NYC Ghost and Flowers is a “shrine” to the old New York. It mirrors a makeshift temporary street memorial, occurring as a spontaneous collective need to commemorate something or someone; a way to express shared sorrow. Yet there is also a permanence about this particular collection, as each and every object has been meticulosity hand modelled, fired and glazed in ceramic. The almost three hundred objects in this shrine all refer to a place, a period, a person, an artist, a musician, an author, or a specific event relating to New York City, spanning a timeframe from around the 1900’s until now. Amidst flowers and candles, you will for instance find a small bust of Emma Goldman and a copy of her biography ‘Living My Life’ next to a mandolin with the words ‘This Machine Kills Fascists’ written on it, as it was on Woodie Guthrie’s guitar. Other items are ‘The New York Dolls’ debut album, the front page of the Daily Mirror from the day John Lennon was shot and killed, several stuffed crochet animals from Mike Kelly’s installations, also used on the cover of Sonic Youth’s 1992 studio album ‘Dirty.’ A sketchbook by Patty Smith, an Andy Warhol souvenir mug, Ramones worn out black Converse, Aron Rose’s hand painted skateboard and spray cans, flyers, pins and candles from Alleged Gallery by the artist surrounding the Lower East Side space in the 1990’s – and much much more. Crisscrossing collective history and personal memory, NYC Ghosts and Flowers accumulates and superimposes diverging moments in time. Shrines usually act as memorials for the lost, but here, these artefacts of creativity, rebellion, and the desire for emancipation seem to evoke the progress we have made so far, while supplying hope for an uncertain future.