Above and Under NYC
There is no other city in the world that is as alive as NYC. There is nothing New York doesn’t have. It has every culture, every store, most unbelievable architecture, basically anything you can think of, NYC has. Because it has so much to offer, coming up with an original theme was a little harder than I anticipated. However one mundane morning on the way to school I had an epiphany. I noticed the form of art, which I have never paid much attention to before, the art in NYC subway, which depicts something in New York.
Every day thousands of people get on the train. However because in NYC everyone is so preoccupied with their own things, people are too busy to stop for a second, to pay attention and to enjoy the art that is all around them, even under the streets of NYC. Art that is generally found in NYC subways is Mosaic art. Many famous artists, such as Elizabeth Murray tried to make our every day a little brighter by creating art in probably the dullest place in NYC, the subway.
Once I came up with a theme, I thought the most difficult part of the project was over, but little did I know that the real difficulty was just ahead. Snapping pictures left and right of the Art in NYC is a bit dull, therefore to make it more interesting I decided to match the art that I found underground with something on the streets of New York. For example I found a mosaic art of a coffee cup and matched it with a coffee shop above ground. After all, art in NYC subways is the imitation of the life on the streets of New York.
Coming up with an original concept and idea, I thought the most difficult part was over. Because NYC is so big, I looked up mosaic arts that I found interesting and wrote down their locations with intention of going there and taking a picture of the arta. The first mosaic that I found interesting was on 57th and Lexington. It was “Blooming” by Elizabeth Murray. I knew there is a Bloomingdales literary 30 feet above that mosaic and I decided to match the two. Once I got to 57th and Lexington, the station was a little bigger than I anticipated. I was running up and down the stairs, asking the MTA workers where I can find that mosaic, but none of them seemed to know. If it weren’t for an elderly woman overhearing my conversation and pointing me in the right direction I might have never found the art I was looking for. This further proves my point that there so many people in NYC who are so preoccupied, that they are oblivious to the art that is all around them. If people were to stop and appreciate such arts, they would have been a lot happier going around their every day lives.
The difference between NYC subway art and that found at museums is that we stumble upon it outside of the context of the gallery every single day. Some people think that in order to see a piece of art they would have to visit a museum. This is certainly not true. Different forms of art are all around us and in New York City you’re almost guaranteed to stumble upon it every day whether or not you’re conscious of that.
There are not many assignments that are exciting, but this one certainly was. No one can be forced to appreciate art in NYC, but if everyone had to do a street photography project at one point in life, his or her perception of art might change. New York is full of different forms of art, out only job is to appreciate it.
