Moon Guardians

Multi-media installation artist Ofri Cnaani presented a series of site-specific video projections around Gansevoort Square in the heart of the Meatpacking district titled Moon Guardians. The work took form as a series of video haikus that revisited the historical and social context of the Meatpacking District. Ghost-like figures, directly emerging from of the neighborhood’s storied past, were rear-projected on the windows and storefronts facing the square, each gazing at the viewer and creating a bridge between past and present.

Over the course of one year, Cnaani worked with teens from the Chelsea LAB School, a local public middle school, in a series of research-based workshops, making maps of and investigating the multiple transformations undertaken by Chelsea’s famed Meatpacking District over the last century. The changes to the Meatpacking District exemplify greater shifts in New York City, as it moves from a place where marginalized figures and outsiders were celebrated, to a more sanitized and consumer-oriented space. The area’s cultural identity has perpetually morphed from a refuge during the plague of the 1820s, to a mecca of meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses in the early 20th century, to an underground nightlife destination in the 1970s-80s, to the high-end boutique and art district of today. The student workshops culminated in the formulation of the questions that were used to interview long-time Meatpacking residents about their relationship to the neighborhood and the changes they had personally experienced through successive waves of gentrification.

Using the interviews as a starting point, Cnaani created a series of video vignettes, filming five residents—Ivy Brown, an artist and gallerist, Frank Ottomanelli, a butcher; Dorothy Durlach and Bill Kushner, long-term roommates; and famed drag queen Sultana—the eponymous Moon Guardians. In this footage, Cnaani had the participants move slowly and deliberately, going about their business or performing actions symbolic to their everyday lives. Between a static image and a film, the final, looping sequences were described as video haikus. For the installation, which lasted one month, the videos were rear-projected nightly on the windows and storefronts facing the square at Gansevoort Plaza, the figures interacting with one another and with the building, and looking out at the viewer, curiously, questioningly, creating a bridge between past and present.

Cnaani’s characters were real residents, who have lived in the Meatpacking District since the neighborhood was very different from what it is today, and they evoke its rich history. They included an artist/galerist, a butcher, an elderly couple, and a drag queen, and for one month in the fall of 2013 they once again inhabited the District, interacting with one another and with the place, window to window, building to building. As a result, Gansevoort Plaza was transformed into a dynamic silent amphitheater.

New York was recognized as a place where marginalized figures and outsiders are celebrated. In recent years, however, the city became more conservative and sanitized. The Meatpacking District, once an area of industry, a meat market first – and then in the 1980s, a night-life destination behind closed doors – including night clubs like The Vault and The Locker Room – has become a destination to be seen, transformed recently into an upscale neighborhood where the original residents can hardly afford living. This focus on hipness and security seems to undercut the city’s allure, and questions its ability to retain its vibrancy. As the city vacillates between risk and safety, questions arise concerning the role of our unique characters in society and challenging the gentrification of our historic neighborhoods and communities.

The Meatpacking district is an area that spans approximately from West 12th street to West 20th street, between the Westside Highway and 8th Avenue. Originally established as the area surrounding Fort Gansevoort—a defense structure built during the War of 1812—the area’s cultural identity has perpetually morphed from a refuge during the plague of the 1820s, to a mecca of meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses in the early to late 20th century, to a high-end boutique and art district of today. The district remains continually in developmental and flux.

An integral component in the production of Moon Guardians was the interview of long-time Chelsea residents. Ivy Brown, director of Ivy Brown Gallery, has lived within the historic triangle building on Hudson Street for almost thirty years. Within that time frame, she has seen the area transform from an isolated block, filled in the daytime with blood from the local meatpacking plants and in the nighttime with LGBT club patrons; to a glossy, consumer destination.

Ofri Cnaani led a series of workshops on the history of Chelsea as an integral component of Moon Guardians, a public art installation realized in collaboration with More Art. Ofri engaged the students in a series of research-based sessions investigating the multiple transformations undertaken by Chelsea’s famed Meatpacking district over the last century. The workshops culminated with the students constructing a two-dimensional map of the area on the classroom floor after which they placed images of historical events and captions in the appropriate locations. The activity granted a dynamic understanding to the historic narrative and provided the students with a comprehensive and cohesive timeline of their neighborhood. After an animated brainstorming session, students came up with a list of questions to ask long-time Chelsea residents about their relationship to the neighborhood and the changes they had personally experienced.