DOES THIS PLACE MATTER?

The old Lenzner Bottling Factory at 630 Genesee Street is now on the city’s demolition list. It doesn’t have the architectural significance of other threatened buildings like Bethleham Steel’s North Office but personally I’ll miss it. Among all the interesting things inside were a truck, a piano and lots of little sprouts trying to reforest the space. It was the inspiration for my assemblage, Shreck. The back wall of the assemblage is a photo of the Lenzner interior showing its collapsed roof. The Shreck toy is a McDonald’s throwaway found in the neighborhood. Shreck’s little family is painted looking at him as if to say, “Did you do all this?” The outside of the box is painted with miniature graffiti. I based it on the giant tag on the Lenzner building by the ubiquitous Buffalo tagger, ATAK. I think of my assemblage as a little neighborhood in a box that will survive when the actual neighborhood is demolished.