Bruce Tomb, who first created the art wall in front of the old jail cells of the Mission Police Station, is extending the project to “The (de)Appropriation Parklet” in front of the wall. We will soon see two podiums go up, according to his blog on the project, Maria Del Carmen.
For those of you who don’t know, Bruce Tomb is an artist, architect, owner and protector of the art wall.
Heather Smith, a writer, interviewed Tomb for Mission Local in 2011 and gave this introduction:
Tomb’s decision to protect the wall, with its graffiti and wheatpasted posters, from both the anti-graffiti squads of the Department of Public Works and the glossy advertisements slapped up by crews that comb the Mission looking for any blank space to put a Heineken ad, transformed it into a surprising and voluble community space.
In the late ’90s, the art on the wall made jibes at the dot-com era, the Mission’s gentrification wars and Willie Brown’s mayoral administration. Post 9-11, the wall made fun of George Bush and Osama Bin Laden. When artists from other cities, like Swoon or Shepherd Fairey, passed through town, you could usually tell by checking out the wall. Now the wall is mostly apolitical and Dadaesque — jokes, and in-jokes, and the usual scrawls about love and identity and what it means to be human.
Or as it seems, life repeats itself as the art wall is once again about gentrification, but also more – the sex scandal in the Catholic Church, the massacre of 42 students in Mexico and
Since May, Tomb has been working on his parklet. Walk by, watch it sprout podiums, interact with it and enjoy. I hope we will be catching up with Tomb soon.
