RepoHistory

RepoHistory was a New York-based activist art collective founded in 1989 that produced unauthorised public history projects in the form of plaques, posters and installations placed at sites throughout New York City. The collective — whose name combined “repo” (repossession) with “history” — countered official historical narratives by marking sites of labour history, political struggle, radical activism and suppressed social memory that had been erased from public commemoration. Projects included Lower Manhattan Sign Project (1989) and Counter Memorials at sites including Union Square and Wall Street. RepoHistory was active through the 1990s and its work appeared in the context of the Whitney ISP exhibition The Power of the City / The City of Power (1992).

  • The Power of the City / The City of Power, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992, front cover, aerial photograph of Manhattan, black-and-white, $5 retail sticker The Power of the City, Whitney ISP, 1992, pp. 18–19, Dennis Adams, Bus Shelter II, 1984–86; David Hammons, Bliz-aard Ball Sale, 1983, black-and-white

    THE POWER OF THE CITY / THE CITY OF POWER, Whitney ISP Papers No. 1, 1992

    THE POWER OF THE CITY / THE CITY OF POWER, Whitney ISP Papers No. 1, 1992