Three tech “pranksters” are holding a contest — deadline April 7 — for a public art project that will transform a barren alley in SF’s Sunset District into a 1,280-piece art quilt. The friends recently purchased the alley from a couple who mistakenly thought they were buying a nearby duplex.
Last fall, when news broke that a local couple bought what later became dubbed a “dirt alley” in San Francisco’s Sunset District for $25,000 at a city foreclosure auction — mistakenly thinking it was the duplex next door, a group of tech engineers decided to take it off their hands for $26,000 and turn it into a public art project, as first reported by the SF Standard.
The group of friends who purchased the alley — Patrick Hultquist, Theo Bleier, and Riley Walz, launched a website Wednesday inviting artists and community members to submit entries to their “Paint a Street” contest. The deadline is Tuesday, April 7 at noon, and they'll be choosing 1,280 "winners," as the Chronicle reports.
Walz told KPIX that the group met during board-game night, and they also reportedly created last year’s Pursuit scavenger hunt. Walz is also the mastermind behind a suite of apps that have gotten him labeled a tech “prankster,” including the infamous Find My Parking Cops, which was swiftly shut down by the SFMTA within a day, as SFist reported.
The friends had also reportedly tried to purchase an alley in Noe Valley two years ago through a city foreclosure auction, but it was slightly out of their price range at $33,000.
The artwork will consist of a 1,280-panel quilt, and while the organizers haven’t decided which medium will be used for the artwork, they’re reportedly thinking they’ll use decals of some sort on the pavement. Per the Chronicle, they aim for the collaborative quilt to become a destination site like Clarion Alley in the Mission.
“It’s not so different than a home movie or something like that, except it involves a large part of the city,” Hultquist said.
As KPIX points out, Patrick and his friends are helping a neighbor out of a bad real estate deal while creating a neighborhood landmark for the rest of the city to enjoy.
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Image: Paint a Street
