BUS STOP
John Hawke BUS STOP
assembly

Modular components of structure assembled onsite and moved into position at a bus stop no longer in use.

John Hawke BUS STOP
Text affixed to structure
2005

Document created to sow confusion over the legality of the structure's presence. Composed from the NYC anti-dumping law with extensive word substitution.
John Hawke BUS STOP
initial reception

Within the hour, members of the public are using the structure.
John Hawke BUS STOP
usage

The structure has two benches facing each other, one of which is lower (for children); this arrangement allows for socializing rather than enforced anonymity.
John Hawke BUS STOP
view

View from inside of structure to check for approaching bus.
John Hawke BUS STOP
night

The intervention takes on different characteristics at different hours of the day.
John Hawke BUS STOP
movement

The structure was fixed only by its semiotic authority and not through bolts, and so could be moved to and fro. (on one occasion it was moved across the street-- perhaps by the nearby landlord who saw it as a nuisance.) Here some persons moved the structure perpendicular to the sidewalk, creating a kind of antechamber-- a threatening prospect at night. The artists repostioned the structure to its original location.
John Hawke BUS STOP
graffiti

The structure was "naturalized" into the environment by graffiti tags. A group of teens claimed the structure, writing "OUR HUT" on the pictured wood beam. The artists attached two portfolio pages under plexiglas of previous orange works projects but this was all removed the second day by unknown persons.
John Hawke BUS STOP video still from "Bus Stop"
maintenance
video still from "Bus Stop"
(viewable under video tab at left)

Maintenance as another signifier of ownership. The artists shoveled the snow and salted the sidewalk around the structure, strengthening their space claims.
John Hawke BUS STOP
decadent

After two and a half months of unauthorized occupation of the site, and periodic repair and maintenance by the artists, the interventions structural integrity begins to become compromised. The artists decide to disassemble the structure. Later it is repurposed as a video display kiosk at exhibitions of the orange work project with the "Bus Stop" video playing inside (Susquehanna Museum of Art, PA; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn).
John Hawke BUS STOP
Daily Event Log
(click to enlarge)