Andreas Jaeggi:
"Village Cigars NY #10"
Pencil & Color Pencil on Watercolor Paper
20" x 28"
2012

What is a symbol? A recognisable visual sign representing some invisible meaning.

For a very long time after my partner Ron Rubey started working as a dancer at the Osnabrueck Theater in Germany, he kept his old apartment on Christopher Street which starts on the right side of the depicted Village Cigars store. We returned to New York many times during our summer holiday time between the theater seasons and spent most of our precious vacation time cleaning the apartment and repairing the damage the subleters had left behind since our last stay. After numerous such experiences, I'm no longer afraid neither of mice nor cockroaches, nor do I shy away "in the fair month of May" from cleaning up the glitter and sequins, which were a reminder of a now distant New Year's Eve party, off the floor behind the toilet. There never was enough time to climb to the top of the Empire State Building, but instead, I often visited Ron's cigarette store. Back then Ron smoked like a chimney but has since become a militant non-smoker. The one thing I could usually talk him into was a visit to the Frick Collection and it goes without saying, that after the cleaning orgies, there was never a shortage of the night life activities which took place in this area back then.

The poster-like view of this store in the heart of the West Village has become a two-fold symbol for me: first it stands for the excitment which connects me with this city and this particular quarter; secondly, it is like the inscription on a tombstone which is dedicated to so many of my friends who are now deceased.

(further works "Village Cigars NY")