Lost & Found is HOTTEA‘s latest project. It took place in Minneapolis, where HOTTEA had found a disused tennis court without a net. With a bit (okay, a lot) of yarn, HOTTEA was able to at least temporarily make the court usable again for tennis. Here’s a timelapse video of the piece being made:
But the story doesn’t end there. HOTTEA’s work actually seems to have made a bit of an impact on at least two local residents. Here’s the story in HOTTEA’s words:
After the net was complete I rounded up some of the local youth to come try it out, tennis racquet’s and all. They loved it! Mission complete. 🙂 I ended up giving the tennis racquets to one of the locals that had a sincere interest to play tennis. I came back a few days later to check up on the net and I happened to run into him again. His name is Abnan. He told me this wonderful story about what had happened to him earlier that day….
He and a friend were playing tennis with the newly installed net and a gentelman stopped by and told Abnan if he and his friend came back later that day at 4:00 he would give them both new racquet’s to play with. Sure enough Abnan and his friend showed up and the man kept his word and gave them both brand new racquet’s and a few tennis balls. I couldn’t have been more excited after he had told me the story.
After hearing Mike Lydon speak about tactical urbanism at Living Walls last week, it’s great to see a street artist trying it out a bit and succeeding so fantastically with such a simple intervention. Street art that improves public space is pretty much the best kind of street art.
Photo courtesy of HOTTEA