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JASON THRASHER BEN EMANUEL
Elvo. seen skating at the old‘downtown Athens skate park sometime in the mid-1990s.
to Savannah and started a welding apprentice
ship with a company run by his wife's family.
In November of 1997, he died in a construction
accident there. Davis, living in Texas at the time,
drove directly to Gray, GA for Elvo's funeral when
he heard the news. Scores of stunned skaters
and bikers—many of whom would soon get tat
toos depicting a lowercase e within a circle, as
tributes to Elvo—were at the funeral. From there,
after the service, Davis and two friends drove
straight to the skate park downtown. With his
friends posted as lookouts, Davis painted "Man
Down" and l<x>6 on the brick wall of the former
recap plant, and the three of them left. "It was
really weird," he recalls. "The three of us didn't
talk about it." They never heard anything about
it, either, and so the stark memorial remained.
H angartner describes being "touched" by
Davis' story, and says she was thrilled
when he called her about repainting "Man
Down" (the new version actually appears as one
word: "MANDOWN"). She notes it's "a piece of
work that has historic meaning to the builJing,
and that was there when I got the building."
Hangartner says the story and the attendant
piece speak to "to the history of the building
and of our block—but also to community and
friendship." Both aspects are important. With
Cine, Hangartner has accomplished a striking
re-use of an old downtown building, and all the
characteristics of its history are important to her.
On the concrete floor inside, for example—just
across the wall from the "Man Down" piece—the
following was written in black spraypaint at
some point in the past: "No Mere Mortal Can
Resist... Thriller." This graffiti, like "Man Down,"
will remain, because it's a part of the building's
story. There is even an added element to the new
incarnation of "Man Down:" the e-in-circle sym
bol, like Elvo's tattoo. Hangartner was happy to
know that would be included: "We had brought
this mural from the past into the present—made
a new work out of it."
Oddly enough, the story doesn't quite end
there. As most folks were headed home from work
on the evening of Jan. 10, when Davis returned
to paint the endorsed, permanent version of
"Man Down," a policeman acting on a tip came
to put a stop to what he thought was vandalism.
Davis and Cine staff were able to convince him
otherwise. Still, however, a policeman returned a
few days later to borrow the right color of paint
and paint over the piece. Fortunately, Hangartner
had instructed the painters to keep the graffiti,
so they didn't hand over any paint, and the piece
was preserved. Now, with a small plaque tacked
to the wall to describe it, she's made it clear that
the piece is to stay. (Still, she notes, "I don't
want to discourage the police from coming out
when somebody calls them, and I don't want to
send a message that this is an open wall.") In
the end, Hangartneris building has all the ele
ments she'd hoped it would have, and Davis' me
morial to his friend has a home. Both of them, of
course, are appreciative. "She didn't even know
what it meant, but she wanted to keep it," says
Davis. "That says something to me."
Ben Emanuel ben@flagpole.com
The new version, here to stay: "I’m just glad it’s up there," says John Davis.
Student
Photo
Show
Tate
Gallery
Call For Entries
Entries due
February 27th
between llam-3pm
in the Tate Gallery
Applications and more info
can be found at
www.uga.edu/union
or (706) 542-6396
sponsored by
frfCampusLife
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