I've lived in the Hell's Kitchen area for perhaps more years that I care to account for...I've seen it when it was a shell of an area, filled with theaters and whorehouses and where the only thing on the shelves in a bodega was cat liter and coffee grounds. Where huge semi-vacant buildings in the center of Times Square held 2 small 12 paneled food bars in the center of what could have held a cruise ship. why? because they could, but mainly because no one wanted that space. And I remember when the mold and musty smells on 42nd street seeped out of rundown buildings like gas from an old mans ass or the pores of a friday night drunk during a Saturday morning workout...
Let's just say, the area of Times Square has changed in the last 15 years...so when I read what they were doing, I have to say I was excited. Basically, for the month of May at 11:57pm, and for only 3 minutes, the Times Square Alliance re-appropriated billboards throughout Times Square with Andy Warhol's 1960's Screen Tests. It was a wonderful contrast, and I ended up going a few times during that month and took some pictures, below are a few from those evenings.
As a side..... I went to a Dean Wareham & Britta concert over at NYU a couple of years ago where they played their album underneath a huge projection of these same Andy Warhol's screen tests along with some others. It's definitely worth a listen. The album title is...
13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests
dreamy. hypnotic.
dennis hopper.
Looks like they are doing it again this month with another artist with a show called Gopi Contagion..Not that anyone is asking but it might also be nice to see some Barbara Kruger...
