LOCAL MURAL PROJECT STRUGGLES TO CARRY MEANING FOR LOCALS

LOCAL MURAL PROJECT STRUGGLES TO CARRY MEANING FOR LOCALS

Two pairs of beady eyes prey upon the pedestrian traffic of 157th Street. Their gaze set intensely on the passerby, a fiery, orange Blackburnian and a striking Yellow-throated warbler on canvas are perched over the pooling exit of the 1 train. 

Along the bustling streets of Washington Heights, the bachata music serenading wanderers and the scent of spiced meats in the heat  aren’t the only things to look out for. In the Heights, along the many cracks and crevices of Broadway, murals of colorful birds are tactfully positioned on building walls and steel shutters. 

These murals are a part of the Audubon Mural Project. Began as a  collaboration between the National Audubon Society and the Gitler & ___ Gallery, the project was inspired by artist and ornithologist John James Audubon and the legacy of conservation he left behind, particularly his report “Survival By Degrees.” The report outlines the threat of extinction of over half of North American bird species due to climate change. 

“When the project began, the idea was just to paint some birds in honor of Audubon,.” said Avi Gitler, owner of Gitler & ____ Galleries. It was to create images that were more than paint molecules on a wall… even if they don’t know what the intention is, let it enter their brain and let it percolate. There are multiple intentions, but that gives you a basic sense of what the project was.”

While the Audubon Mural Project set out to pay homage to Audubon’s neighborhood by highlighting endangered birds as a symbol for climate change awareness, the locals struggled to understand the message of the art and how it connected to the community. 

Local nurse Taina Acosta, 26 said she found the murals alienating.

 “I say it’s nice to have something different. But, they’re putting up weird murals,” she said, “A mural that has nothing to do with the community... It has no meaning to us. But it’s pretty.” 

On the other hand, when asked about the symbolism in his work, Brooklyn-based artist George Boorujy, who illustrated three out of the 117 murals, said he wanted to make a connection between the people who live in the neighborhood, the birds native to the area and the art. 

“I wanted to make the connection with the migration patterns of people. Birds don’t see borders and these birds have to come up here for their livelihood,” he said. “ And with human migration -- we have to be able to move. They’ll welcome a bird migrant , but then they won't welcome human migrants. Those parallels are so stark.” 

Boorujy added: “Not all little brown birds are the same. And this wouldn’t be the first time that a nation considered all lesser brown things the same.” 

While the metaphor for Boorujy is clear, the locals criticized the intentions and meaning behind the beautification project. 

“I’ve lived here my whole life. I feel like it's not meant for anybody in the neighborhood. It’s something beautiful to look at, but it’s nothing else,” said local Washington Heights resident 23-year-old Anarlyn Nunez. “The community feels indifferent. I feel like this is when the spirit of gentrification starts to set in. When the art around stops being about the local communities”

Muralist Layqa Nuna Yawar, who himself painted a mural of a Swallow tailed kite for the project, said there was a danger to  beautifying a neighborhood, “If not done properly, taken care of, or followed up, it just becomes beautiful hats or gentrifying magnets,” he said. “But, if done well in collaboration with a community they become educational tools instead of just beautiful works of art.” 

Boorujy does not believe it’s a gateway to gentrification, however. 

“Are you never supposed to do something that actually might make a neighborhood beautiful because you’re afraid that you’re going to gentrify it?” 

In the same spirit, Gitler said, “The idea of not wanting to create amenities or interest that would appeal to anybody but the people who live in the neighborhood— I think that is deleterious, I think that is problematic…”