The All-Knowing New Yorker
“Eerie” is a word I would often use to describe the pathways within the Chambers Street – World Trade Center Station complex, a place I frequented twice a day during my high school years and continue to stop at every Friday on my way home from Brooklyn College. It was not the low ceiling nor the peeling paint that conjured this sensation (for these traits are commonplace across subway stations throughout the city), but the numerous mosaic eyes that are lined up horizontally to decorate the white, tiled walls. It is as though the eyes in the panels watch you, and given that they are scattered throughout this expansive complex, there are no angles from which you are free from their fixated stares.
Andrew Ginzel and Kristen Jones created this public arts project, called Oculus, in 1998. The duo compiled photographs of the eyes of hundreds of New Yorkers and recreated each one using stone and glass tiles. The centerpiece of the project, located in the Park Place Station is a circular floor, also a mosaic designed with stone and glass, depicting one large eye surrounded by the seven continents.
The artwork may present the themes of omniscience and unity in diversity. Although the eyes belong to different New Yorkers, they represent a population that is recognized globally for their livid, fast-paced lifestyle. New Yorkers are seen as worldly people that are well aware of where they come from and where they are going. The eye is often used in artwork as a symbol of wisdom or the capability of knowing everything. To some, like myself, it represents dominance and control, which may explain the intimidating feel from the mosaics.
Assuming this interpretation is accurate, the mosaic eyes glorify city-dwellers and showcase their foresight and uniqueness. The colorful mosaic tiling, contrasting against the blandness of the station walls and floor, was commissioned by the MTA to introduce aesthetic appeal in one of the busiest station complexes in the city. This subterranean environment is an urban mecca; convenient transportation may be its most important asset, but the potent New Yorkers are the ones who have inspired the creation of this system, as well as many others in the city.
