Ralph Francis Kershaw2nd Ave between E 114th St and E 115th StHeart Four · Location 450 · Drawn July 2004Download photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Download photograph 8Download photograph 9Download photograph 10Download photograph 11Download photograph 12Download photograph 13Download photograph 14Download photograph 15Show all 15 photographsVideo podcast0:00Off of 2nd Avenue, in the middle of the apartment complex, east of East 115th and 113th,0:07it's a series of weathered, beautifully rusted metal dumpsters on rollers.0:13To find them, you'll have to venture behind the building facing onto 2nd Avenue.0:18It's easy enough. There's a road and a wide sidewalk penetrating into the block.0:22You'll see the basketball courts up on the right. Look to the north, and you'll see a garage with0:27three retractable metal gates and across from them a collection of metallic dumpsters that0:33changes in numbers from time to time. The drawing is made on the side of one of these0:37dumpsters. This is Ralph Francis Kershaw. He was drawn in July of 2004. His drawing is0:46counting one person. Is there a drawing made back here? That dumpster right there inside0:53of that, inside of this chamberlain fence. That dumpster is the last of a collection0:57of dumpsters. Beautiful little white, just banged up, 2347 AD futuristic Mars dumpsters.1:09There used to be a collection of about a dozen of them floating around, boxing each other1:16route for prime compositional position and the drawing was done on the side of one of1:22those.1:24Illustrations of the beauty in Decay these dumpsters stand as a really prime example.1:31So it's just like wonderful oranges with streaks and lines and a dynamic attitude.1:37It's to us remarkable.1:39I really like this giant aquamarine turquoise water tank.1:42It wasn't here, we were here almost three weeks ago and this gigantic structure and1:48all this chain link fence was not here a few weeks ago.1:50Just from three weeks ago we passed through about five or seven sites that have had major1:56changes.1:58You get the sense that this happened in a day.2:02This particular change, this change which changes its entire space, its access and makes2:08it faintly recognizable to us from years ago, or maybe even weeks ago, happens in a day.2:14If you were going to draw here today, we've lost access to those dumpsters. Standing right2:19here, what surfaces do you see that just call out for it?2:21To me it's this metal corrugated fence back here.2:24Yeah, that's a good one. It'd be a nice, the corrugated fence has a two foot high horizontal2:31car bumper blocking the bottom, but it might make for a really nice drawing with the mystery2:36of the hidden legs behind it.2:38Or are you thinking this wall right here,2:39this brick wall adjacent to the garage?2:42The brick wall is pretty good,2:43but the words no parking are so dominant2:46that inevitably your drawing would be overwhelmed2:50by that lettering.2:52I'm interested in just right down the alley,2:54not too far from the original drawing,2:55there's a mixture of corrugated cardboard2:58and wooden pallets,3:00and I think that to draw a figure using both surfaces3:03might be a little awkward close up, but to stand back from it this distance, those two3:09surfaces could be integrated into a single drawing. And [unclear] to...3:13And photographed really nicely.3:14Photographed really nicely, cut out really nicely, and you might even be able to play3:18with the different textures of, say, a top and a bottom, some shirts and some shorts.3:23So thinking about how you can play off textures from one another really dominated how we thought3:30about the spaces we were picking as we proceeded with the project. Also there's some really beautiful3:36rusted corrugated steel metal that is attractive. I mean there's like there's lots of beautiful3:41little spots. The lighting's good over there right now too. Yeah.3:49After he married his high school sweetheart 30 years ago, Ralph Francis Kershaw built a two-story3:56colonial house at Manchester by the sea, a town 30 miles north of Boston. In the years after,4:03as the kids were born, he kept adding rooms to the original house, a playroom, a bedroom,4:09a study. The family still lives there. He made a great, great salsa, said Mrs. Kirishaw.← Location 449Heart Four · Location 450Location 451 →
