Arte Agora Tempe

The art outside in hotness.

Last October, we took a trip to Tempe, Arizona.

Here’s a look at the art outside:

There’s the basic slap culture

We found one piece that looked like a bloody handprint imposed over a series of those modified “Hello, My Name Is” stickers.

What we did find compelling was a . That piece had the kind of deliberate collage-making sensibility that rises above pure tagging.

Wheat paste installation: torn, weathered paste-up displaying a set of band names rendered in spray-on stencil letters.

This ghost bike installation caught our attention — SL and I haven’t typically included ghost bikes in our Arte Agora taxonomy, since they serve that commemorative function.

But because this one was accompanied by what appeared to be textile art: yarn and fabric work applied directly to the installation. Layered on top of that was graffiti indicating opposition to motor vehicles.

The wooden pole itself also had set of baseball cards stapled on them, and this installation seemed much older than the bike installation itself.

There was a neighborhood well that deserves its own category entirely. It’s not removable intact, so it doesn’t qualify as Arte Agora in the strictest sense — it’s permanent civic infrastructure. But it was decorated with a series of stories told in ceramic tile, each tile depicting notable people from the neighborhood’s history. It’s the kind of thing that suggests a real curatorial effort, a public commitment to memory and place.

The Little Free Library we encountered was decorated with slabs and offering masks — another modest form of public care and decoration.

Every city needs at least one Shepard Fairey slap, and Tempe delivered.

Arte agora is everywhere.