I was reading an old article from the NY Times about an artist who gives away his art, secretly … and it was both fascinating and thought-provoking. The artist, Fred Cray, has hidden over 32,000 works of his art throughout New York City over the past 12 years. He has a totally different approach than the street artists who might wheat-paste works or slap stickers on buildings or lamp posts throughout the city – he actually hides his art work in places where it can be discovered and taken home. For example, he might leave an art work on the flat bed of a photocopier at Staples; tuck one into a book at a bookstore; insert a piece into a pile of take-out menus at a restaurant. He does have a stamp with his name and an assigned number for each creation on the back, but no other information for the person who happens upon one. I would love to share some of his images here, but due to copyright issues, I have included a link to his website above and a link to his Instagram here. With that said, I should also note that the images here in this post are my own and are meant to illustrate the ideas given below.
So, I find this fascinating on several levels: one, the cat-and-mouse game of trying to hide the art where people can find it. Cray was once caught leaving art behind at the Guggenheim, and they said “you can’t do that,” and he said “why not?” Think about it – “accidentally” dropping some art somewhere in a museum isn’t any more of a crime than someone who accidentally leaves behind some sunglasses or some other personal item. Two: it feels like the “Flat Stanley Project,” where a kid mails off a Flat Stanley to someone else, and the recipient takes a photo of the received Flat Stanley in their various locations to show how Flat Stanley can travel the world. Cray occasionally hears from people who have found his art works and these messages have come from around the world as well. And fascination point number three is this: for a guy (me) who has been making art for 35+ years, I have so much of it around that never sees the light of day, it might be nice to “release” some out into the world and see what happens.
Just for fun, I’ve created a virtual (for now) drop of some art in a furniture store in Elizabeth, NJ, a photograph I took while looking around and appreciating all of the cheesy and garish objects they had in there. Doesn’t that pulled-back bed cover look like a great place to discreetly slide in some McKinney art?