Felix Morello circles
You find them around the Village if you are lucky, in Washington Square Park for a few ephemeral days, long enough to pick up a routine with each. Those in the know traverse them in their own way. I see kids from school hopping on the good luck spot. I have a particular ritual that I like to use as I cross each of them.
I like them because they reclaim circles on the ground that represented separation during COVID-19, 6 feet apart. These works reclaim and reconceptualize them inside our mental visual urban typography dictionary.
The circles are also human: good luck, hugging, kissing, high-five. Some of them are physical, some of them spiritual. I like to watch as people interact with them, if they notice them, as they step on them and through them.
RIP my comments, but I also think it stands out because it literally stands out from all the horrible graffiti across the city these days. I am the last person to say that you should not deface what must be defaced, and that surface scenario is very rare in the city these days. If you’re going to be bringing your tagging game, better make it your A-game, and there is literally none of that. Zero, just sad bad tags.
These are done in chalk; they wash away, adding to the urgency of interaction with them as they are time-boxed. If they will return, in the same spot or with the same intent, remains to be seen. They are gone now.
Update- Sat May4, 2024
Walking though WSP this week I saw a massive Boxing Circle with a man at the center, I entered and asked him if he was Felix, indeed he was. Pictured below. Gave him respect and went a play round in the circle before taking off. NYC FTW alway.