The Taylor Southgate Bridge connects Newport, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The bridge attracts several graffiti artists who use the bridge's columns as their canvas. The graffiti is fleeting: the Kentucky DOT greys out the graffiti usually within a month after it appears. This series from 2013 shows a dozen poems and drawings done at that time. The complete series can be found on www.newhudsonexit.org.
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2013
- Submitted to ArtBase: Monday Jul 28th, 2014
- Original Url: http://www.newhudsonexit.org/Display_art/ED%20Southgate%20Bridge%20v1.html#.U6bEorGm25I
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Work Credits:
- Eszpebea, primary creator
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Artist Statement
We first saw Eszpebea's graffiti art in July 2012. He wrote 12 poems and illustrations on the columsn of the Taylor Southgate Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio. The work did not last long - the Kentucky Department of Transportation blasts away graffiti whenever they find it but we managed to capture the series before they did - Southgate Bridge Graffiti I.
We returned to Cincinnati in early Spring 2013. As we said above, all of the 'original' graffit was painted over by the Kentucky DOT. However, the structure had be christened a 'Free Art Bridge' and several different artists took advantage of it. Eszpebea was back but with more graphics than prose works. There are at least two other artists who joined in the bridge work.
The DOT let these works linger for about a month, then they were gone. We preserve them here.