Lost LES | Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop
Mike Brown, Lot71 | Mural Artist
I lived on New York's Lower East Side / East Village for over 20 years. My connection to community ran deep. Over time, I painted several murals for local restaurants, notably, the famed Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop. For this mural I took inspiration from legendary Cuban photographer Abelardo Morell and his camera obscura prints. Abe's early fascination with light, optics and space led him to turn rooms into life-sized pinhole cameras, then photograph the room "transformed" by the outside world "cast" on the walls inside.
I imagined transforming the intimate interior of Tiny's with a memory of the past, cast across the walls and ceiling to spark new appreciation of the neighborhood's storied urban art and architectural history. The camera obscura inspired mural appeared to unfold like a pop-up book. People noticed glimpses from the street. Entering the restaurant their perception of space shifted. Then they felt the wonder and awe of looking up when least expecting to. Notably, my mural was one of the first 50 projects funded on Kickstarter.
