MTA Arts & Design has completed four permanent installations at Queens Metro Stations, as part of a programme launched in 1985 to integrate public works into the city’s transport network. The project, which today includes over 400 interventions, alongside permanent installations such as Music Under New York, Poetry in Motion, photo posters and temporary digital works, with the stated goal of making stations more recognizable and more welcoming for passengers.
The new works are located at stations 111 St and 82 St–Jackson Heights on line 7, Woodhaven Blvd on lines J and Z, and Northern Blvd on lines M and R. The agency presents them as interventions designed to reflect cultural characteristics and references of the neighborhoods crossed by the network, in line with a strategy that in recent years has focused on site-specific projects.
At station 111 St is installed Urban Nature by the artist Marco Gallotta, who uses six aluminium panels painted to tell historical and architectural elements of the Corona area. Among the subjects represented are symbols of the 1939-40 and 1964-65 Universal Exhibitions, such as the Unisphere or Rocket Thrower, along with references to the nearby Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Uno dei pannelli ad opera di Marco Gallotta | Photo Credits: Timothy and Aura Chu
At 82 St–Jackson Heights, Feasts in Motion by Kira Nam Greene focuses on the culinary traditions of communities living in the neighborhood. The 24 glass panels made by Depp Glass depict dishes and ingredients associated with many of the local communities, including dumpling, kimchi, Indian curry, Mexican and Latin American cakes, combined with decorative motifs inspired by multiple cultures.
Points of Observation of Kathleen McCarthy, installed at Woodhaven Blvd station, combines copper sculptures dating back to the nineties with new laminated glass panels. The metal mesh heads, made with the repoussé technique, have been relocated by two other stations; The new panels include motifs derived from natural forms such as pine sprouts, plant cell structures and the shell of Terrapin diamondback.
In Northern Blvd, the artist Oscar Oiwa signs Woodside Window, an intervention consisting of three large glass mosaics that represent views of the neighborhood through an aesthetic that combines realistic and imaginary elements. The scenes include a Long Island Rail Road train, neighborhood houses and a representation of the 7 line structure inserted in a saturated city.
The profiles of the artists involved reflect very different paths: Greene, born in Seoul and active in Brooklyn, works between realism and abstraction; Gallotta, originally from Battipaglia, employs paper-cutting techniques and has collaborated with international brands; McCarthy has a background in ecology and environmental restoration projects; Oiwa, a Brazilian artist of Japanese origins, has been working for years in New York with projects ranging from painting to virtual reality.
The interventions presented in Queens are part of a phase in which MTA is renewing infrastructures built mostly between the 1930s and 1960s, adopting materials such as mosaic, laminated glass and metal panels to ensure durability and resistance to stress typical of the underground environment.
L’MTA has installed four new works of art at the Queens metro stations proviene da IlNewyorkese.
