Ethnic Art and Typography of the English Cotton Merchants

This short film on the unique free NYC store/gallery/art workshop, The Inutilious Retailer, was created by Jordan Horowitz and Jack Wilson and succinctly captures the experience of those who visited the 2015 International Store Of The Year winner

Thanks so much for Heather for being such a perfect “customer”

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The Inutilious Retailer was designed as a community place for everyone to create art. As someone who created and had friends in the street art world, I had always planned on utilizing the store facade as a legal spot for different artists.

The front of the store was a prime Lower East Side spot and it was quickly embellished, including the first yarn bombed gate by London Kaye, the side panel by Wheatpastewoman/Phoebe and a doorway piece by Pyramid Oracle

The side panel was always a multi layer, free for all…

The idea to use the entrance for the basement as a kind of Street Art Advent Calendar was hatched and changed every couple of weeks

When Frank Ape added his piece, he combined it with a shirt inside which could be won if the slot machine was pulled and three of the characters he added to the blank reels lined up!

Street artists also used the store as a base from where they could put together art they were putting in the neighborhood

The Graffiti Garden

What I didn’t realize when I rented the store, was that included a huge back yard that was devoid of any graffiti except for this late 70’s or early 80’s piece that nobody had seen before or knew who created it.

I invited artists to add whatever they wanted to all the walls, with the condition that nobody went over the vintage piece.

One wall went from this

to this…

to this…

This wall started off just saying “where’s my bike?”

and ended up like this

Here’s some of the people responsible for transforming the space into a street art gallery    Artists who were young

artists who had done graffiti for 40 years

or artists who tried it for the first time

but in the end, the garden became a place where even the floor was covered in art, where anyone and everyone could come, create, relax…

and of course party…

even on the roof!

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The public part of the store is designed to be a “curiosity filter”.

Some people walk past and do not see it. Some look in the window and carry on down Ludlow Street.

but hundreds of people are curious enough to come into the store, talk to a random voice and then decide to go through the secret door into the workshop and make a garment to replace the one they took – like these two…

At the end of the process, everyone was photographed holding what they made and what they took, emailed the photo and so ended up connected in a chain of random curious people.

Maybe you were one of them?

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6pm, September 1st at 151 Ludlow Street, NYC the doors of The Inutilious Retailer opened.

6 months to plan, 2 weeks to build and the guests of honor were all those who either came to the Art Sundays or helped create the store. These were the only people who were allowed to see the whole store without being customers.

It had gone from an empty shell to a complete store, lounge and art workshop in just 2 weeks and the renovation came in under budget at $2,300!

Photos were banned behind the secret wall of the store and I am so appreciative that nobody in the whole time it opened ruined the surprise of the secret back area by taking any sneaky photos. There was media interest from the media, such as New York magazine but I refused to let images of the back part be published.

And social media interest too but all respected my desire to keep the back area secret

But now, all can be revealed…

The Store 

The Interior

Lit only by the giant barcode, it had consumerism’s “costs” on the left side and “values” on the right side

Clothing is hanging on umbrellas, still with price tags from the Salvation Army and if you showed an interest in anything, there was no salesperson (the door was always open too but nothing was stolen) but a voice came from nowhere, then the wall mirror flipped forward and at last, the customer knew there was more to this minimalist store than met the eye….

A person asks you to pull the slot machine to prove you have an imagination

and if you come up with your own idea of what might be on the reels of the blank slot machine, you have just proved you have an imagination and are told you have won the garment you like for free – with one condition.

You have to come through the hidden door into the secret back area and make something to replace it.

Then you enter the wonderland where you sit down, relax with a coffee or glass of wine, pick a new piece of clothing off the rack to paint on and then start planning what you are going to create for the next random person who comes into the store.  Taking as much time as you need and doing whatever art you want, without judgements….

The Lounge

The Workshop

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