Los Angeles Art Show to Include Video Featuring Roosevelt Island

According to the blog The Saatchi Gallery, the Los Angeles art gallery Blum & Poe will be featuring through December 22nd an art show by Slater Bradley titled “Hope from a Dark Place.”

As per Saatchi, Mr. Bradley’s video pieces are titled "Blackwells Island" and "The Abandonments."

“The former features archival black and white film footage taken by Thomas Edison, which Bradley has re-hashed and re-interpreted. Blackwells, a spit of land in New York's East River that's now known as Roosevelt Island, once housed The New York City Insane Asylum, a penitentiary and a charity hospital. Pitch perfect subject matter for an artist known for his fascination with mentally anguished suicidal rock stars, including Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain”

Just what we need more images of Roosevelt Island as one commenter, dblock, recently phrased “a set for horror movies”.

1903 Panorama View of Blackwell's (Roosevelt) Island

Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 20May1903



SUMMARY
This film was photographed from a boat heading south along the eastern shore of Blackwell's Island (known today as Roosevelt Island). The island lies in the East River, between Manhattan (which can be seen in the background) and Long Island City, Queens. It is approximately one and three-quarters of a mile long, extending from 51st Street to 88th, and at the time of the filming was the location for a number of New York City's charitable and penal institutions. The film opens showing the lighthouse at the north end of the island (Hallet's Cove) [Frame: 0186]. As the boat enters the east channel of the river, the stacks of a large brewery on Manhattan are visible in the distance [0542]. The camera pans along the island's granite seawall (built by inmates of the Penitentiary and Workhouse) and the following buildings, in order of appearance, are shown: the New York City Lunatic Asylum [0956]; the Workhouse [1274]; the Almshouse [1524]; piers for the Queensborough (or 59th Street) Bridge, which upon completion in 1908 will span 135 feet above the island [2388]; the Almshouse Keeper's House (originally the home of the Blackwell family, who had once owned the island) [2730]; the Penitentiary [3646]; Charity Hospital [4140]. The film ends before reaching the southern tip of the island.