Peter Scott
Public Sentiment
Postcards from New York
Backroom: a video by The Yes Men
January 15-March 15, 2026
Opens: Thursday, January 15, 6-8pm
Citygroup
104b Forsyth St,
New York, NY 10009
They're in pretty much every neighborhood now, their luxury branding getting somewhat less plausible as the surroundings get more and more "gritty". No block can be without one (or two, or three). The first signs are demolished buildings that make way for empty lots bound by rickety plywood fencing, painted a kind of park bench green. Scaffolding is quickly erected in a circus-is-coming-to-town frenzy, the sidewalk encased in cold shade for an indeterminate period.
Like some form of interplanetary life announcing their arrival and that they mean us no harm, a vision of what's to come is ceremoniously placed on the freshly painted green fencing. Smooth, frictionless, and futuristic, the arrival of these visionary renderings of the life-to-come does not always bode well for the locals. Often drastically at odds with their surroundings (not to mention the necessary chaos required for their realization) these visions of the future dream big, betraying an urbanism perfected and groomed through the intricacies of lifestyle culture, sprinkling endless “features” within to make up for any lack without.
But they don't stop there. As the original site has been purged of whatever "inefficiencies" that may have led to the previous building's demise, the amenity packed interior of this new arrival must eventually permeate the building's surroundings. Enjoying the indoor common space, pool table, swimming pool, and en suite sky garages has its appeal, but if you can't (eventually) match the first class life inside with the same standard of living outside then perhaps the developer's grand dreams have failed. The "new" New York must always push ahead. Perpetually shadowed by the dark 1970's memories of "Taxi Driver" and "Ford to City, Drop Dead", the only way forward is fulfilling the pervasive dreams of the good life plastered on sidewalk sheds across the city.
As the material reality of the dream begins to take shape behind and above the plywood barriers, the messaging that announced its inevitable arrival plays host to an array of expressions, opinions and markings, many of which are not in sync with the hoped for harmony embodied in the renderings. Under the shadows of the scaffold, statements are being made. Reacting, often unfavorably, to the blanketing of the city with generic luxury styling, a kind of polling station has emerged. Through graffiti, profanity and humor, the public speaks.
Presenting a somewhat random selection of these responses as postcards which document statements that often contradict the ubiquitous messaging of lifestyle culture’s dreamlike city, the postcards in "Public Sentiment" are accompanied by anecdotes revealing contradictions and tensions within the relentless efforts to groom the city into a seamless path to lifestyle fulfillment, which often threaten to purge any obstacles that might lie in its path.
Peter Scott is an artist, writer, and curator and director of the non-profit gallery Carriage Trade,
Many thanks to Citygroup and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts for their support of this project, and Laura Li, Fia Powers, and John Schabel for their invaluable help in realizing it