Louis Vuitton Crack House

Information
Art Type
Media / Materials
Collection
Year Completed
2013
Credit
Jordan Weber
Information Resources
Location
Latitude & Longitude
41.600642, -93.636755
Location Description
East of Keosauqua Way; located on the north side of University Avenue at 14th Place

Louis Vuitton Crack House

Share This Page
[December 2013], in the dead of winter, Weber began painting Louis Vuitton logos on a boarded-up house at 15th Street and University Avenue.

Within about four minutes, the building’s owner pulled up beside him.

“He was like, ‘What are you doing here?’ ” Weber said. “Because there’s a history with people chilling and doing whatever kind of drug in that house.”

Turns out the guy was a friend of Weber’s uncle, he said, so he explained the idea behind the project. Part of the idea, he said, is to bring down the much-idolized French fashion house from haughty heights of materialism to the less luxe streets of Des Moines.

“He was all for it,” Weber said.

Last week, a photo Weber took of the Louis Vuitton house ended up on the Facebook page of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan as an example of “illegal dumping, graffiti, dilapidation and other forms of blight” that residents should report.

“Wrong city Mayor Quan!” Weber commented under the post. An apology later came, apparently from Quan’s assistant. Weber offered his blight-to-art services in return, and said more such projects would be on the way.

“There will be more attempts to shock my generation … hopefully resulting in action away from material possessions,” he wrote under the post.

— Hafner, Josh. “Des Moines man makes statement as artful activist.” The Des Moines Register 22 March 2014. Wire, Print.

View of the northeast side of the house.
View of the northeast side of the house.