Closing Bell: Plastic Bag Skyline

A prolific flickr contributor who goes by the handle bitchcakesny captured this scene on the Pulaski Bridge between Greenpoint and Long Island City: a skyline made of plastic bags, the kind that normally snag in chain link fence in a less attractive pattern. Is it art or recycling?

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It's recontextualization.
And some hapless city employee has to clean it up.

Posted by: dittoburg at August 20, 2008 4:22 PM

I think its great.

Posted by: east river at August 20, 2008 4:23 PM

Didn't you complain about the fountain foam bath?

Posted by: dittoburg at August 20, 2008 4:43 PM

I like this better than the foam fountain bath, which was straight up vandalism.

Posted by: East New York at August 20, 2008 4:53 PM

It's awesome.

Posted by: KHuebbe at August 20, 2008 5:03 PM

I think the waterfall "art" is vandalism and the fountain foam bath was cool.

Posted by: Biff Champion at August 20, 2008 5:05 PM

It's art AND recycling!

Posted by: Park Sloper at August 20, 2008 7:11 PM

wasn't me dittoburg. Didn't post on that one- you probably confused me with East New York.

Posted by: east river at August 20, 2008 8:42 PM

Art! Or maybe art intervention.

Kind of like put Juan Muñoz and Andy Goldsworthy in a blender...

The skyline is so, so beautiful from that spot.

Posted by: mothra at August 20, 2008 11:11 PM

Does the PS Co-op use plastic or paper bags?

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at August 21, 2008 8:20 AM

biodegradable plastic manufactured from corn cobs.

Posted by: bxgrl at August 21, 2008 10:44 AM

i happen to pass this - easy to bike down franklin's bike bath in greenpoint over the pulaski bridge to LIC (great riverside playground and park now). i tend to fall on the side of graffiti is vandalism, so i am not in general a fan of random art. however, this is pretty cool, and certainly not ruining the fence. i have read about this artist. it may be that the artist even takes it down.

it's unexpected and clever. i say yes.

Posted by: wine lover at August 21, 2008 3:30 PM

I saw the artist installing this on Sunday -- they were new bags from a roll, so not sure if "recycling" applies here. Unless she does take them down and reuse them.

Posted by: jnji at August 21, 2008 7:44 PM

Hm, then I am retracting my previous statements. It would be cool if this artist was re-semiotizing existing trash into something interesting, but just putting new plastic bags into the consumption system = not so good.

Also, it's gimmicky, like the guy who draws outlines around cast street-shadows. Except this is more eco-hostile.

Posted by: mothra at August 22, 2008 12:55 AM

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August 20, 2008

Closing Bell: Plastic Bag Skyline

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