Blooming Under 59th Street

"It's for workers.  I had this vision of people getting up really early, half in a dream state, putting on their clothes, drinking a cup of coffee and getting on the subway to go to work.."     

Elizabeth Murray

   Whether Elizabeth Murray, the creator of this mural entitled "Blooming" (1996) truly had the workers in mind when she designed this artwork in not in question.  What is in question is the effect this space has upon these workers.  She further adds, ''A lot of people don't look. But they hesitate a second before they walk in. I think it's the color. They are hit by the color in some way.''   Hit is an understatement.  Assaulted is more accurate.  Jarred, bludgeoned, accosted,  or assailed are also appropriate adjectives to describe the sensation which strikes one rising from the number 4/5 platform. Perhaps Murray is right about the color, or more precisely the garish use of color, or maybe it is the bulbous, graffiti like shapes which conjure in each person threatening images from the City's collective unconscious of 1970's Manhattan where rampant graffiti and violence in the subways was the accepted norm. 

The natural instinct is for one not to stop and linger in wonderment at the artist's bold use of color but to quickly identify which escalator will take one out of this room as quickly as possible.  It does not give the worker a reprieve on his morning commute, but helps ensure he moves along as quickly as possible. 

 

The Problem of Evil

 

    

   Earlier this year a man in Brooklyn soaked a roll of toilette paper in paint thinner, then with his cigarette lighter lit it ablaze. He tossed the fireball into a baby carriage near the entrance of his crowded apartment building which quickly set fire to the stairs and blocked the entrance to firefighters.  Five people died..  When asked by police why he did it, he replied "Demons made me."  I couldn't help but recall this story as I walked past these posters in Union Square.   I find these posters, the obvious product of a very misguided mind, rather unsettling. While demon possession isn't looked upon these days as a strong defence in court, the problem of evil does still exist.        

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Underground Time Travel

 

It was waiting for us. An apparition. I expected to see it shrouded in steam or smoke, a scene from Brief Encounter, but the train just sat there at the 2nd Ave Station like any other subway car on a Sunday morning.  It was the normality of the whole affair which made the experience that much more surreal.  Despite this being a train made up of 6 cars, each from a different time period ranging from 1920 to 1960, there were no announcements, no fanfare, no brass bands or reporters making a spectacle of things. The price of admission: a Metro Card. The conductors called out, "Next Stop Broadway Lafayette!" the doors shut and we were off barreling down the "V" line from 2nd Ave Manhattan making all local stops to Queens Plaza.

At each station the reaction from people on the platform was the same: a strange mix of bewilderment, confusion, and blank stares as people made quick mental calculations as to the probability of this train getting them to where they needed to go.  The train stopped, the doors opened, people got off, more got on, the doors shut, and we were off to the next stop.  A group of Italian tourists looked particularly distressed as they worriedly looked over the wicker covered seats, green painted metal ceiling fans, and vintage advertisements running the length of the car.  Their worry quickly gave way to more mundane matters as a subway map suddenly appeared out of a handbag and soon they were consumed only with getting to the destination of the day. 

****  This train runs each Sunday in December until New Years between 2nd Ave and Queens Plaza, making all local stops.  The rest of the year one can find it at the Transit Museum off Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn.

Holiday Train Show at NY Botanic Gardens

 

"Manhattanism:  to exist in a world totally fabricated by man, i.e. to live inside fantasy."

Rem Koolhass - Delirious New York

In a city so removed from nature that the only natural elements are sky and air; where there exists a relentless assault on the senses, the constant detonation of sound and permanence of garish light, to see the City reconstructed of tree bark and twigs, acorns and leaves, is to enter a fantastic delirium.

The glow radiating from these models transports one to an alternate reality, to a fantasy within the fantasy we call Manhattan.

No one is immune to this fantasy, and each viewer looks upon this creation with a joy springing from hidden memories finally revealed through the fabrication of a place that never existed.

  

It is the quality of fabricated memories which are the mark of a truly great city.  Only a city like New York is great enough to be refashioned from tree bark and still retain its imaginative power.

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