Michael Waugh, Bird Watchers, 2016, UV print on dibond, IS 611, Brooklyn

Do the three murals that are part of IS 611 in Dumbo, Brooklyn have a story? Maybe. Afterall, these bucolic scenes of birds are composed entirely out of words- utilizing a loose calligraphic technique. But the words themselves don’t tell the story. The words are copied from some of the bureaucratic documents that were needed for IS 611 to happen. These documents required years of shared labor. They reflect the competing politics that work together in order to make any big project happen. These murals are complicated, colorful. They don’t tell a story. They tell many stories.