Last summer, as tensions rose over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, store owners in New York boarded up their businesses in anticipation of rioting or looting.
Now, weeks after former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd s murder, a a group of artists have taken the wooden planks used to board up those shops and transformed them into outdoor art.
The artists were chosen from among 200 entrants to participate in the Plywood Protection Project, using some 200 pieces of plywood sourced from local stores.
Their sculptures address a variety of issues, from Black Lives Matter to the return of public performance in the wake of COVID-19.
A detail of In Honor of Black Lives Matter by KaNSiteCurators and Caroline Mardok, installed in Poe Park, The Bronx
When Black Lives Matter protests swept across New York City in June last year, businesses across the city shuttered their storefronts with plywood to brace for the civil unrest. The city “felt apocalyptic”, says Neil Hamamoto, the founder of Worthless Studios, a non-profit arts organisation that is repurposing the leftover plywood into art installations that aim to reinvent the defensive material as a source for creative inspiration.
The Plywood Protection Project features works by five artists across the five boroughs who each used around 40 plywood boards sourced from local businesses. The initiative “extends this material’s life”, but also complements “New Yorker’s increased desire to engage with outdoor, public spaces”, Hamamoto says.
How plywood from last year s protests became art chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.