Brooklyn artist turns manholes and a tiny house into steamy masterpieces

It’s one part inspiration, one part condensation.

That’d be Brooklyn artist Mark A. Reigelmän’s roaming installation “Smokers,” which has been popping up on city streets since December.

 

Acting with stealth and speed, Reigelmän and his team place a tiny gray wooden cottage over steaming manholes so that the cloud of mist billows though the chimney.

“The process has been challenging and experimental to say the least,” Reigelmän tells the Daily News.

The show was inspired by German Räuchermann — small carved incense burners in shapes including houses. Reigelmän, whose focus is site-specific work, originally hoped to do a “a sit-down installation” that would stay in place for a period of time.

“We reached out to Con Ed in hopes of securing permits,” he says. “But this ended up being a guerilla operation.”

He and a network of friends and artists maintain “a running list of steaming manholes to use,” he says. Time is of the essence because once Con Ed caps it with one of its orange-and-white striped chimney tubes, he’s missed his shot.

 

When all systems are go, the 350-pound house, which he keeps in a parking spot by his apartment, is hauled by rented truck and trailer to the site. It’s rolled into place as traffic allows. The tiny home looks picture perfect. The belching chimney is the cherry on top.

“Some people think it’s an ad for something,” says Reigelmän, 32. “Smokers” has taken up fleeting residence at Broadway and Grand Avenue in SoHo, First Avenue and 12th Street in the East Village, and Park Avenue and 27th Street in Midtown.

Currently he is doing “reconnaissance on about 14 intersections in Lower Manhattan.”

So far the NYPD has been tolerant of the idea that home is where the art is, he says.

 

“One cop came up and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ When I explained, he said, ‘All right. Be careful.’”

Still, traffic concerns dictate a quick-hit exhibition.

“The first installation was up between stop lights,” he says. “In some instances, when there’s space, we’ve been able to leave the house up for a longer period. It’s like a car that’s double parked.”

While he’s careful not tell people what the meaning is, Reigelmän says the show explores “ephemera” and “the American Dream. A home is still what everyone wants.”

That’s not just blowing smoke.