Touring NYC: The NYC Subway Art Tour (Part 6 of 6)

Our 3 hour tour is nearing its end, but not before we visit two more stations.  From Delancey Street, we took a short ride to Broadway and Lafayette, a location with historic significance.  .

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:

Nearby, hundreds of years ago, the people who first traversed and inhabited Mannahatta had established trading routes along the paths that became Broadway and Lafayette Street.  To honor that history, artist Mel Chin collaborated with Peter Jemison of the Seneca to create Signal, a collection of campfires and smoke signals in the station.  Installed in 1997 and pictured below, the fires sit at the base of the columns supporting the station floors and ceilings, with the columns appearing as bluish smoke rising from the fires.  As trains arrive and depart, the fires light and fade. Along the tiled walls appear symbols; the symbols possibly represent smoke signals of peace.  According to the MTA website, the artist Mel Chin believes that "art should 'provoke greater social awareness and responsibility'" and that Signal fosters that goal..

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:  Campfire with smoke rising

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:  Lighted campfire signaling arrival of a train

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:  Smoke signals along the station wall

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:

From the Broadway side of the station, we crossed over to the Bleecker Street side where we found Hive, an overhead collection of ever-changing LED lights in honeycomb shapes (pictured below).  Artist Leo Villareal installed the artwork in 2012.  

According to the MTA website, Hive has a "reference to games. Riders will be able to identify individual elements within a larger context and track this movement.  The work explores the compulsion to recognize patterns and the brain’s hard coded desire to understand and make meaning.  The patterns also take inspiration from the research of the mathematician John Conway who invented the Game of Life, the best-known cellular automata program. Hive (Bleecker Street) speaks to a diverse audience - it is abstract and evocative and can have many different meanings. It creates an experience for riders through changing patterns presented in randomized progression. Overall, the piece resonates with the activity of the station, transportation network and the city itself."

That description uses some pretty big words.  All we know is that the lights are cool and fun to watch.  Click here for a video of the changing lights.

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:  Photo of Hive installed on the station ceiling.  The name Hive is certainly appropriate.  This particular station is a hive of activity with two subway lines connecting here and worker bees constantly moving in every direction.

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:  Original terra cotta marker, B for Bleecker Street.  Or B for Bendlin?

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:  Original terra cotta marker

Astor Place Station:

From Bleecker Street, we ventured to Astor Place, the last stop.  There we found some original artwork from a century ago plus a modern interpretation of the original artwork.

Astor Place is named for John Jacob Astor who made a fortune in fur trading (and later real estate).  Accordingly, when the station was first built, it decorated with a bevy of beavers (pictured below).  Fast forward eight decades and a famous New York artist adds to the original artwork by re-interpreting it.  Artist Milton Glaser trained his eye on the geometric shapes in the corner of the original beaver artwork and created Untitled (1986), a series of large geometric designs using the same shapes and colors as the original artwork

According to the MTA website, "Glaser described his approach as, 'basically a variation on the existing forms.  By extracting fragments of the motifs on the tile panels, enlarging their scale, and placing these pieces in a random pattern, they take on the appearance of a puzzle.'  The result is a series of porcelain enamel panels in geometric patterns and color that echo the historic elements but present them in an entirely new way."

Astor Place Station:  Station marker and name

Astor Place Station:  Original terra cotta and tile artwork depicting a busy beaver gnawing a tree

Astor Place Station:  Untitled by Milton Glaser (1986)

Thanks for joining us on the subway art tour.  We hope you enjoyed it.  We did!  

It turns out that our skilled guide Phil Desiere leads another subway art tour that visits different stations.  We are looking forward to another adventure underground.  

P.S.  If you are wondering why we referred to Milt Glaser as a famous artist, there is a very good reason.  Please see below, which also happens to describe how we feel about New York City.

Designed by Milton Glaser (1977)