Being There: The Tribeca Neighborhood of Franklin Furnace

Abstract

When Martha Wilson opened the Franklin Furnace in 1976, the downtown neighborhood called Tribeca was getting hot. It was full of artists, and the venues that served them were crowding in. But there were limits to the degree to which artists would be able to make this district their own. Ultimately, norms of quiet tastefulness would prevail over artistic fancy. An exemplary incident was the 1985 renovation of Teddy's nightclub. This low-slung building was a streamlined survivor from a 1950os rat pack style. Renamed El Internacional, it was outfitted with a spastically colorful tiled floor, which extended out onto the sidewalk, and topped with a green verdigris crown. Inside, every room was painted a different color. Outside, the old name of the place, in a casual loungy typeface, was still visible beneath a black-and-white cowhide paint job. Once a neighborhood nightclub, it was now a trendy international tapas bar. Comment by locals to the New York Times was scathing (Miller 1985:B4).' Artists and politicians alike disapproved the garishness of the place and its foul cooking odors. Martha Wilson of the nearby art space Franklin Furnace was one of the few who voiced approval of the decor (1985:B4). It's no surprise that Martha Wilson would have a different take. As the founder of the artist books and performance venue Franklin Furnace, she is a champion of the avantgarde and an advocate for artists-and Teddy's redecorator was the artist Antonio Miralda,2 a Spaniard known for comestible spectacles. Miralda designed a stage set, complete with a facsimile of the Statue of Liberty's crownat a time when the real one was veiled during conservation. After it opened, Miralda put on a fabulous sidewalk floor show performance in front of the new El Internacional.