Next time you're walking to Ritual or the Juice Shop, or passing through Patricia's Green, keep an eye out for a somewhat subtle art installation.
A green rotary-style phone, mounted on a green piece of plywood, has been installed on a stop sign at Octavia and Hayes streets. If you pick up the receiver and put it to your ear, you'll hear a crooning voice singing the 1974 R&B song "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City."
On the phone's handle is the number 777-669-TURD. Calling the number results in a voice-warped message that states, "Hello, you've reached bored. If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I've got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one. Leave a message after the beep." The lyrics (if you're not familiar with them), are from the song "99 Problems" by Jay-Z.
As for the song Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City, it's not without a loaded connotation. Jay Z once did an interpretational cover of it, as have a large number of musicians such as the Allman Brothers, Lukas Graham, and GrIZ. Music critics have claimed it's a statement on urban poverty and homelessness, both issues that San Francisco is all-too familiar with.
(Photo: Nuala Sawyer / Hoodline)
The anonymous bored has signed the piece, though whether this is the work of one artist or several is unclear. In 2013, a similar piece featuring a telephone was installed in Chicago, and played Jay-Z.
In 2012, bored built a large-scale Monopoly game, also in Chicago.
After the latter piece was installed, a journalist from Colossal managed to get in touch with bored via email. Describing the street art, bored stated, "the goal of this entire project has been to present something different than a stencil painted on the ground or a poster pasted to a wall. Something 3-dimensional that can be picked up, beaten down, kicked, yanked, grabbed, and broken. And if someone ever put forth the effort to remove it, like a weed it will always grow back. And if left alone it will evolve into something different.”
Have you seen any more work by bored in San Francisco, or anywhere else? Let us know.
