A project by Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga for
the NEW MUSEUM'S Counter Culture


the middle-class intrigue with the East Side was satiated through sensationalist reports and novels and secretive outings, or "slumming." As early as the 1920s and into the current day, tourists in search of the unusual and bizarre trekked south of Fourteenth Street to briefly consume the spectacle of the slum, the ghetto, the art colony, or downtown... - Christopher Mele
Investigate a portion of the Bowery via a series of interviews with residents and property owners in the Bowery.
The map includes interviews with Anton Bari, manager of the Bari Restaurant Equipment Business; Bruce, Vic, and Milton, residents and manager of Sunshine Hotel; Morocho who works at the Bodega on Stanton; and Jimmy Wright of Freeman Alley...
Learn about what lays ahead for the Bowery Neighborhood... a 700 unit apartment building at Bowery and Houston; the New Museum at Bowery and Prince; building purchases by Common Ground; as well as links to establishments that create the character of the Bowery such as the Bowery Mission.
view installation documentation
photo by Brooke Singer

"In From Darkness to Daylight (2004), Ricardo Miranda Zuniga constructs an installation at 1 Freeman Alley (off of Rivington Street between Bowery and Chrystie Streets), reflecting on the history and the future of the Bowery. The sculptural work is made of a series of large ducts, similar to those found in the alley itself, that have been interwoven together and inserted with monitors featuring computer animated characters that reflect different histories of the Bowery. Each animation is based upon a real resident of the Bowery and features recorded interviews by each with the artist."

Curator, Melanie Franklin Cohn