The Washington Post "A Flaky Slice of Americana"

by Alona Wartofsky

Grand Army Plaza is the site of some of Brooklyn's most magnificent structures, including the monumental Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch and the imposing, neoclassical Brooklyn Central Library. And, for a few weeks this spring, a tiny white cottage with pale blue shutters and window boxes that has materialized in front of the library.

The one-room house is an art installation created by a Brooklyn artist, Anissa Mack. Titled "Pies for a Passerby," the piece consists of this picturesque little cottage, complete with red-and-white checkered gingham curtains, in which Mack bakes apple pies from scratch, one at a time. The artist then places the pie on a windowsill to cool —and, presumably, to be snatched by an opportunistic bystander.

Mack was inspired by a classic image of Americana: an apple pie cooling on a windowsill, tempting even the most principled passerby. "This is such an American symbol, an American cliche," says Mack, 32. "It's very familiar and it can carry different meanings."

TO READ MORE, please download PDF

or read online here