In a move that many have found audacious, 5 Pointz developers G&M Realty have attempted to trademark the graffiti mecca's name. The street art community, however, is making their voices heard with a petition against this action on MoveOn.org.
The petition, which has already drummed up over 2,000 signatures, states that graffiti artist Meres One, the former curator at 5 Pointz, named the space and subsequently turned it into a cultural hub back in 2002. This week, Jerry Wolkoff, the owner of the 5 Pointz property, told DNA Info that he and Meres collaborated on the name.
Wolkoff applied to have the site trademarked this spring, and although his application was initially turned down because of another trademark, he still has six months to respond or appeal. Wolkoff is erecting two high-rise apartment buildings in the graffiti mecca's former home, and he plans to include walls for street artists in the new development. "It’s the building that was 5 Pointz, and the artists are coming back," he told DNA Info. "It will be the same, bigger and better than it was before."
With so many signatures on the petition already, it's clear that the street art community thinks otherwise. "To us, it's like adding insult to injury," Marie Cecile Flageul, a representative for 5 Pointz artists and the woman behind the petition, told DNA Info. "Even though we're no longer at the Long Island City location, 5Pointz as an organization and a cluster of artists is still alive."
When we spoke to 5 Pointz artists back in September, many expressed how they still define themselves as a group with the graffiti mecca's name. Just because the building is gone, they said, doesn't mean 5 Pointz is finished. In addition, Meres explained that the name "5 Pointz" stands for the convergence of five boroughs. With so much animosity towards his project from all corners of New York, Wolkoff's new apartment buildings stand in complete opposition to 5 Pointz's original meaning. Even if he includes new walls for murals, it's clear that his development will never embody what 5 Pointz was able to, at least for the people that gave the graffiti mecca life.
[via DNAInfo]
