Veronica Graham, on the other hand, sells disguises. Buyers have the option of blending in to either Market Street, Mint Plaza, or the Ferry Building.

“The Cries of San Francisco,” at Southern Exposure through July 2, takes to the streets this Saturday, when some 50-odd peddlers will work the streets around Mint Plaza from noon to 5 p.m. They’ll be selling everything from dirty words to emergency glitter to masks that disguise the wearer as a piece of sidewalk.

The project, organized by artist Allison Smith, was inspired by The Cries of London, which document, in various ways, the diverse street-sellers that once roamed London. It’s an interesting choice of theme. In the last few years the public hawking of wares, by everyone, has become much more the norm. The boom in food carts would be one example. Projects like Shadowshop, at SFMOMA, would be another.

The recent gallery opening of “The Cries of San Francisco” was a mob scene. A few peddlers even sold things, despite the conceptual nature/questionable utility of many of their wares.

A few sample cries:

Torreya Cummings

But Friends! That’s not all. We have tractor parts for your sidewalk reclamation garden project! Actual vintage tobacco! Crystallized white sugar! How about some pre-revolution glitter for the disco emergency!

Erik Bakke

Hey there, hello, hi,
You can own your favorite bad word.
It’s free.
It’s free and safe.

Maria De Los Angeles Burr

The unsell-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-ble.
The unsell-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-ble.
The unsell-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-ble.

Ignacio Zulueta

(SUNG)
TWOOOOO DOLLAH DRAMAAAAA
TWOOOOO DOLLLAH DRAMAAAA

BRING SOME CULTURE HOME TO YOUR MAMMA
BUY YOURSELF A TWO DOLLAR DRAMA!

John Daniel

Feelers, all I sell are feelers
Segmented waving feelers
Come and buy today!

Coleopteran,
Hymenopteran,
Siphonopteran!

Hexapod, Diplopod, Arthropods all!

Jeremiah Rushing

YEAH, YEAH. I GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED RIGHT HERE.

An onlooker documents Sycamore Slim’s Sundries Wagon: purveyor of Life’s Finest Little Necessities to Help Brighten These Dark Times, which sells glitter, candy, rags, and fuel.
Artists’ regalia often referenced Victoriana.
“I am not a fortune teller,” said Eduardo Valadez. “But I am a divination reader.” Valadez called his project “Don Fortuna presenting San Pancho Buendia.”
Valadez is making a new divination card representing a different aspect of San Francisco out of each new issue of a local weekly.
John Daniel as “The Antenna Fella.” The antennas were quite nice.
Not all projects had criers present, but they’ll all be at Mint Plaza on Saturday.
Peter Max Lawrence, as Paper Waster Press, drew images all night and tossed them to the ground.
“Hate me on your own terms” he wrote for this reporter, when asked if he had been to art school.
Next to him a sheet of knitted wounds.
A few of the art projects looked not unlike things that humans would actually buy in an actual store in a non-art context.

Veronica Graham, on the other hand, sells disguises. Buyers have the option of blending in to either Market Street, Mint Plaza, or the Ferry Building.

Erik Bakke, “Executor of Expletives, Insults and Hurtful Words” sells pretty much what you would expect. They are intended to be handled delicately, with archival gloves.

P.S. Full list of cries here.

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Heather Smith covers a beat that spans health, food, and the environment, as well as shootings, stabbings, various small fires, and shouting matches at public meetings. She is a 2007 Middlebury Fellow in Environmental Journalism and a contributor to the book Infinite City.

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