Bobby: My favorite piece from the museum is by Richard Artschwager, and I like it because the story behind it. Lizzie Before we get into the piece, I want to back up real fast and give you some history of PS1. The building we're in is almost 130 years old. It was originally a public school building, the first public school in Long Island City. Bobby: This school only lasted for about 60 years. Lizzie: It functioned as a school until the mid 20th century when it closed, because it was sort of falling apart, and there was low enrollment in Long Island City at the time. Andrea: And that's when Alana Hies came along with the groundbreaking idea to use these abandoned public spaces, to present contemporary art exhibitions, which would focus on the newest art trends and promote new and emerging artists. Lizzie: So if you can imagine the building has been abandoned for quite a few years, it's in terrible shape. The paint is peeling. Andrea: Rooms still have seats in them. Some had desks, some had standing water. Lizzie: Flooded it in different places. Bobby: There was dust everywhere. Andrea: I mean, it was that bad. Lizzie: The first show that opens at PS1 is called Rooms. Rooms was an opportunity for artists to kind of create within the architecture of the museum and using that as their canvas. Andrea: That was the architecture of the building was as important as the work, or they were equally entwined. There's really not separate. And it's because they're meant to live in the building and age with the building and be the building. Lizzie: But there was a very short window of time before rooms opened. It was only about six weeks from when the firm, when Allana Hies the founder signed the lease on the building to when rooms opened. So she hired, or sort of begged a lot of the artists who were in the show to help with this cleanup process. And so they were really involved in sort of getting the building clean and up to code. The museum gets noticed by city council that they won't be able to open unless they have five marked exits throughout the entire building. Richard Artschwager went back to them and said, "One of the main sort of theme of this show that we're trying to do is that you really can't tell where the art begins in the building ends and vice versa. Having these illuminated exit signs would totally take the visitor out of that space". Bobby: And they were like "No exit signs, no open to the public". Lizzie: And so he said "Fine, you want your five exit signs here they are". Bobby: He was like, okay, I'll give you five exit signs. So he took five light bulbs. If you look up to the ceiling, you can see them. And right now we have three on display, exit, exit, exit, and they're right after the other. They're not spread out through the museum. So this is why I find it so funny instead of spreading them out, he decided to line them up in one hallway, leading to a wall, that's not even a proper exit. Lizzie: And he called it one of the art pieces in the show, 'Don't fight city hall'. I really liked that story because it really speaks to sort of the good humor of the like original artists who were in the room show. Bobby: And I like it so much because it's petty, it's humorous. And I find that very humane. I'm a Spanish man and petty runs in our veins.
