Recent Project

For a week in July, 2023, Illegal Art prepared for and participated in the annual Ah Ha School of Art’s “HA HA” fundraiser in Telluride, Colorado,

We featured three of our projects: To Do, Wash Away Your Fears, and This Is Me! (aka What Color Are You?) and had the honor to meet the other participating artists and engage with the community of Telluride and the surrounding areas.

A special thanks to Kristin Kwasniewski, Christin Marcos, Malarie Clark and all the Ah Ha staff and volunteers who got us through our To Do list, and Washed Away Our Fears!

Contact us to see how you can bring our interactive projects to your community.

@illegalart2001

INTERVIEW

Telluride joined together to celebrate all things artistic, wacky, and fun with the Ah Haa School for the Arts' HAHA! Illegal Art’s Otis Kriegel joined other contributing artists and curators on KOTO to give a sneak peak at the magic.

Listen on SoundCloud.

Ah Haa School of the Arts

@illegalart2001

IN COLLABORATION WTH WONDERSPACES — PARTICIPANTS DOCUMENTED 60 DAYS OF THEIR LIFES.

Partnering with interactive art powerhouse Wonderspaces, Illegal Art asked individuals to document 60 DAYS of their lives within blank journals provided at Wonderspaces locations in Scottsdale, AZ, Philadelphia, PA, and Austin, TX.

Each participant was asked to write, draw, doodle, collage or print their personal thoughts, experiences and beliefs over this 1,440 hour period — and then return them to Wonderspaces by foot or mail so to share your signed or anonymous journal with the world.

Journals were distributed starting October 1st, 2022, started on October 15th, and ended December 13th, upon which journals returned to Wonderspaces.

PREMISE of the PROJECT

For centuries, journals have played an important role in preserving memories and documenting ideas. They are a record of our individual experiences during a specific moment in time. 60 Days is an archive of journals that entail a collection of peoples’ successes, failures, heart breaks and joys. In an attempt to build a comprehensive record of the human experience , this digital library of journals is dependent on your participation.

www.wonderspaces.com

@wondersppaces

@illegalart2001

Help bring our project Wash Away Your Fears to cities across America though your tax-deductible contribution.

Donate here through our fiscal sponsor New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

How we will use your tax-deductible contribution:

At Illegal Art, we like to say, "Keep it public." Our mission is to make participatory public art accessible to everyone. We will use your generous contribution to bring the project to organizations and communities that otherwise wouldn't have the budget for art, pay the volunteers and staff at these events, and purchase materials.

Project Description:

We all have fears — those that we have carried with us since childhood, those that keep us up at night, and those we will inevitably face in our future. Our fears may reveal actual apprehensions or fabricated worries that will never play out in real life. Today, as we live through a global pandemic, finding healthy ways to release your fears is more important than ever.

Wash Away Your Fears evokes the figurative phrase, “Wash away your fears,” and transforms it into a literal and cathartic action. We invite public participants to share and let go of the fears they carry by writing them down in chalk on the sidewalk, washing them away with a bucket of water, and sweeping them up with a broom.

Participants of our Provincetown, Providence, and New York City installations have described the experience as “cleansing,” “renewing,” “facing reality,” and equivalent to "throwing china against the wall.”

~Don’t fear~ all of our events require masks and social distancing.

@illegalart2001

September 11, 2021

First introduced on Saturday, September 10, 2011to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11,“Morning Sky” asks passersby to paint a 6” square canvas with the color they believe to have been the sky on that morning of 20 years ago today. To participate, take a canvas, brush, and paints —reflect upon or imagine the color of sky onSeptember 9, 2001 and paint it on the canvas.Please leave the canvas with an Illegal Art representative.

This installation was done in collaboration with Seward Park Conservancy, Seward Park Branch of The New York Public Library, and The Manny Cantor Center.

www.sewardparkconservancy.org
www.nypl.org/locations/seward-park
https://mannycantor.org/

A collection of participants panels were displayed within the Seward Park Branch of The New York Public Library.

Morning Sky has been installed numerous times and in 2013 at the 14th Street Y in Lower Manhattan.

@illegalart2001

September 13-19, 2021

From the refrigerator to the computer screen, from the purse to the bedroom door, to-do lists, commands, reminders, mantras and more have graced these tiny 3×3 inch squares all over the globe.

NEXT NOW FESTIVAL / University of Maryland

The Clarice’s NextNOW Fest is an inspiring arts experience that celebrates imagination, creativity and community. By amplifying the voices of intriguing, inventive artists from around campus and our community, NextNOW Fest creates a forward-looking microcosm where art transforms our future and (re)connects us all.

NextNOW Fest is a signature event in University of Maryland's new Arts for All initiative, which leverages the combined power of the arts, technology and social justice to address the grand challenges of our time.

www.theclarice.umd.edu

About TO DO

To Do was first installed in May of 2006 on Crosby Street in New York City and has since been installed across the United States, and around the world.

@illegalart2001

August 2021

Field of Dreams is an interactive art installation connecting Queens County Farm Museum visitors to their own feelings of hope for a better tomorrow. This participatory installation temporarily transformed an under-utilized growing meadow into a field of exploration and inspiration — to share messages of reflection and hope for the future.

Queens County Farm Museum, in collaboration with the public art collective, Illegal Art and artist Aaron Asis.

Donate to this Project

AaronAsis.Com / QueensFarm.Org

@illegalart2001

Featured Project

This project could be humanity’s one big chance to make the mental and intangible tangible — and then physically rid themselves of their fears forever. Or at least have the satisfaction of showing themselves and others this is their intent and desire.

Yes, we all have fears — those that have been carried with us since childhood, those that keep us up at night, and those we will inevitably face in our future. They can reveal actual apprehensions or fabricated worries that will never play out in real life.

Wash Away Your Fears prompts the public to grasp the figurative phrase of washing away their fears, and makes it a literal, cathartic action by simply writing them down with chalk on the sidewalk, and then washing them away with a purging bucket of water and a broom.

Wash Away Your Fears was first debuted in Provincetown, MA on August 6, 2020 and has since been installed at the Tenement Museum, New York, NY on October 31, 2020, City of Providence, RI on October 4, 2020, City of Ithaca, NY on August 19, 2021, Englewood, FL on May 20-23, 2022, Kirkwood Public Library, MO April 8, 2023.

Contact us to see how you can bring Wash Away Your Fears to your community.

@illegalart2001

Now Showing at Wonderspaces in Philadelphia

There are always things left unsaid. The perfect ending to a conversation with a stranger. A clever comeback in a debate with a colleague at work. A farewell bid to a loved one. Missed opportunities to get in the last word. What do you wish you had said? Now is the time to say it.

“The Last Word”, a project by the public art collaborative Illegal Art, provides a private moment to recapture what was never uttered. Hundreds of tightly rolled pieces of paper, dyed red on one end and left untouched on the other are placed white-side out within the honeycomb chambers of a cardboard wall. Participants remove one of the pieces of paper, write down their “last word”, and then replace the paper with the red side exposed. The public may write their own unfinished business or read how other people’s conversations might have ended.

Visit Wonderspaces Philadelphia

Wonderspaces Philadelphia is located at 27 N 11th St (between Filbert and Market St), inside Fashion District Philadelphia, with access from the street and from within the mall.

About Wonderspaces

Wonderspaces partners with artists to deliver artwork to new audiences. They create art shows that run for about three months and then travel to new cities. With each show, they intend to create a place where people can connect with art and with each other.

www.wonderspaces.com

@wondersppaces

The Last Word was also installed at four different locations throughout the fall of 2009 in New York City. Those locations were Spring Gallery in Brooklyn, New York; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; GMHC in Manhattan and at the Museum at Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan through the end of 2009. The Last Word has also been installed at Wonderspaces in Arizona (2019), Mexico City (2019), Beijing (2019), and Shenzhen (2019).

@illegalart2001

On November 3, 2018, Illegal Art Co-founder Otis Kriegel spoke at TEDx Manhattan Beach “Trail Blazers” about interactive, participatory based public art and “Keeping It Public”. Illegal Art’s piece “TO ME” was also featured at the event’s exhibit hall.

To watch the video, please click here.

About TO ME:
No matter the image: a trailer park, a mountain top, a beach, a castle or a museum, the postcard is the ubiquitous method of sharing time and place with others, and a “wish you were here” theme. Now it’s time for you to reminisce and reflect upon where you are now and where you may be in the future. In this Participatory Public Art project, artist Otis Kriegel invites you to select a postcard and share this moment, hopes for the next months and anything else you’d like your future self to know. Return the card and you will be sent the postcard in approximately six months, as a memorial to your past self and in honor of you in the future.

This project was first installed at the 2013 SXSW Festival.

@illegalart2001

At one time or another, we have all looked up to public figures — from movie stars and athletes to activists, explorers, scientists, and artists. Giants in their fields, they have adorned magazines and screens to become larger than life within our minds.

But how big are they in real life? And how do we measure up to them head to head?

“Measure Up”, a project by the public art collective, Illegal Art, plays upon the international childhood growth gauge, the household door frame, to put things into perspective.

Free-standing wooden door frames will be spaced along an outdoor path, each marked and labeled with the height and names of well-known personalities that we admire or aspire to be like. Some will surprise, and some will inspire, while others will remind us that no matter what our height, we can all reach for the stars and grow beyond our imagination.

This project was first installed in Mexico City, Mexico, in October, 2019 at Artz Pedregal with Arte Abierto.

En un momento u otro, todos hemos admirado a figuras públicas, desde estrellas de cine y atletas hasta activistas, exploradores, científicos y artistas. Gigantes en sus campos, han adornado revistas y pantallas para ser más grandes que la vida dentro de nuestras mentes.

¿Pero qué tan grandes son en la vida real? ¿Y cómo estamos a la altura de ellos?

"Midete", un proyecto del colectivo de arte público Illegal Art, juega con el indicador de crecimiento internacional de la infancia, el marco de la puerta del hogar, para poner las cosas en perspectiva.

Los marcos de las puertas de madera de pie se colocarán a lo largo de un sendero al aire libre, cada uno marcado y etiquetado con la altura y los nombres de personalidades conocidas a las que admiramos o a las que aspiramos a parecernos. Algunos sorprenderán y otros inspirarán, mientras que otros nos recordarán que no importa cuál sea nuestra altura, todos podemos alcanzar las estrellas y crecer más allá de nuestra imaginación.

Este proyecto fue instalado por primera vez en la Ciudad de México, México, en octubre de 2019 en Artz Pedregal con Arte Abierto.

Illegal Art is proud to announce the arrival of “Suggestion Box”, or “Caja de Sugerencia", to Mexico City. The work is in collaboration with Arte Abierto and located at Artz Pedregal. The project is just one part of a broader Illegal Art retrospective and debut of our new project “Measure Up”.

Artz Pedregal
Periférico Sur 3720
Jardines del Pedregal, 01900
Ciudad de México

artzpedregal.mx

Suggestion Box is an 18” (45CM) cardboard cube, painted white with “SUGGESTION” stenciled in black letters on four sides. There is a small slit on the top of the box where the public can submit a suggestion. The box is carried along with clipboards, paper and pens. The public is asked to make suggestions about anything they would like. The suggestions are to be compiled and published.

The Box has been carried by volunteers through three continents, collecting suggestions from tens of thousands of people. If you are interested in bringing Suggestion Box to your neighborhood please contact us at info@illegalart.org.

In 2005, Chronicle Books published a compilation of suggestions collected in New York City titled, Suggestion.

@illegalart2001

For the project, Connect the Dots, Illegal Art asks participants to use a colored pencil or marker, all starting from the same circle, marked “Me”, and make a continuous line through a number of choices, indicated by vertically organized circles, such as age, languages spoken, political leanings, dietary preferences or whether they like beverages with ice or at room temperature. This will create a multi-colored stream of lines that will all end up in the same circle, marked “Us”.

Connect The Dots has been installed at
• The Academic College of Rishon Lizion, Israel / 2013
• Manny Cantor Center, Manhattan, NY / 2014
• Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA / 2018
• Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ / 2019

@illegalart2001

The Last Word at WAVELENGTH: Made In Illusion – Contemporary Art Experience Exhibition was held in Beijing Times Art Museum from July 7 to October 7, 2019.

Joining a cast of 24 accomplished Chinese and international artists, and curated by the talented Liya Liu — Made In Illusion explored a redefinition of substances, material and scenes of everyday life; a re-exploration of human condition and social ecology in the digital era; and a reestablishment of people’ s attitude towards new aesthetic consumerism.

The Project: The Last Word

There are always things left unsaid. The perfect ending to a conversation with a stranger. A clever comeback in a debate with a colleague at work. A farewell bid to a loved one. Missed opportunities to get in the last word. What do you wish you had said? Now is the time to say it.

“The Last Word”, a project by the public art collaborative Illegal Art, provides a private moment to recapture what was never uttered. Hundreds of tightly rolled pieces of paper, dyed red on one end and left untouched on the other are placed white-side out within the honeycomb chambers of a cardboard wall. Participants remove one of the pieces of paper, write down their “last word”, and then replace the paper with the red side exposed. The public may write their own unfinished business or read how other people’s conversations might have ended.

The Last Word was also installed at four different locations throughout the fall of 2009 in New York City. Those locations were Spring Gallery in Brooklyn, New York; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; GMHC in Manhattan, the Museum at Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan through the end of 2009, Wonderspaces in Arizona in 2019.

@illegalart2001

From the refrigerator to the computer screen, from the purse to the bedroom door, to-do lists, commands, reminders, mantras and more have graced these tiny 3×3 inch squares all over the globe.

About Wonderspaces
Wonderspaces partners with artists to deliver artwork to new audiences.  They create art shows that run for about three months and then travel to new cities.  With each show, they intend to create a place where people can connect with art and with each other.  To Do was installed at the Wonderspaces in San Diego, 2018. 

www.wonderspaces.com

@wonderspaces

About TO DO

To Do was first installed in May of 2006 on Crosby Street in New York City. Other locations include:

• DUMBO, Brooklyn / July 2007
• East Village, Manhattan / July 2007
• Clark University, Worcester, MA / 2007
• University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH / 2007

@illegalart2001

The Box has been carried by volunteers through three continents, collecting suggestions from tens of thousands of people. Now it is your turn to bring the Suggestion Box to your neighborhood. Please contact us at info@illegalart.org to see how we can get you started.

Suggestion Box is an 18” (45CM) cube cardboard box, painted white with “SUGGESTION” stenciled in black letters on four sides. There is a small slit on the top of the box where the public can submit a suggestion. The box is carried along with clipboards, paper, and pens. The public is asked to make suggestions about anything they would like. The suggestions are to be compiled and published.

In 2005, Chronicle Books published a compilation of suggestions collected in New York City titled, Suggestion.

@illegalart2001

There are always things left unsaid. The perfect ending to a conversation with a stranger. A clever comeback in a debate with a colleague at work. A farewell bid to a loved one. Missed opportunities to get in the last word. What do you wish you had said? Now is the time to say it.

“The Last Word”, a project by the public art collaborative Illegal Art, provides a private moment to recapture what was never uttered. Hundreds of tightly rolled pieces of paper, dyed red on one end and left untouched on the other are placed white-side out within the honeycomb chambers of a cardboard wall. Participants remove one of the pieces of paper, write down their “last word”, and then replace the paper with the red side exposed. The public may write their own unfinished business or read how other people’s conversations might have ended.

About Wonderspaces
Wonderspaces partners with artists to deliver artwork to new audiences.  They create art shows that run for about three months and then travel to new cities.  With each show, they intend to create a place where people can connect with art and with each other.  To Do was installed at the Wonderspaces in:
• San Diego, CA / 2017
• Phoenix, AZ / 2019

Coming to Philadelphia, PA in 2020!

www.wonderspaces.com

@wondersppaces

The Last Word was also installed at four different locations throughout the fall of 2009 in New York City. Those locations were Spring Gallery in Brooklyn, New York; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; GMHC in Manhattan and at the Museum at Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan through the end of 2009.

@illegalart2001

What Color Are You? provides individuals the opportunity to share the color that they feel represents essentially who they are. No matter where they are from or where they are going, participants will define who they are and how they want to be seen with a simple square of color of their creation.

Participants are provided a 3″ x 3″ square canvas on which they can paint one color that they feel represents who they are and pin it to a pre existing grid for both participants and passersby alike to admire the diversity of personal expression.

What Color Are You? was part of Passport, an New Yorker Promotions event sponsored by Delta Airlines, in Lower Manhattan at the Manny Cantor Center on Saturday, November 8th, 2014, The San Diego Art Fair in August, 2017 and was installed as a part of the Back to the Ballot event at Art Share LA, organized by the magazine By Way of Us in October, 2018.

@illegalart2001

On Saturday, September 10, 2011, Illegal Art commemorated the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with Morning Sky. Passersby were asked to paint a 6″ square with the color they believe to be the sky to have been on the morning of 9/11. The project was part of, Rethinking Memorial: Ten Interactive Sites for Remembering 9/11, co-curated by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) and Illegal Art, with support from The Dumbo Improvement District and Two Trees Management Company.

Since then, Morning Sky has been installed numerous times and in 2013 at the 14th Street Y in Lower Manhattan.

@illegalart2001

We want your New York moments!

Help us to create our new project! We want your most memorable, NYC moments and the street where they happened. Keep it short and keep it simple. Please email us your moments here with the subject line “Moments”. We will use the exact quote, location and your first name only.

Please forward or share our request to help us spread the word. And make sure to stay tuned for the debut of the project. Thank you for your support and participation.

God was the first project of Illegal Art.

God is a 27” X 36” (70CM X 92 CM) poster that features the word “God” with a comma and a background reminiscent of school children’s writing paper. The piece is posted in public spaces. This open format encourages the public to finish the sentence; it is their own interpretation and response to this provocative word.

As of October, 2004, GOD was posted in both Rock Hill, South Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina. We are very excited with our projects being posted in these new locations. Please view the photos documenting the placement and interaction of the posters. A special thank you to J. Lauren Jackson and her associates for making this possible.

Clark University, 2007
The Carolinas, October, 2004
The Originals, Summer, 2001

Personal Space is a yellow non-adhesive barrier tape normally used at crime scenes and areas of construction. Instead of “CAUTION” or “DO NOT CROSS” it is printed “PERSONAL SPACE”. The tape is installed in areas where pedestrians can use and interpret the designated personal space any way they see to fit their needs: to take space, have a private moment with others, contemplate their lack of space in their office, home, community, city, or life or laugh and many other ways as well.

@illegalart2001

During the Obama administration, Illegal Art participated as an exhibitor at South by South Lawn: A White House Festival of Ideas, Art, and Action on October 3, 2016 in coordination with the American Film Institute (AFI), National Parks Foundation, President's Committee on Arts and Humanities (PCAH), and South by Southwest®.

South by South Lawn, an event inspired by South by Southwest, brought together creators, innovators, and organizers who work day in and day out to improve the lives of their fellow Americans and people around the world. It was a call to arms for every American to roll up their sleeves and make a positive mark on our country - and a celebration of the great work that we have already accomplished together.

About To Do: From the refrigerator to the computer screen, from the purse to the bedroom door, to-do lists, commands, reminders, mantras and more have graced these tiny 3×3 inch squares all over the globe.

South by South Lawn: Festival of Ideas

On September 9, 2006 Illegal Art was chosen to participate in the Deitch Project’s Art Parade sponsored by Creative Time and Paper Magazine. A group of 18 dancers, dressed in black and each flanked by two large hand-held mirrors, created what we called The Reflective Serpent. The troupe moved together down West Broadway like a snake, meandering back and forth, from one side of the street to the other, folding back upon itself and straightening again to the beat of our composer Bruce Mack.

As The Reflective Serpent moved past the bystanders of the parade, the reflection in the mirrors created an expanded vista of the surrounding environment, exposed viewers own voyeuristic activities as well as that of others, and showed the hidden space between the mirrors as the snake folded back upon itself. From a distance, it looked like a moving sculpture of shimmering light, while up close, the mirrors satisfied the viewer’s desire to watch themselves and continuously changed what they were looking at.

Negative, positive, macro and micro, The Serpent invited and embraced those watching the parade from the sidelines by capturing their image and the reflections of the buildings, trees and sky surrounding them. Twisting, turning, shimmering and distorting The Serpent moved its way down the street as onlookers were treated to snapshot moments within an ever changing sculpture.

This project could not have been possible with the help of many individuals. Thank you to Cynthia Svigals and Peter Sciscioli for their movement consultation, Bruce Mack for composing the music and  Natasha Chetiyawardana for documenting the event.

We also want to thank the dancers, for without them, it would have impossible: Jenn Ward, Pia Richter, J’aime Cohen, Robby Fitzpatrick, Carlin Greenstein, Sarah Huck, Oona Ratcliffe, Bailey Anderson, Becka Pollack, Lindsey Brown, Jody Shipley, and Ferderico Bortoletto.

@illegalart2001

Taking the cue from the childhood guessing game of “I spy with my little eye”, this project encourages the public to seek out and discover things in their neighborhoods that they have never seen or truly took notice of before. Local residents, new or old, or the visitor is given the opportunity to look and share what they have spied by filling out posted stickers throughout the neighborhood.

@illegalart2001

Lost & Found was an internet/voice mail project created in 2008 to encourage the public to listen to one another. When the public  called 1 877 565 5678 (LOST) they had the option of leaving a message about a lost item, a found item, or to listening to those messages left by others. All of these messages were uploaded to a website, www.lostandfoundroom.com. Similar to the lost pet pleas for help that cover telephone poles and bulletin boards, “Lost” & “Found” posters were placed in public spaces with the phone number printed on small, pre-cut pieces at the bottom for passersby to take. Sadly, all of our recordings were, no pun intended, lost and cannot be found. We have one example of the project for your listening enjoyment here.

This project will be recreated in the winter of 2019/2020.

On Friday, September 9th in New York City, Illegal Art installed The Shadow to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Starting at the corner of 5th Avenue and 14th Street and heading north for 1,368 feet (417 meters), the height of the tallest of the two towers, we marked in chalk each of the 110 floors of the tallest of the two towers ending just shy of 20th Street.

At the base of each floor we provided a cups filled with pieces of chalk whose total represented the number of people who perished in and around the two towers that day. Passersby were encouraged to walk the length of the height of the buildings and use the chalk to write words of memorial associated with that day. The project remained until the chalk faded away.

@illegalart2001

From the refrigerator to the computer screen, from the purse to the bedroom door, to-do lists, commands, reminders, mantras and more have graced these tiny 3×3 inch squares all over the globe.

Installed for one week, July 2017, in DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY.

@illegalart2001

Illegal Art attempted to move from one designated point to another using the public’s written word as a path to travel. Passersby are asked to write a word or phrase with chalk on the asphalt connected to the one proceeding. Upon reaching our destination, we leave a completed urban poem behind us for the public to read. This was first attempted on October 11th, 2003, in Central Park in New York City. After one hour, and approximately 100 participants, we traveled a 1/4 of a mile through the park, ending at the steps near Bethesda Fountain, our final destination. New destinations will be chosen soon.

Poem Across The City was also installed at Bryant Park as a part of the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas in 2004 in New York City and at University of New Hampshire in Durham in 2006.

@illegalart2001

In addition to working in public, Illegal Art has installed our projects in both suburban and urban campuses. We have found this to be an exciting and inspirational environment. As a part of our installations, we have lectured, visited classes and collaborated with different student and faculty groups, involving them with our work. If you are interested in having Illegal Art visit your campus, please email us at info@illegalart.org.

@illegalart2001

On Saturday, September 10, 2011, Illegal Art commemorated the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with Indelible Memory. Passersby were asked to dip two fingers into a pot of grey indelible ink to represent the twin towers and to reflect on the location and impact of the event over the number of days it takes for the ink to fade from their fingers. The project was part of, Rethinking Memorial: Ten Interactive Sites for Remembering 9/11, co-presented by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC), The Dumbo Improvement District and Illegal Art, with support from Two Trees Management Company.

@illegalart2001

For the Month of May, 2006, Illegal Art created In Complete, an unfinished sentence painted onto the window display of The Apartment at 101 Crosby Street in Manhattan.

The sentence, written as:

I ___________________because____________ makes

me_____________and_______________.

was meant to encourage the passerby to finish the sentence, add on to what other’s had written, or erase it and start over. Some people emoted, some wrote sadness and others used it as a means to express daily frustrations or fantasies. And of course, bucket of colorful chalk and sponge were provided.

This project was also installed at the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation Annual Conference in 2007 in San Francisco.

@illegalart2001

From the refrigerator to the computer screen, from the purse to the bedroom door, to-do lists, commands, reminders, mantras and more have graced these tiny 3×3 inch squares all over the globe.

Installed for one week, July 2007, in the East Village of Lower Manhattan, NY

From the days of Junior High where holding hands constituted a romantic affiliation to the complications of adulthood affairs, the ending of a relationship can be both trying and freeing at once. Divorce, separation, one night stands, three months to twenty years. If it ended, whether it was good or bad, it always stays in our head and sometimes, heart.

As an honor to your past, and theirs, write down the name of someone you broke up with or who broke up with you. First name. Last name. Or both. Think of it as the “Wailing Wall of Relationships”. The names of the participants of the collective broken relationships of the neighborhood, the city and world.

The first installation of The Break-Up Wall was in the store front window of the boutique, Kaight, at 83 Orchard Street between Broome Street and Grand Street in The Lower East Side of Manhattan from Monday, May 25th and until Sunday, May 31st, 2009.

Translated into 5 different languages (English, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian), to reflect the diversity of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the beginning of second paragraph of The Declaration of Independence, one of the most well known and quoted parts of the document, was printed for all to resign and claim their state in the United States of America.

The directions on the piece was:

We are all the true signers of the Declaration of Independence.  We, who continue to create these United States of America each and everyday, the nation in which we call home. We the people.  Please make your mark and sign below.  

We The People was installed twice in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in February and May, 2017, at the Manny Cantor Center and the Educational Alliance.

Set in an open and all white gallery, “Gallery Walk” broke with convention and brought the viewer into the picture. Rather than offering the curious novice or the seasoned viewer yet another passive stroll around the perimeter of a room filled with preordained works by known and emerging artists, “Gallery Walk” asked the viewer to leave more than their name in the guest book. Entrants were directed to grab a pencil and draw a continuous line around the gallery. Each line, individual in height, weight and thickness will add to a collaborative piece of art to be signed by all that left their mark.

Illegal Art hosts a number of events for the public to participate. and create their own posters which we then put up together in public. Each participant also leaves with a complete set of everyone’s work to take home.

No matter what image is on the front, a trailer park, a mountain top, a beach, a castle or a museum, the postcard is the ubiquitous method of sharing time and place with others, and a “wish you were here” theme. Now it’s time for you to reminisce and reflect upon where you are now and where you may be in the future.

Remove a postcard from any of the envelopes stamped “TO”. Address it to yourself. Share this moment, hopes for the next months and anything else you’d like your future self to know. Return the card to the envelope and seal it. It will be stamped, “ME”. You will be sent the postcard in approximately six months, as a memorial to your past self and in honor of you in the future.

This project was first installed at the 2013 SXSW Festival.