And now its time for a mid-year intermission to pause and reflect upon the events that have happened in the first act. We’ve had plenty of treachery, intrigue, jailbirds and back alley suspense. Clearly it is time for a serendipitous summer romance, with Tristan Eaton as director.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An historic reenactment of sorts, this scene is usually full of its own drama; the painting of the Houston Wall in Manhattan appears once again on this drive-by screen, crammed with special effects as multi-talent Tristan Eaton explodes for days with the coursing traffic roaring and halting and honking and rumbling behind him.

The action unfolds and cameras are ablaze as documentors are there to capture it, including the stalwart Martha Cooper, the in-flight Zane Meyer, and our own private-eye Jaime Rojo.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan’s cunning recombinative practice of recalling images from pop, television, cinema, and advertising languages, selecting many of their most emotionally charged aspects in exquisite fullness is all leveled here with a tropical lushness almost never found in this forbidding city, safely encased behind a protective gloss.

It’s the nostalgic stuff of marquees and beige canvas directors chairs, patterned jacquard wall tapestry, crimson velvet curtains, butter soaked popcorn, sticky floors and a certain smokey Saturday matinee reefer madness. This all once reigned in cinematic and tawdry Manhattan; mixing showgirls and space scientists and dames with sex-workers and 25 cent peepholes. Of course, the glam and the grind are all still here in Gotham – they’ve just become uberized and swiped right.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eaton’s influences from Sunset Boulevard and Detroit’s motor city grit translate well here in the thick of our own version of mid-summers’ insouciance. It’s all hustle, hormones, and a finely pulsating particulate matter that sticks to you; a humid cloud of complex desires clinging to your skin, now flickering in warm succulence as you ride by on your wheels.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our guy on the street rolled past the one-man show many times over the past couple of weeks to check on progress and mingle with the ever-more-gilded gentry that frequent the sidewalks/runways here. Cuffed tonal highwaters, PVC wedges and fugly white dad sneakers aside, New Yorkers still walk the walk and have a certain respect for their Street Art, if only to pose before it for the 1,000th selfie.

The affable showman Eaton is not shy for the endlessly inquisitive fan, either – ready to layer on additional color and texture. For this particular intermission, our summer romance will continue long into autumn’s golden glow.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton photo bombs Jessica Goldman, Sheryo and Martha Cooper. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)