In an unexpected alliance, WS Development recruited the Sweden-based artist collective AnonyMouse to create some of its signature miniature installations in and around Boston amid the developer’s properties. In an email exchange, Yasha Mouskewitz said the group is a “loosely connected network of mice and men” who don’t want the focus to be on them. And the base changes from one project to the next depending on the skills that are needed.

 
AnonyMouse started out doing street art for children and is happy to continue to make public art for children when the right situation presents itself. Their inches-high streetscapes in “Mouseachusetts” include the “Massachusetts Mouseum of Fine Art” and other stores like “Whiskers & Tail” that offers alterations, repair and formal hire. The 10 diminutive structures can be found in five WS properties including the shopping-heavy Boston Seaport district and The Street Chestnut Hill in nearby Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. “We are not really interested in the commercial aspect of this. We don’t promote a specific shop or brand,” Mousekewitz said.

 
AnonyMouse didn’t have any reservations about doing such a commercial project or having followers see the collective as a sellout. Noting how WS Development has worked with contemporary artists in the past, the group considered the alliance to be a good fit.

 
“We don’t want our installations to sell anything. We are a bit stubborn about letting art be art. And they let us do that. We are happy to make public art and our focus is always on bringing something whimsical to an otherwise forgotten part of a street,” Mouskewitz said.

 
Keeping their identity under wraps enhances “the idea that we can be whoever the observer wants us to be. Also, the children can believe it was built by mice, if there is no human face for it,” one of the artists explained. “We don’t want the focus to be on us; we want it to feel real.”

 
By Rosemary Feitelberg

 
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