— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Mona Caron's brilliant futurist utility box, which was reported destroyed on Friday by Mission Mission, has been found in captivity in an “anonymous-looking” MTA building in the northeast corner of the Mission. The reason? Graffiti. This utility box was graffiti.
Thanks for cleaning up the streets, Muni!
UPDATE: Paul Rose of SFMTA writes in:
The controller box was replaced after the completion of the Church & Duboce Rail Replacement project, as part of a system-wide upgrade of various electrical sectionalized switches and associated controller boxes. The urgency of replacing the switches was made apparent after the nine day shutdown at Church and Duboce, when one of the switches failed shortly after it was re-energized. To upgrade the switch at Church & Duboce, the associated painted box also had to be replaced. We are working to have the box re-painted by the artist. We anticipate this process will be complete within the next 3 months.
[via Hugh D'Andrade]
Comments (8)
Well, in MTA’s defense, it was not removed *because* they thought it was graffiti. The box had to be replaced because of routine issues, nothing to do with the artwork. It seems the bureaucracy there has left hands and right hands, and neither knows that the other is ruining.
But it was commissioned by the SFMTA!
The controller box was replaced after the completion of the Church & Duboce Rail Replacement project, as part of a system-wide upgrade of various electrical sectionalized switches and associated controller boxes. The urgency of replacing the switches was made apparent after the nine day shutdown at Church and Duboce, when one of the switches failed shortly after it was re-energized. To upgrade the switch at Church & Duboce, the associated painted box also had to be replaced. We are working to have the box re-painted by the artist. We anticipate this process will be complete within the next 3 months.
Paul Rose
SFMTA
Thanks for being a stand-up guy and replying directly, Mr. Rose. Looking forward to seeing the painting redone.
If the original box is destined for the scrap heap, it would be nice if the artist could get it back and auction it off or do whatever she pleases with it–can she?
Mona Caron has just added a comment to her Facebook post that explains what happened and why there shouldn’t be all that much blame going around. If there are plans to have the artist paint the new box, someone from the MTA should let her know.
https://www.facebook.com/mona.caron/posts/10201818974297386?comment_id=6…
For any and everyone who was concerned about or somehow interested in the removal of Mona Caron’s muralized utility box on Duboce and Church, there is a happy ending to the saga. The good news is that Alemany Farm will be able to make good use of it in the new Alemany Outdoor Kitchen!
http://sfurbanwanderer.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/mona-carons-manifestatio…
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time
a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Cheers!
Its like yoou read mmy mind! You appear to kniw a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it
or something. I think that you could do with some pics tto drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is excellent blog.
An excellent read. I will certainly be back.