A Hilarious Installation Documenting 114 Years of Unintentional Art Within the NYC Subway System
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MTA Museum (@mtamuseum) on Nov 14, 2018 at 7:58pm PST
MTA is not just old. It's the history of New York.
The MTA Museum is a hilarious, free installation that documents the disgusting but unintentional art that has formed within New York City subway stations over its 114 year history. The "Museum" had its grand opening at the Bedford L Station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and some of the historical art tagged, labeled and displayed includes "Untitled / Butt Pattern", a statement of rebellion of the 1900s; "What Dreams Are Made Of", a work developed over time; "We Got You Man", a symbol of growing up too fast and "Stairway to Heaven", an expression of freedom, just to name a few.
Title: Untitled / Butt Pattern, 1900s: As a political statement on transit and the concept of rest, millions of New Yorkers collaborated over a period of decades to meticulously create these unique patterns using only their posteriors. Title: Stairway to Heaven, 1904: At the turn of the century, the MTA installed these analog climbing structures to empower New Yorkers without access to gym memberships or personal trainers. These architectural pieces also helped because there weren't elevators yet. Title: What Dreams Are Made Of, 1904
This pillar represents a piece of live collaborative art, and has been slowly created over 114 years with hundreds of layers of paints, graffiti and New Yorkers' bodily secretions. Title: We Got You Man: This accidental masterpiece was created by a Williamsburg hipster after a multiple rounds of PBRs just hours after his 21st birthday.
I stumbled upon this at the Bedford Avenue L station today. Now I learn that there's a whole series of these faux museum signs. https://t.co/OCcS1UDzgM pic.twitter.com/pJOEjf46aR
- Pat Kiernan (@patkiernan) November 16, 2018
The MTA Museum is also accepting suggestions for further installations elsewhere in the five boroughs.
DM us your own MTA arts with location/ title/ medium /description to be considered.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MTA Museum (@mtamuseum) on Nov 14, 2018 at 8:09pm PST
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MTA Museum (@mtamuseum) on Nov 15, 2018 at 12:15pm PST
At the turn of the century, the MTA installed these analog climbing structures to empower New Yorkers without access to gym memberships or personal trainers. These architectural pieces also helped because there weren't elevators yet.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MTA Museum (@mtamuseum) on Nov 14, 2018 at 7:51pm PST
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MTA Museum (@mtamuseum) on Nov 15, 2018 at 9:10am PST
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MTA Museum (@mtamuseum) on Nov 15, 2018 at 5:01pm PST
via Pat Kernan
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