Concept development, maps, drawings and signage analysis by Evan Allen
Initial concept, data mining and story by Nicola Twilley
El Pollo Local was published in the Food Issue of The New City Reader, a newspaper on architecture, public space and the city. The New City Reader was published as part of “The Last Newspaper,” an exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City from October 6, 2010 – January 9, 2011.
The urban fried chicken is a migratory bird. Restaurants and fast food outlets around the city ornament their facades with neon lights and vinyl letters, announcing the global origins of their crispy-coated cuisine to passersby. Our imaginary atlas of New York chicken geography draws on these street-level annotations, redistricting neighborhoods according to their dominant regional cooking style and associated signage, in order to offer an alternative way of understanding and navigating the chicken city.
