Flamingo Parade, 2010 supported by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Amidst
last weekend’s Jubilee celebrations here in Great Britain, I was ecstatic to
receive news from across the pond on Saturday morning from good friend and
Space All Over-curator Anna Lise Jensen that my public art intervention Flamingo
Parade has found a home at Red Shed Garden in the community of Greenpoint in
Brooklyn, New York City which hosts a Community Support Agriculture organic food distribution programme as well as a platform for education on nutrition for schools within the community.
For regulars to this blog, many will know this has
been a long time coming – conceived when I was living in Manhattan in early
2009 when I was given the opportunity to participate in the artist-community
initiative A Lot of Possibilities, that has seen a group of international artists
working towards integrating contemporary art around the Upper West Side and Manhattan Valley,
Flamingo Parade was directly inspired by the Community Garden at West 104th Street, whose charming green character I looked down on from my apartment
window.
With the
support of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2010, Flamingo Parade was
realized into a 31 x 9ft vinyl banner in order for the original illustration,
that had been created in situ a year before, to be installed into the urban
landscape within the rare, yet determined, green spaces of New York City.
I must say a big thank you to both Anna Lise and everyone at Red Green Shed for their enthusiasm for my work and for helping to install it last week - those of
you who are stateside can now see Flamingo Parade in the garden from Skillman and Kingsland Avenues – nearest subway Graham Avenue on
the L line.
Red Shed
Garden
264 Skillman
Avenue
Brooklyn, New
York
11211
More images and
updates are due to follow in the run up to the installation’s official launch
and community gardeners’ event in late June - from the very latest from New
York follow @JMVELARDI
You can also
follow Flamingo Parade’s journey with an archive of news and images from my time in New York, the
Upper West Side community garden to the streets of New Jersey, Bushwick and Williamsburg,
across Massachusetts and the work's migration to Greenpoint, Brooklyn over the last two and half
years.
Find out more
about the early stages of A Lot of Possibilities by Anna Lise at spaceallover.org to see all the contributing artists and
projects around the Community Garden at West 104th Street.
