Monthly Statement:
August 2006
A little late, but as you can see, a lot has happened. In August, I collected a great deal of posters, as many as 150 lbs of posters from 125th St and Lennox Avenue alone. I sorted most of them in preparation for another 8' x 8' collage in which I will use the poster of Abraham Lincoln on the 1 cent coin and a vintage poster of Martin Luther King that I found in a dumpster on the Lower East Side, along with the posters from 125th St. I read an article in the New York Times that said that the area where my studio is located in (Harlem 133rd and Fredrick Douglas Blvd.) is considered the most dangerous neighborhood in the 5 boroughs. I was a bit skeptical until there were two murders within a block in either direction of my front door on the same side of the street as my studio. Included this month along with the pictures of all the posters that I've collected and saved in the studio are pictures of the crowd that appeared to gawk at the macabre spectacle. I heard about 8 shots and waited in the studio until the police truck pulled up on the sidewalk in front. The people in general are very friendly, but the gang presence creates more trouble than anything else. I think it's mostly bloods due to the fact that I see a majority of red bandannas among the more hardened denizens. In conclusion, I'll have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the process and documentation and exhibition on line of this project. I'm sure that I will continue to document my work very similarly and am looking forward to the 2nd exhibition of the accumulation project and seeing in the flesh so to speak, the other artists' accumulations.

Have fun,
Michael Anderson
http://www.chamuconegro.com

Process: I will gather advertising posters from public spaces (as many of a specific kind as possible) and create collages from them.