Our Lady of Gentrification

New installation by Wild Life in Downtown Los Angeles.

The place card next to it reads:

“Once upon a time, an artist with desperate thoughts was walking down Broadway between 5th & 6th Streets when he glimpsed her through a dirty window of a business that was shuttering it’s doors. As their eyes met, the man saw visions of artists of past history working in the salons of Paris and Vienna and the mannequins they used as their subjects and often a source of inspiration. Immediately, the darkness that weighed heavy on his heart and mind lifted as he recognized the pure intention of the frozen figure. He saw through her eyes the decades she spent staring out at the sea of humanity, their dreams, their desires, and the inevitable tsunami of change that was to crash on the shores of Broadway and wash away those same hopes and dreams. The artist witnessed impossible tears emerge from her eyes and flow down her fiberglass cheeks as he felt her heart breaking. The sign in the window read “EVERYTHING MUST GO!” and the artist wondered if she would have to go as well. At that moment, in his mind, she had become a Saint. She was, is, and will always be Our Lady Of Gentrification.”

Our Lady of Gentrification, 2015