Art in Tribeca: Clet Abraham on Worth Street

December 12, 2024 Arts & Culture

This started with a Nosy Neighbor question from S., who wrote to say that after months of complaining that the stop sign at the corner of Worth and Hudson was obscured by trees, the city Department of Transportation had cleared the branches. And they went one step further: added a “stop ahead” sign a few feet down the block.

But this was not like any other stop-ahead sign: it was a toothy open-mouthed monster. I google lensed the image, and not much came up. The DOT was not pleased — they could tell that their original sign had been stickered and that they would “address this issue.” But I really hope they don’t.

A former student of mine was reading the TC and sent a note: could this be the work of street artist Clet Abraham? I found Abraham on Instagram and sure enough, he took credit. And he sent images of other work he recently “installed” in the city.

One is more clever than the next.

Abraham is British and French, born in 1966, and has lived in Florence since 2005. He started his practice of turning street signs into visual puns in Florence in 2010, eventually leaving his mark in Paris, Rome, London, Berlin, Bruxelles, Milan, Florence, Barcelona and now, New York City.

“I was in New York in October,” he told me in DMs. “I hope the department will hire me to improve their sign.”

Me too!

 

 

 

1 Comment

  1. Name
    December 16, 2024 • 3:28 pm

    Some street art is cool. Some of this stuff looks cool, but here’s the side effect that it has: it lessens the message of the street signs. Though many NYC drivers ignore many street signs, they’ll likely be further ignored when there are “cute” modifications to these SAFETY signs. Key word: SAFETY. There’s a LOT that goes into designing a street sign in the simplicity of what it looks like which is balanced with the message that it communicates with the intention to reach a wide range of education, intellect, and cultures. I would not encourage this street art and rather prefer its absence. P.S. this artist is not a local. This is even less of a reason to tolerate this. This guy came from Florence, or wherever he currently lives OVERSEAS, and he’s in effect damaging safety aids. Net result: NOT COOL.

    Reply

Comment: