The Olympic Restaurant on Delancey and Essex has been on a month-to-month lease for awhile, but now it seems certain that it will be demolished in the next few months and one of the best pieces put up (legally) by Parisian artist Invader is likely to get destroyed along with it. UPDATE: Invader’s spokesperson reached out to ANIMAL and said the street artist would rather the work be annihilated, so don’t steal it, let it die.
He installed “Snow White” during his brief visit to NYC last year, that included a collaboration with COST and ENX. While in town, ANIMAL asked Invader what he thought about people removing his work. He said:
If it is because he doesn’t like it, that’s ok. If it’s to sell it on eBay or to put it in his living room, that doesn’t make me happy. Street pieces are made for the street and for the people in the street to enjoy them.
Since his art is headed for an inevitable death, we can’t see him getting angry about someone taking ownership of it, assuming that person doesn’t destroy it in the process. Out of all the work that street artists put out in the public, Invader’s is one of the hardest to remove. He glues up the 8-bit style tiles with a special epoxy that makes it very difficult to dislodge from the surface it was applied it. Perhaps someone should would be better off just cutting out a whole chunk of the wall as if they were ousting a Banksy.
The diner, Jade Fountain liquor store, Essex Market, some other businesses and housing will be razed to make room for the mega-development Essex Crossing, which will feature glass-walled condos, “a continuous three-block shopping experience,” and a Warhol museum.
(Photo: Bucky Turco/ANIMALNewYork)
