“Street Cred” took place as a temporary intervention in an alley in downtown Raleigh. The piece arose from mixed feelings about the opening of our new Contemporary Art Museum. The museum's grand opening party was an exclusive black tie gala, billed as a “lively street festival.” Tickets were $100 and $150. I can't knock an institution for having a fundraiser. But in a town that historically hasn't had the warmest relationship with contemporary art, I wasn't sure this was the best way to open up.

This alley is half a block from the cordoned area where the museum’s party occurred. It’s since been gated off, but it was for a while a really mysterious, deep space that called to the working history of the rail/warehouse district that’s now transitioning into an epicenter for art galleries and nightlife. There was a rotting mattress and a stale sandwich in a ziploc bag among the empty liquor bottles, under a random tree that sprouted halfway down. The silence and the vertical volumes back there are the persistent whispers of a city trying to keep track of its soul through course of some profound changes.