Columbia Spectator article

What a pleasant surprise to find this article about AIOP online today.
I remember the reporter - so sweet:
Columbia Spectator

Walking in an Urban Wonderland
BY YIN YIN LU
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 17, 2008

Noah Buckley / Columbia Daily Spectator
As I meandered up and down 14th Street last Saturday afternoon, I wondered if I was in the right place. I was there to see the fourth annual Art in Odd Places festival and its presentation of “Pedestrian”—a public display of 31 artists’ eccentric projects that will continue throughout October.

But there were no booths and no exhibits scattered along the road. There was nothing. At least, nothing at first.
Then, an unexpected aureate glint suddenly caught my eye. As I stepped closer, I realized that it was a fire hydrant, painted bright gold. And then, a few blocks down, I spotted a golden door right next to its normally maroon counterpart. There was also a bicycle leaning against something that looked like a golden table, and a strange miniature-tower-shaped golden structure that I could not even name.

These objects constitute Kenny Komer and Boris Rasin’s Midas. As its name suggests, the artists basically just coated everyday, usually unnoticed items along the street with a glittering metallic sheen.
That was when I finally realized that the art “displays” were not supposed to be protrusive. The entire point of “Pedestrian” is to highlight various aspects of the cityscape, aspects that pedestrians would normally overlook or not consider visually appealing. “I thought it was nice how they made it really subtle and incorporated it into the everyday scenery of the city,” Vivian Feig, SEAS ’12, said. “It made me not just pay attention to the art, but notice all the actual details of my surroundings.”

Some displays, though, were a bit anticlimactic. A flyer described a project entitled Stoop Sale, by Ethan Crenson, as a presentation of “functional objects, displaced objects, objects refusing definition, glaringly physical objects, neutral objects, indifferent objects, validated objects, and private objects.” But it turned out to be a small collection of regular household items—including a portable toilet, a stool, a snow shovel, a Mona Lisa mouse pad, a wheel, a tissue, a row of coat hooks, a framed picture of a snowy landscape, and a strange wooden contraption—positioned on a square blanket that was no bigger than six square feet. It was definitely interesting, but not incredibly attention-grabbing (which, I suppose, was part of the point).
What did catch my eye, though, was L. Mylott Manning’s Road Kill Stuffed Animals. Yes, that’s right. Road kill stuffed animals. Or, to be more precise, stuffed animals that had been horribly massacred, drenched in dirty water, drizzled with “blood,” and tossed along the edge of the road closest to the pavement. I almost shed a tear or two for those poor fuzzy souls, especially the decapitated dog.

Unfortunately, those were the only visual projects that I managed to discover. As vigorously as I strained my eyes, I simply could not find the others I had been hoping to see, including projects like Eric Doeringer’s Free Books—boxes of novels that had been deprived of their last few pages—and Aakash Nihalani’s Landscrapers—bright tape delineating rectangular shapes on buildings. Either I was not looking hard enough, or they had indeed melted into the landscape.

But there were also artistic performances, two of which I did witness. The first, Cultural Crossing Guard, was enacted by Sara Holwerda and Nick Tobier. Clad in bright orange uniforms, they were standing at the corner of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue, arbitrarily arresting people at the edge of the sidewalk and adjusting their clothes or posture. “We’re trying to make sure people look their best as they cross the street,” Holwerda explained. “We’re making New Yorkers more aware of their appearance.”

On my way back to the subway station, I also happened to pass by two ladies—Angela Rose Voulgarelis Illgen and Hayley Severns—dressed in formal black clothes, scrubbing the brick walls of a derelict building that was originally a Macy’s department store. According to Illgen, the purpose of their performance, Meaning Cleaning, was to take “responsibility for a shared environment by bringing more domestic work out of the private sector into the public.”
Before hitting the festival, it is helpful to pick up a map of display locations at Otto’s Shrunken Head, Rags-a-GoGo, Rolco Labs, 14th Street Framing Gallery, or PrintByPOP. And though it was not what I expected, “Art in Odd Places: Pedestrian” was definitely an eye-opening experience.

“Art in Odd Places” will continue throughout the month of October.
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Upcoming Performance Projects
* Log Roll 2008—Saturday, Oct. 25 and Sunday, Oct. 26 (9 a.m.-9 p.m.). Beginning at 14th Street and Avenue D. A large sequined log is rolled down 14th Street.
* Chairwalk—Saturday, Oct. 25 (3-5 p.m.). Beginning at 14th Street and Avenue D. Matthew Blair walks down 14th Street with a chair tied to his left foot.
* Alegrias-Performance 02 & 03—Saturday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 25 (12-2 p.m.). 14th Street between First and Eighth avenues. Arielle Falk removes many layers of ski masks that cover her face.
* Tales of the Clogged and Perpendicular—Saturday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 25 (12 p.m.). North side of 14th Street and Avenue C. South side of 14th Street at Ninth Avenue and Hudson (1 p.m.). Performers, clothed as an 18th-century Dutch peasant and a 19th-century Victorian dandy, perform a symbolic ritual as they walk down 14th Street.
* The Pedestrian Project—Saturday, Oct. 25 (2-6 p.m.). 14th Street between First and Ninth avenues. Performers wear black costumes that look like road sign graphics.
* Christmas Is Coming—Saturday, Oct. 25 (10 a.m.-3 p.m.). 14th Street beginning at Avenue D. Ken James drags a log across 14th Street, leaving a line behind him because of erosion.
* Artarchy—Friday-Sunday, Oct. 17-19 and Friday-Sunday, Oct. 24-26 (6-8 p.m.). 412 E. 14th St. A stop motion film projected onto a wall mimics the markings of spray paint.
* Dance With Death—Saturday, Oct. 18 and Saturday Oct. 25 (2-4 p.m.). 14th Street between Union Square and Second Avenue. Yoonhye Park, wearing a white Korean funeral dress, strolls down 14th Street with a skeleton.
* White Trash—Saturday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 25 (2-5 p.m.). All of 14th Street beginning at Avenue D. Edith Raw makes random movements and gestures on the sidewalk in a costume made from garbage.
* Camouflage Promenade—Sunday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 26 (1-2 p.m.). All of 14th Street beginning at Avenue D. Two performers, wearing 1868-era full-skirted day dresses, wander down 14th Street.