Gerald F HardacreE 121st St between Madison Ave and Park AveHeart Four · Location 434 · Drawn July 2004Download photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Download photograph 8Download photograph 9Download photograph 10Download photograph 11Video podcast0:00On the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 121st Street is a building labeled Public School 79.0:10You'll see these raised black metal letters on the side of the building facing under 121st.0:16It's over three identical chrome metal doors with identical handles and locking systems.0:23To the right of those doors is a peach-colored brick wall with lots of interesting textures,0:30a dripping metal sign above it as of spring 2006, some signs taped onto it, and crackling paint.0:37Our drawing was done on this surface.0:40This is Gerald F. Hartiger.0:43He was drawn in July of 2004.0:46His drawing is counting one person.0:50So this is the second crest of the heart moving back down towards the base.0:56And the drawing was made right there.0:58Public school 79, some lovely metal doors. They're passing at the moment.1:02So you mentioned a minute ago that you wanted to talk about the name of the project, which I believe is the Hope Project.1:07There seems like an existential dilemma we need to talk about.1:13Here's the evolution of the name.1:16I think this is why a lot of people end up calling things untitled, because the work1:20is a work and it ends there.1:23However, there is a necessity really to apply a name to this body of effort.1:31It was called the New York City Project for years as just a way of being able to talk1:36about it.1:38It's better than a symbol or a hand gesture.1:40The project formerly known as Hope.1:43project for it. So we called it the New York City Project and they reached a1:47critical part where like you know what that doesn't really make any sense as a1:51name for [unclear] this type of activity and [unclear] our specific efforts [unclear] making1:59in the city so Jay and I started going into a several day spiral of just2:06suggesting names and somewhere out there there's a list of all the bad names.2:13just the names but the spellings of the names and the capitalizations of variants you know had all2:20been considered do you remember any of them a lot of it focused around the original shorthand for2:27the project that mike had began using right as the project began which was simply the new york city2:32project in our file structure which is nycp nycp nycp so we were playing with that and how it2:41related to like NYFD and NYPD. We started just sort of toying around with trying to maybe make2:48some sort of mutual connection there, but finally abandoned it, realizing that that's just playing2:54around with acronyms and not really saying anything. So we finally called a man named Jack3:02Becker in Minneapolis. He's the editor for Forecast Magazine. It's a public art magazine. He's a3:08friend and acquaintance for years and we caught him at the end of his work day3:12we're like you know Jack we're wondering if you have any suggestions and we were3:15told that we shouldn't just call him like that out of the blue he's like3:19what's your project about just name it whatever it's about like okay okay3:23thanks thanks I about taking up your time and was he mad that you called him3:27like I need to think about it or like why did you call me with those annoying3:30calls if you call someone and you you're sort of like praying that they had the3:35the answer for you and we're just kind of hoping he'd be like well you know it's important to use3:40this this type of frame of thinking and maybe he thought about calling it this and yeah around the3:46same time we were having conversations with one another sitting in the winter palace talking about3:53how were it not for providence rhode island we wouldn't be able to do the project simply4:00Probably because of finance, the project had such a low budget that New York City rent4:06would have put it six feet under.4:09So Providence and its role in the project was on our minds in and around the same time4:16this discussion of the project was going on.4:18So I can't recall exactly when Mike threw it out there, but it just clicked when he4:26said, why don't we just call it the whole project?4:30This is how his family remembers him.4:32As a man who could make you laugh until you cried, a man who loved to fish and to play4:37golf and who could, in moments of stress and sadness, lift the spirits of others.4:42The son of a Navy man, Hardikert spent his early childhood traveling the world before4:48the family settled in San Diego.← Location 433Heart Four · Location 434Location 435 →
