Two artists came together this past week for the first time to make physical their Google Sheet renderings for a new proposed mural in Bushwick, whose work was unveiled with a party on Wednesday July 20th at the corner of Thames and Bogart (on the Bogart facing brick wall of Syndicated).

Photo by Cristin Noonan for Bushwick Daily.

The Art of Collaboration: From Sheets, to the Streets is a partnership between Refinery29 and Google—and is also a fierce, feminist hand-painted mural.

Designed to showcase the perceived limitations of working within the confines of Google Sheets and how a similar roadblock exists for women, the core of the piece conjures an empowering breaking through the glass ceiling-like bliss and was enacted at a technical level via hacking the spreadsheet itself.

Barcelona-based freelance designer and graphic artist Marina Esmeraldo and NYC based full-time designer Mallory Heyer were strangers when they collaborated over Google Hangouts just a few months ago when, for the sake of art, they were tasked with pushing through the confines of Google Sheets’ digital cells: “resizing cells into thousands of pixel-like squares, merging cells to create blocks, and creating vibrant color gradients with conditional formatting,” elaborates Google rep, a spokesperson for the artists.

From spreadsheet to bricks, Esmeraldo and Heyer’s alliance has resulted in a 13 by 34 feet hand-painted mural, the first piece of digital art in NYC history born of a collaboration between strangers working in different countries.

The mural will be up until mid-August, so we all have plenty of time to bask in some great feminist art:

Photo by Cristin Noonan for Bushwick Daily