on
Environmental Stencils 77-79, a grainy, grim black & white 8mm film/video that not only documents Fekner's stencil projects, but is also a bleak portrait of New York City in ruins.
Bronx projects
Fashion ModaFashion Moda was an alternative arts space, active 1978-1993, started in the Bronx by Stefan Eins, combining aspects of a Bronx community arts centre and a world-wide progressive arts organization with a storefront location in the South Bronx.-History:...
is most often associated with graffiti art and its acceptance into the art world through such figures as Fekner,
Jean-Michel BasquiatJean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist and the first African-American painter to become an international art star. He gained popularity first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist...
,
Jenny HolzerJenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist. She attended Ohio University , Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Holzer was originally an abstract artist, focusing on painting and printmaking; after moving to New York City in...
, and
Keith HaringKeith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
. In February 1980, Fekner began working in, around, and out of Fashion Moda, a storefront for experimental art and cultural exchange, and an outpost for showcasing
graffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
, breakdancing and
rappingRapping is the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes, wordplay, and poetry. Rapping is a primary ingredient in hip hop music, but the phenomenon predates hip hop culture by centuries. Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment...
. Through his association with Fashion Moda, Fekner went to Charlotte Street and stenciled six spray painted messages including
Decay, Broken Promises, Falsas Promesas, Last Hope, Broken Treaties and Save Our School. When Presidential Candidate
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
stood in front of Fekner’s stencils,
Decay and
Broken PromisesBroken Promises may refer to:* Broken Promises , an EP by Allen Crane* "Broken Promises", a song from the album Element Eighty by Element Eighty* "Broken Promises", a 2001 single by Tonya Mitchell...
on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx on August 5, 1980 at the People's Convention, Fekner detoured away from the notoriety to explore a new found interest in multimedia art.
Multimedia
In 1981,
Martin A. NisenholtzMartin Nisenholtz was named senior vice president, digital operations for The New York Times Company in February 2005. He is responsible for the strategy development, operations and management of The New York Times Company's digital properties, including About.com, whose acquisition was announced...
invited Fekner,
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
,
Keith HaringKeith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
and
John MatosCrash is a famous graffiti artist. As early as 13, John Matos was spray painting New York City trains, the full image art as opposed to simpler tagging soon transferred to silk screened canvas. He was first noticed through his murals on subway cars and dilapidated buildings, he is now regarded as...
/Crash to experiment on the early interactive
teletextTeletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
system Telidon at NYU’s Alternate Media Center. AMC evolved into the Interactive Telecommunications Program under the leadership of Dr. Red Burns and
George StoneyGeorge Stoney may refer to:* George Johnstone Stoney, Irish physicist famous for introducing the term electron in 1874* George C. Stoney, New York University Professor of Communications...
. Fekner received his first international award at
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
's Video Culture Festival in the
VideotexVideotex was one of the earliest implementations of an "end-user information system". From the late 1970s to mid-1980s, it was used to deliver information to a user in computer-like format, typically to be displayed on a television.Videotex in its broader definition can be used to refer to any...
category for
Toxic Wastes From A to Z, an
8-bitEight-bit CPUs normally use an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus which means that their address space is limited to 64 KB. This is not a "natural law", however, so there are exceptions....
computer graphicsComputer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer....
animationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways...
created at AMC which featured a
rapRapping is the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes, wordplay, and poetry. Rapping is a primary ingredient in hip hop music, but the phenomenon predates hip hop culture by centuries. Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment...
by k-8 students from a South Bronx school. In the
New York Times, Matthew Mirapaul said, "Fekner's work incorporates jagged, pixilated computer-generated imagery because 'its characteristic of the medium....it's almost like the drip in a
Jackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of...
,' Mr. Fekner stated."
Collaborations
Fekner began collaborating with Bronx artist Don Leicht at P.S. 1 where they shared a studio in 1976. In 1982, they began a series of work and installations using steel, cut metal, aluminum and automotive paints based on Nishikado's
Space Invadersis an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and features...
arcade game with the statement:
"Your Space Has Been Invaded-Our Children are Fighting a Terrible War. Whole families are being sent to Battlescreen." Their
"Beauty's Only Street Deep" was installed at the
Wooster CollectiveWooster Collective is a website founded in 2001 that showcases street art from around the world. It is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world...
's
11 Spring Street street artStreet art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art,...
2006 exhibition in NYC. Since the 70s, Fekner has collaborated with
John MatosCrash is a famous graffiti artist. As early as 13, John Matos was spray painting New York City trains, the full image art as opposed to simpler tagging soon transferred to silk screened canvas. He was first noticed through his murals on subway cars and dilapidated buildings, he is now regarded as...
/Crash,
David WojnarowiczDavid Wojnarowicz was a gay painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.-Biography:...
, Sandra Seymour,
Lady PinkLady Pink is a graffiti artist. She was raised in Queens, New York, and started her career in 1979 when she started writing graffiti while a student at the High School of Art and Design, and made a name for herself as one of the only females capable of competing with men in the graffiti subculture...
, Peter Mönnig, A-One, Toxic, Andrew Castrucci, Sasha Sumner, Chris Stain,
Josh MacPheeJosh MacPhee is an artist, curator and activist living in Brooklyn, New York. MacPhee graduated from Oberlin College in 1996 and spent eight years as an artist and activist in Chicago, Illinois where he established a distribution system called justseeds in order get more radical art projects out to...
, Billy Mode and other musicians, writers and new media artists. Fekner was included in
Documentadocumenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which now takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
7 as part of
Jenny HolzerJenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist. She attended Ohio University , Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Holzer was originally an abstract artist, focusing on painting and printmaking; after moving to New York City in...
's and Stefan Eins' Fashion Moda Store, and the
Committed To Print exhibition at the
Museum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been singularly important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the...
.
Music Recordings/Music Videos
A multi-disciplinary artist, Fekner formed his own band City Squad in 1983. City Squad was composed of musicians and non-musicians as an extension of Queensites, a group of teenagers from
Jackson HeightsJackson Heights is a place name used in the United States:*Jackson Heights, Queens, an area within the Queens section of New York City*Jackson Heights, Tampa, Florida, a residential neighborhood in within the East Tampa district of Tampa...
who assisted with the outdoor stencil work. In September, Fekner released his first rap/rock 12" EP on his own Vinyl Gridlock record label. The A-side, "2 4 5 7 9 11" had Kwame Monroe, aka
Bear 167, a South Bronx
graffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
artist as the guest rapper; and the B-side featured Dave Santaniello on rock vocals on "Rock Steady". On the Apple II, Fekner experimented with early speech synthesis programs,
VotraxVotrax Inc. , originally known as the Vocal division of Federal Screw Works or just Votrax, was a speech synthesis company located in the Detroit, Michigan area from 1971 to about 1996 It began as a division of Federal Screw Works from 1971 to 1973?...
and SAM-
Software Automatic MouthSoftware Automatic Mouth, or SAM, was a speech synthesis program for the early personal computers; developed and sold by Don’t Ask Software and a distant ancestor of PlainTalk found in Mac OS 9. The program was available for Apple computers , various Atari models and the Commodore 64. Prices ranged...
as vocal tracks on "2 4 5 7 9 11" and on his
Idioblast album in 1984. In addition to playing keyboards, electronic drums and vocals, he wrote the music and lyrics for the eight songs on the album which featured extensive sampling and tape loops of tv, radio, Native American voices, phone and airport transmissions over rock/rap/
hip hopHip hop as a cultural movement "manifest in B-boying , graffiti writing, DJing and eMCeeing/rapping – is an artistic commitment to seize freedom from oppressive social conditions...
beats. Tracks on the album included
Travelogue The 80s,
I Get Paid To Clap,
The Beat,
The Sight Of The Child,
Wheels Over Indian Trails and
Rapicasso, which Fekner also created as a 6' x 12' six-panel painting. Both the painting and song pay homage to Picasso’s
The Three DancersThe Three Dancers is a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, painted in June 1925. It is an oil on canvas, 84.8 by 56 in . -Description:...
. Fekner spray painted LCD-style letters on industrial silkscreens to portray three breakdancers, the song’s lyrics acknowledging the work, energy and spirit in breakdancing, rapping and graffiti: "Watch the street, see the modern art, it’s the present and future tied to his heart."
The 12" EP single, "Concrete People/Concrete Concerto", was a music collaboration with Dennis Mann (1950-2008) and Al Belfiore who programmed the
Linn LM-1The LM-1 Drum Computer, manufactured by Linn Electronics Inc., was the first drum machine to use digital samples of acoustic drums. Conceived and designed by Roger Linn, it was also one of the first programmable drum machines...
Drum Computer. Fekner recorded at Mann's Monkey Hill Studios from 1983-1989 where the
Fatback BandThe Fatback Band is an American funk and disco band. Most popular in the 1970s and 1980s, The Fatback Band is most known for their Top Ten R&B hits, " Spanish Hustle", "I Like Girls", "Gotta Get My Hands on Some ", and "Backstrokin'"...
, whose "
King Tim III (Personality Jock)"King Tim III " is a 1979 song by the Fatback Band from the disco album XII. Released on July 25, 1979, several weeks before "Rapper's Delight" , this song is often cited as the beginning of recorded hip hop...
", considered to be the first commercially released rap single in 1979, were also recording. On both "Concrete People/Concrete Concerto", Fekner worked with musicians Sasha Sumner (sax), Jim Recchione (harmonica), Sandra Seymour (vocals), Sandy Mann (vocals) and Andrew Ruhren (animator and EP cover illustration). Concrete People was a popular dance club video, shown on USA Network NightFlight's
Salute to Animation with
Peter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering...
's "Sledgehammer",
Talking HeadsTalking Heads was an American rock band formed in 1974 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
"And She Was" and
Timbuk 3Timbuk3 was a Grammy-nominated band which released six original studio albums between 1986 and 1995 that were produced by Derrick Vedrani. They are most well-known for their Top 20 single "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades"...
's "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades". "Concrete People" and "The Last Days of Good and Evil" ("Concrete Concerto" soundtrack) both won honorary awards in the
Prix Ars ElectronicaThe Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...
's
Computer AnimationComputer animation is the art of creating moving images with the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. Increasingly it is created by means of 3D computer graphics, though 2D computer graphics are still widely used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time...
category, together with award winner
John LasseterJohn Alan Lasseter is an Academy Award-winning American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios...
for his
Luxo Jr.Luxo, Jr. is the first film produced in 1986 by Pixar Animation Studios, following its establishment as an independent film studio. It is a computer-animated short film , demonstrating the kind of things the newly-established company was capable of producing.It is the source of the small hopping...
and
Red's DreamRed's Dream is a short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by John Lasseter, which was released in 1987. To date, this is the only short that has not been attached to one of Pixar's feature films, the only Pixar Short to be rendered on the Pixar Image Computer, and the first Pixar...
in 1987 and 1988 respectively. In October 2008, Fekner released a remixed version of his 1984 "Another 4 Years" as "Another 4 Years (Edit/Elect08)"
mp3MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on...
download and as a video on
VimeoVimeo is a video-centric social network site which launched in November 2004. The site supports embedding, sharing, video storage, and allows user-commenting on each video page. Users must register to upload content...
that includes footage of former President
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
campaign visit on Charlotte Street in the
South BronxThe South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. It strictly refers to the southwestern portion of the borough, and should not be confused with the southern Bronx. The true South Bronx, which was a legal designation through the 1960s, was a very small area which extended from...
on August 5, 1980.
Reviews
New York Times art critic John Russell wrote…Fekner is an artist who works not only in New York but with New York. The city in its more disinherited aspects is the raw material with which he has been working ever since he got a studio space in P.S. 1 in Long Island City in 1976 and learned to regard the huge dilapidated building as "
an elderly person who has acutely perceived his experience of life." He went on to work outdoors in Queens and in the Bronx in ways that gave point and urgency to places long sunk in despair. With a word or two (
Decay, for instance, or
Broken Promises), he brought an element of street theater into disaster areas. With a single stenciled phrase (
Wheels Over Indian Trails, for instance) he mingled present with past on the side of the
Pulaski BridgeThe Pulaski Bridge in New York City connects Long Island City in Queens to Greenpoint in Brooklyn over Newtown Creek. It was named after Polish military commander and American Revolutionary War fighter Kazimierz Pułaski because of the large Polish-American population in Greenpoint...
near the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. What in other hands might have been vandalism had a salutary effect. People in desolate parts of the city saw more, felt more, thought more and came out of their apathy.
Lucy Lippard in the Village Voice called him "caption writer to the urban environment, ad-man for the opposition."
The Wooster Collective said, "For us, John Fekner's pioneering stencil work is as important to the history of the urban art movement as the work of artists like Haring, Basquiat. It was artists like Fekner, Leicht, Hambleton and others who truly held down the scene back in the early 80's."
Discography
| JOHN FEKNER CITY SQUAD |
Year |
Format |
VINYL GRIDLOCK RECORDS 33 1/3 RPM |
| LP |
EP |
| 2 4 5 7 9 11/Rock Steady (ASCAP) |
1983 |
|
♦ |
VG#10538/10539 |
| Idioblast 8 songs (ASCAP) |
1984 |
♦ |
|
VG#10541-A/10542-B |
| Another 4 Years |
1984 |
|
|
VG#10555 Flexidisc |
| Cassette Gazette 9 songs (Same as Idioblast plus E Z Gee Jammin) |
1985 |
|
|
Audio cassette/Photography book. 62 pages. Produced by Fran Kuzui, Published by B-Sellers, Japan |
| I Get Paid To Clap (ASCAP) |
1985 |
|
|
VG#10569 Flexidisc Released in "Between C & D Between C & D was a Lower East Side quarterly literary magazine edited by Joel Rose and Catherine Texier. Though a geographical reference from New York City, Between C & D has also been suggested to mean "between coke and dope", giving an indication of the transgressive content and ethos. Its...
" Magazine, NYC |
| Concrete People (ASCAP) |
1986 |
|
♦ |
VG#33331/44442 |
| The Beat (89 Remix) |
1989 |
|
|
VG#678 Flexidisc |
| When The Future Collides With History |
1989 |
|
|
VG#679 Unreleased-Video soundtrack only. |
| Oil Drum Mix (ASCAP) |
1999 |
|
|
Listed as Final Concerto Oil Drum Mix on David Wojnarowicz-Optic Nerve (CD-ROM). Produced by the Red Hot Organization Red Hot Organization is an international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since 1989, Red Hot has produced many compilation albums, related television programs and media events incorporating the talents of leading performers, visual artists, producers and directors to...
. |
| LPEPMP3-Selections (ASCAP) |
2008 |
|
|
13 track album release as mp3 available on iTunes Plus. |
| Another 4 Years (Edit/Elect08) |
2008 |
|
|
mp3 available on iTunesiTunes is a proprietary digital media player application, used for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also an interface to manage the contents on Apple's popular iPod digital media players as well as the iPhone...
|
Selected Bibliography
- Ault, Julie, Alternative Art, New York, 1965-1985. University of Minnesota Press, 2002 ISBN 0-8166-3794-6
- Frank, Peter and McKentie, Micheal New, Used and Improved NY: Abbyville Press, 1987.
- Gumpert, Lynn, Curator, New Work New York at the New Museum, Exhibition catalog essay, January 30-March 25, 1982. p. 12-15
- Howze, Russell, Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community, and Art, Manic D Press, San Francisco, CA 2008 ISBN 978-1-933149-22-6
- Kahane, Lisa, Do Not Give Way to Evil, Photographs of the South Bronx, 1979-1987, powerHouse books, a Miss Rosen edition, Brooklyn, NY 2008 ISBN 978-1-57687-432-5
- Lacy, Suzanne, Mapping The Terrain, New Genre Public Art, Bay Press, Seattle, WA 1995 ISBN 0-941920-30-5
- Lewisohn Cedar, Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution, Tate Museum, London, England 2008 ISBN 978-1-85437-767-8
- Lippard, Lucy, The Lure of the Local: Sense of Place in a Multicentered Society
The Lure of the Local: Sense of Place in a Multicentered Society is a 1997 study of the sense of place, by American author and 1968 Guggenheim Fellowship winner Lucy Lippard. The phrase, coined by Lippard, in this study refers to a sense of place that an individual can have about where he lives, or...
, The New Press, NY 1997, ISBN 1-56584-247-2
- Lippard, Lucy, Get The Message-A Decade Of Social Change, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated, 1985 ISBN # 0525242562
- Taylor, Marvin J., Gumpert, Lynn, The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974-1984, Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2005, ISBN 069112286-5
External links