2015
Site-specific project commissioned by No Longer Empty for the exhibition When You Cut into the Present the Future Leaks Out. Curated by Regine Basha
The Old Bronx Borough Courthouse in the Melrose section of the South Bronx is next door to the infamous 42nd Police Precinct where the controversial movie Fort Apache in the Bronx was filmed in 1981. Fort Apache was portrayed, not as a police station, but as a fort in hostile territory, where the police are given free rein because they are supposedly dealing with savages. Paul Newman played the leading role of Police Officer Murphy, while other ethnic and social stereotypes presented life in the South Bronx as the decline and fall of civilization.
In this piece, a black curtain covered a fresco painting - an image of Paul Newman painted from a still from Fort Apache in the Bronx. The fresco could only be seen during a three-minute unveiling ceremony, which was performed upon request by viewers. The docents who did the unveiling, opened and closed the curtain within three minutes, while the mournful trumpet played Fort Apache Tender from a boom box, a composition for solo trumpet, written and recorded by Steven Bernstein.
Materials & Actions: Fresco painting on courthouse wall, square black curtain, wall clock, Fort Apache Tender – a solo trumpet piece composed and performed by Steven Bernstein, recorded and mixed by Greg Talenfeld at OK Records Studio, Nyack, NY.
Location: The Old Bronx Borough Courthouse, East 161st Street, Bronx, New York, NY.