Monopoly: Chicago street art edition
Although we acknowledge with regret that spontaneous art installations must give municipal workers hives, we can't help but love when such whimsy springs up out of nowhere. And a real-life version of Monopoly in Chicago is especially delightful. (Weird coincidence alert: Yahoo! Homes also has a slideshow of real-world Monopoly property values that you might want to check out.)
The r/chicago community at Reddit and then Nate Berg of the Atlantic Cities blog appear to have had the story first, but Christopher Jobson, creator of the wonderful Colossal site and a Chicagoan himself, may have it best. Jobson -- who graciously permitted us to use the Chicago pictures here -- reached the artist(s), known only as Bored, and published the backstory:
After a few desperate tweets and some emailing, I finally got in touch with the artist (or artists!) known as Bored. The person (or group) chooses to remain anonymous but expressed via email their dissatisfaction at the lack of quality street art around Chicago. Saying specifically that "the goal of this entire project has been to present something different than a stencil painted on the ground or a poster pasted to a wall. Something 3-dimensional that can be picked up, beaten down, kicked, yanked, grabbed, and broken. And if someone ever put forth the effort to remove it, like a weed it will always grow back. And if left alone it will evolve into something different."
Speaking of Monopoly-based public art, since we're on a (pun alert) roll: We were a little startled to learn that this isn't the only Monopoly-based public art. Did you know that San Jose's Guadalupe River Park is home to the world's largest permanent outdoor Monopoly board? So we hear (but are unable to verify with absolute certainty). Picture via Anna Fox, aka HarshLight, on Flickr:
Know of any spontaneous public art installations in your community? We'd love to hear about them or -- even better -- see your original pictures. (We hope it goes without saying that vulgar graffiti and such is emphatically not what we're looking for. Please spare our eyes.) You can tweet us @YahooHomes, post to our Facebook account, add photos to our Flickr group, or alert us via our Pinterest account or in the comments below.
Especially great submissions could be published on our site (crediting you, of course).
