SUNSET IN BRADDOCK

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NIGHT GALLERY

Stills from the Braddock Light Show at Unsmoke Artspace.

BRADDOCK LIGHT SHOW

Unseasonably warm temperatures this weekend made Friday evening one of those dreamy occurrences that for all intents and purposes make Pittsburgh ground zero for unpretentious artistic culture. Unsmoke Artspace, a converted Catholic school in the heart of Braddock (and right across the street from United States Steel’s Edgar Thompson Plant) opened up two floors and a large outside space (complete with the most primitive of art, a pit fire), to an assortment of installations and performance that revealed themselves in places of discovery that made the entire exhibit a kind of gleeful treasure hunt as one roamed around the grounds. It reminded me in no small part of the 1998 Horsehead show at Magnuson Park in Seattle that left a profound impression on me as one of the more magical art events in my lifetime. This evening is a close second.

BRADDOCK

About 4 miles south of where we live in Wilkensburg is Braddock, a once-thriving steel town that with the demise of the mills found it’s population dwindle down to somewhere under 3,000. From the right angle Braddock looks like another riverside mill town, busy, determined, salt of the earth. Yet it’s really something of a strange and beautiful artifact, a post-apocalyptic vision with blocks of empty storefronts, filled with the remains of their occupants, collapsing in on themselves with their own sad neglect. So bleak is the impression it’s small wonder the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road had some filming done here. Unless otherwise informed, one could easily overlook it’s hidden history of French-India war battles featuring the future president George Washington and the country’s first Carnegie library, complete with empty basement pool that once hosted splashing aquatic enthusiasts. It’s a haunted place, of memories and people who once tread it’s sidewalks in happier more economically viable times, where now it’s no surprise to see a drug deal or feel the urge to stay away as night falls. Now artists have moved in, promoting a revival through art and the promise of cheap studio space, and their work pops up in hidden places, like the plastered image by Brooklyn-based artist Swoon who's done some work here. The same library mentioned above hosts a dedicated ceramic studio in it’s former public bathhouse, and the two enthusiastic gentlemen who run it are active participants in the ceramic water filtration project promoted by Potters For Peace, manufacturing these simple, effective devices for shipment throughout the world. Braddock demands repeated visits and a closer look.