The (Brooklyn) Cloisters (Toilets) is a collaborative installation between myself and fellow artist RichHARD hoffMAN. We were asked to propose an installation for the bar at the 2025 Fall edition of The Other Art Fair. We decided that we would recreate the Cloisters in RichHARD’s iconic graffiti style and create portraits of the attendees. The project would blend historic artifacts with modern art.
What we failed to mention, is that we would be recreating the men’s restroom and doing the portraits on toilet paper. With the physical structure of the Cloisters being considered art, our questions were “where does the art stop?” and “What does one consider as part of a structure?”.
In order to ground the space, I used the central part of the bar to recreate the Romanesque Hall, pulling the stone pattern and columns. Richard also painted the iconic Unicorn Tapestry adding toilet paper to it’s horn in a cheeky nod to our portraits.
In the restroom side, we were excited by the idea of a stall that was presented as clean and tidy, but inside was a mess of graffiti. We included a “peep hole” so that attendees could read the word “graffiti” in a dozen or so different languages.
What excited me most, was putting framed portraits in the restroom, creating an unconventional gallery for the art while also requiring viewers to stand at urinals to view it.
