Paul Bass Photo
Believe in People is saying something with his newest New Haven piece … isn’t he?
The controversial street artist’s latest piece has appeared in between a Guinness chalk board and a large number 9 on a brick wall inside one of his apparent Elm City haunts of yore, Cafe Nine at Crown and State streets.
As usual with Believe in People’s artwork — which have challenged capitalism, prejudice, apathy, and academic pretension, among other targets — the piece gets in your face. It’s a door with a larger-than-life head drawn on, middle fingers covering the eyes and directed unmistakably at the viewer.
Via Twitter, BiP had asked Paul Mayer, who runs Cafe Nine (aka “The Musician’s Living Room”), whether he could donate a piece to the popular night spot. “Of course. I’d love to,” Mayer recalled responding. Soon after, “a woman came and dropped it off.”
It took a few weeks to figure out where to hang the door/drawing. Mayer chose a spot near the bar where “I could keep an eye on it.”
Initial reaction these past few weeks centered on BiP’s message: Was he flipping the bird to New Haven’s art establishment? Perhaps after this affair? (After years of basing his enterprise here, BiP left town earlier this year.)
In an email to the Independent, BiP cautioned against reading too much into the door.
“sometimes a crude, poorly-done line drawing with sentimental value is just a crude, poorly-done line drawing with sentimental value,” he wrote. “i gave away some things to friends and places i used to hang before i left. that was a broken door i used for a drafting table when i couldn’t afford one.”
