5 Pointz

June 30th, 2006

Less than 5 minutes from midtown Manhattan, at the end of Queens Midtown Tunnel, sits the Queens neighborhood known as Long Island City. To arrive there from Manhattan you can take three different trains, the E, the V or the 7 and you’re there in just one stop. If you take the E or V lines, the train will travel underground. From the 7 train though, wait two stops and you’ll have an amazing view from your coach… Arriving at 45th Road-Court House Square the train runs over a building fully covered in Graffiti. The view is spectacular; Manhattan with the East River appears in the immediate background and sometimes you’ll catch a group of youngsters on the roof with ladders and scaffolding finding spots out of reach.

This building is known as 5Pointz due to the 5 boroughs of NYC: Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. 5Pointz took this name in 2001 when Jonathan Cohen aka Meres assumed its management. The story of this warehouse started years ago though, in the mid 90’s when Pat DiLillo began a Graffiti buffing service for businesses upon request. He realized the loss of this urban art he was covering so he decided instead to ask one of his clients for walls to let writers create large scale mural pieces with an advantage of being able to finish their artworks. This way color is added to the neighborhood and walls are kept looking neat, adding prestige and publicity to the building once It’s become a place of pilgrimage for Graffiti artists. And so “The Phun Factory” was born, a project that lasted 6 years total, from 1994 to 2001 ending with a dispute between the landlord of the building and Pat. When the program closed it was hosting an average of 20 kids in the wintertime and up to 100 to 150 in the summertime. That year Meres took over the management of the place initiating some changes in the project; starting with the name: “The Phun Factory” became “5Pointz”. Artist selection changed as well; with more than 20 years as a Graffiti artist, Meres brings a different kind of artist and public than Pat, who only worked as a patron.

Meres also agreed with the landlord to take all the walls for painting, from sidewalk to rooftop instead of just half of some of the building front walls. This meant more space to paint with more artists getting up. Things are not easy anyways. Some of the tenants, mostly artists surprisingly, didn’t like the result of the paintings and wished to stop the project. This began debates and included the police, and for some months the project was stopped again. After 6 months of no work, agreements and some headaches, Meres decided restart the program again.

So what is this program about? 5pointz takes an average of 15 to 20 kids each Sunday from noon to 3p.m. who want to learn aerosol techniques with Meres and help him rebuild the space; they paint the walls, clean old paintings, take care of the area… The length of these classes is four weeks. The best students go on to help Meres with bigger projects. Besides that, there is the chance for everyone to paint there, once they ask for permission. That’s the most important rule for the project, to ask before you paint on the walls. If someone creates a piece without permission, it’s removed.

In the summertime there are BBQ’s and linoleum to break-dance on, and sometimes well known Graffiti artists come over to sign books and be with the kids. Artists from NYC and the West Coast, and Europe have been here to paint. The building is acquiring prestige. Magazines such as “Glamour” write articles about it, and big fashion corporations as H&M use the walls for backgrounds in their catalogue photo-shoots. 5Pointz is located very closed to the P.S.1, an affiliate of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where then focus is young and contemporary. Meres is discussing with the museum ways to host a show with some of his buildings more important pieces. The show would give support and publicity to all the people who are working hard to make this warehouse project something pioneering inside the Graffiti world.

Patricia Yague

Entry Filed under: Miscellaneous