A Lower East Side boutique, La Petite Mort -- which comfortably sells overpriced vintage clothing to gentrifiers who only want to look poor -- has it out for NYC's Welcome Ambassador Taylor Swift. Yesterday, the New York artist Clayton Patterson, who documented New York's bohemian set in the 80s, made a video response to Taylor Swift's "Welcome To New York." Now, La Petite Mort has commissioned the legendary graffiti artist Chico for another rebuttal. The Orchard St. mural reads, "RIP Taylor Swift," which we can only assume is an eye-for-an-eye death threat against the "latte toting" singer who is single-handedly out to ruin New York City. To put it lightly, the mural is a bit much.
The boutique told Bowery Boogie:
While we realize and appreciate that New York is ever changing, when a starving artist once representative of the New York spirit is replaced by the modern 19 million dollar condo owner who drinks lattes we have to shake our heads.
We worked with a true NY graffiti legend (Chico LES) to paint our take on the situation. Chico got his start painting memorial murals in the lower east side in the 80's. While Taylor Swift is alive and well, and we wish her no harm, she did kill off yet another piece of that broken New York spirit. The idea of her being our spokesperson is DEAD and we expressed that through a true ny artist. RIP TAYLOR SWIFT.
We've got a few issues with this, um, impassioned speech, but perhaps the most pressing problem is the glib use of the word/the phenomenon/the frothy drink "latte" as an insult and a reductive buzzword that, at this point, doesn't mean much. Especially if the store that's using it is selling $65 thrifted snapbacks.
[h/t Gothamist]