If you were driving on Aurora this past Sunday afternoon you may have noticed some new billboards. Actually, they weren’t billboards, they were bed sheets with words written on them, and a group of Aurora neighbors were hanging them from various places along the corridor.
“Sex Is Beautiful,” read the sign held by three young women outside of the Voyeur Adult Toys & DVDs, located near 105th, a place many consider to be a mini-red light district – home to multiple sex and porn shops, the lusty lattes of Chicka Latte, prostitution "Watch Area" signs that hint at the presence of the world's oldest profession, and a potential pancake house-turned-strip club.
Cars honked their horns as they drove by the simple sign. Were they honking in support of the Voyeur? In support of the sign? Both?
While it has been said that beauty is in the eye of the voyeur – I mean, beholder – these sign holders seemed to have a certain idea in mind about what beauty is – and is not. “We wanted to draw attention to some of the fractured things in our community, such as prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation,” said Jay Stringer, one of the participants in this public art project.
Sex, or sexual exploitation, wasn’t the only thing on their mind. Suicide was too. The group was seen hanging a banner from the Aurora Bridge, where over 200 hundred people, according to a recent Stranger article, have ended their life with a jump since the bridge’s completion in 1932. On top of what some call “Suicide Span” or “Fremont Falls,” the group of Aurora neighbors – one who said he lives almost directly under the bridge – contributed their own commentary: “Life Is Beautiful.”
According to the group, the idea for this art project, and in particular the Aurora Bridge piece, came out of conversations with a group of musicians, Urban Hymnal, who are performing an Aurora-themed concert this Saturday night. One of the Urban Hymnal members, Zadok Wartes, remembers being annoyed about an Aurora traffic jam in November due to a man being on the verge of jumping off the bridge. Later, he says, it hit him: “This is a human being; this is a life we’re talking about!” As a result, the band decided to musically and artistically explore issues contextual to Aurora – and to wonder also if there is any hope.
That’s where the final sign comes in. As drivers headed out of downtown and began to enter motel-central, as they got deeper into what Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman called Aurora’s "visual garbage," they were welcomed with the words “Aurora Means Dawn,” which hung from the pedestrian overpass at 40th and Aurora. According to Jay, “While we wanted to draw attention to what is ailing in our community, we also wanted to invite ourselves and our neighbors into the possibility of what the dawn of a new day might hold for Aurora – a day we must all be part of forming.”
Suicide. Sexual exploitation. “Visual garbage.” Crime. Run-down motels. Hope?
Hopefully.
Entitled, “The Bridge, the Corner, & the Dawn,” the Urban Hymnal concert will explore themes of sex, suicide, and hope along the Aurora corridor. The concert is at 6pm and 8pm this Saturday night at Bethany Community Church (8023 Green Lake Dr. N). The photos used here and the banners in the photos will be used as part of the concert art. The photos are used courtesy of the Aurora artists.
