Where was I?
Oh. Yeah. So, in 2008 I mentioned a piece I did on the landmark Monster Island building, an arts and music space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Well, Monster Island is about to be submerged in a tsunami of industrial “progress.” Its demise has been written up in the New York Times, Billboard, and several other places on the world wide Indra’s net. Or is it the veil of Maya? Either way this news seems very fitting for me personally.
Monster Island started seven years ago, which is around the time I moved to Brooklyn, and is now closing down around the time I moved away. This symmetry is just something I find personally resonant. Of course the largest part of the personal connection is the fact that I put a mural on its walls three years ago and it has remained there since. Another factor is that Kayrock printed my wedding invitations in that building as well.
Monster Island was a visual delight in Williamsburg for as long as I was there. It is sad to see it go, but I am glad I won’t see it go. Just another casualty in the war of attrition that is the Eternally Grinding Wheel of Progress. In restaurants we have sliders and poppers to attest to the fact that progress seems to have a goal of frictionless consumption, but what happens when there is nothing left for the Wheel to grind and nothing left for the gullet to consume? I suppose the Beast will then have to consume itself. I think it has already started.
Check out the links above and you can see my piece on the walls as the building enjoyed its last hurrah. Below are some images from my post of three years ago.
