Bronze, bas relief images of ecstatic dancing alligators have surreptitiously appeared on the Dumaine Street bridge over Bayou St. John. The four charmingly comic plaques are apparently the work of a mysterious artist or artists who hopes to remain undercover.
According to a text message from someone named Chompson (which we suspect may be an alias), “the alligator plaques were installed a few days ago by a small detachment of ninjas who then melted away into the night.”
According to Chompson, the project was “fully illicit.”
Bronze plaques depicting dancing alligators appeared on the Dumaine Street bridge over Bayou St. John in June. The artworks were produced and installed anonymously.
It’s not the first time Bayou St. John has been used as an alligator-oriented, guerilla art gallery.
The urban waterway is the home of actual alligators, which some onlookers view as a menace. So, a few years back, someone erected alligator warning signs along the banks of the southernmost stretch of the picturesque body of water.
But by the winter of 2020, one or more talented smart alecks had altered those warning signs into surrealistic celebrations of the aquatic reptiles. The English lettering on one sign was replaced with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Another sign was reimagined as an alligator-oriented Aztec calendar.
Yet another depicted the interactions of alligators and humans on the bayou as a Pac-Man game.
Instead of treating alligators as a danger, the signs seemed to satirize anxiety about them.
A satirical alligator caution sign, by an unknown artist, interprets the interaction of the reptiles and humans on on Bayou St. John as a Pac-Man game.
The new plaques were applied over existing floral paintings on the bridge.
Opinions about unauthorized urban art vary, of course. Some will adore the new plaques, some not.
We believe it is appropriate, even poetic, that the stealthy, somewhat sinister creatures, which some people believe don’t belong along the bayou, are championed by stealthy, gently subversive street artists, who may not belong there either.
Bronze plaques depicting dancing alligators appeared on the Dumaine Street bridge over Bayou St. John in June. The artworks were produced and installed anonymously.
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