On a summer day in Beverly Hills, furniture designer and maker Tanya Aguiñiga put some coins in a Rodeo Drive parking meter, attached herself to a palm tree, sat down in her parking space, and began to backstrap weave. It didn’t take long for police to show up and demand that she leave, despite her reasoning that she had technically rented that space. They told her it was for her own safety, and pointed her to a nearby park, where her folksy, handmade appearance annoyed some tourists hoping to get photos of the large Beverly Hills sign behind her. The complete interview is up over on the southern California community news site KCET.
I enjoy the contrast of something so DIY happening on one of America’s most well-known and elite shopping streets.
12 thoughts on “Criminal Crafting: Tanya Aguiñiga vs. The Beverly Hills Police”
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Crazy to call out the police and a helicopter for an artist who wasn’t bothering anyone. Imagine how much money they wasted just firing up that copter.
If they were concerned that she might get hit by a car (really?) I wonder how they would have reacted to her if she had been sitting in the back of a pick-up truck or on the hood of her car?
Honestly, I don’t see her point on taking up a parking space or being in front of the sign. That would actually be very annoying. I don’t care about Beverly Hills or the ridiculous people that live there, but seriously she’s disrespecting the people that care about that crap. I’d be pretty p*ssed if some girl was purposely in the way.
that is the point…she would rather be activating the space instead of a car…she rented it- this is a performance piece that gets people thinking!
I don’t think I would be brave enough to sit in a parking spot here in Florida, I don’t know if people drive the same there, but I almost got ran over a number of times standing in a parking lot. not to mention sitting.
While I am all for art in public and doing performance pieces, she needs to keep it out of the road/traffic. Someone could easily have tried to pull in there and not even seen her. It sounds like there was a park nearby and I am sure she could have gathered a small crowd on a different tree AND would have been able to comfortably talk to them about her craft.