“Parks” Carved From Concrete

Eighteen local artists and organizations converted metered parking spaces all around the city into artistic public installations, to mark Friday’s international PARK(ing) Day.

The city participated in the international event for the sixth time this year, inviting groups to show creative ways that parking spaces can serve the public. Installations featured artwork and information, interactive projects and even one gender-bending performance piece.

United Way of Greater New Haven turned its parking space on Cedar Street into a park, placing chairs and umbrellas on a rectangular expanse of green turf. ​“We want to be less car dependent,” said Jim Travers, United Way’s vice president of resource development (and before that the city’s transit chief). ​“The space is not just for cars, so it creates a healthy environment.” His crew invited passersby to spin a prize wheel to win branded gear and handed out water bottles.

On Crown and College streets, Co-op Arts & Humanities High School students asked drivers to ​“honk if u love art” and had the public collaborate on a giant painting outside of the school. They had been working in shifts since school started, said juniors Najma Temu and Christina Jones (both pictured).

A few passing drivers honked in response to junior Tatiana Bates’ painted sign. By around 11:45 a.m., more than 30 people had stopped to add to the piece, including a couple visiting from Brazil, said art teacher Kris Wetmore (pictured above left).

Someone turned a simple smiley face into an evil, blue-haired creature.

Environmental activists in front Yorkside Restaurant on York Street installed a papier-mache ​“green” Statue of Liberty, who, in one gloved hand, clutched a flier advertising Sunday’s People’s Climate March in New York.

She kept watch over a small ​“urban cityscape” right next door. The city on the left is polluted and the one on the right is healthy.

Artspace took over an entire block on Orange Street between Chapel and Crown streets for four installations by affiliated artists. Current artist-in-residence Cayla Lockwood smashed two car windshields and used the broken glass to create a poem based on Newton’s Law of Inertia. ​“You’re Only Ever Here For a Little While,” the poem read.

“For me, it’s about someone in a relationship leaving you,” Lockwood said, but she likes when people suggest alternate interpretations.

At another parking space yards away, Colin Burke placed golden gingko leaves on light-sensitive paper in the process of creating cyanotypes — resulting in white umbrella shapes on blue backgrounds.

He is experimenting with creating cyanotypes of three dimensional objects. The blue fabric on the table shows white lines from a shopping cart’s silhouette. ​“It’s like photography without a camera,” he said. ​“Every piece is one of a kind, and it’s hands-on.”

Jason Friedes offered a service to New Haven’s innumerable IKEA-furniture addicts: He would assemble or repair their objects and then deliver them curbside free of charge.

A carpenter and designer, Friedes placed several signs advertising his service at the nearby IKEA output. IKEA furniture is more durable than commonly thought, he said. The main problem is that people don’t know how to put it together.

“It’s this very American idea of a total lack of respect for skill,” he said. It takes skill to put in screws correctly, for example, and people should go to those who can, for better quality results.

Later in the afternoon, Petra Szilgalyi became gender-fluid character ​“Orris Butter,” who gave advice, sang songs, and danced with passersby in the parking-spot-turned-lounge. Orris Butter ​“identifies beyond gender — both male and female and neither male nor female,” she said.

Also to encourage people to find healthy alternatives to cars, about 40 kids and 20 parents made a bike pilgrimage together to Cold Spring School in Fair Haven Friday morning. First, two separate groups from Westville and East Rock convened at Devil’s Gear Bike Shop for Elm City Cycling’s September Bike to Work Day breakfast. (Video is courtesy of Melinda Tuhus.)

After breakfast, the supergroup of cyclists headed to school. Kids either rode their own bikes or were pedaled by their parents in cargo bikes. One parent had three kids in tow.