To say that gentrification is a heated topic would be a major understatement, just ask Spike Lee. While discussions of gentrification usually involve looking at the disparity of a neighborhood’s past and it’s present, artist Coby Kennedy prefers to look far ahead into a neighborhood’s future, about 400 years ahead to be exact.
The artist tells Metro:
“It’s based on a narrative which reflects contemporary situations,”…“A lot of street signs are from places in Brooklyn that have history and weight, places that are losing that particular culture.”
Kennedy, a skilled craftsman who previously worked as a car designer for Honda and an industrial designer in Italy, now works in a studio in Bushwick Brooklyn where he focuses on his unique body of artistic works which includes video and hyper-realistic paintings. His latest project, “In the Service of the Villain”, is a collection of street signs fashioned into functional, heavy duty machetes, swords and shields, all perfect for combat.
