Many artists strive for fame, hoping that the public will see their pieces, that their works will be in exhibits all over and that they will be able to sell their work. That’s why this article in the New York Times was so fascinating to me. Unbeknownst to the public, there is actually an underground art “gallery” in an abandoned subway station. According to the article, “the only people with a chance of stumbling across it are the urban explorers who prowl the city’s hidden infrastructure or employees of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority”. In fact, this whole “art gallery” has been put together illegally. The curators remained nameless in the article, scared that if identified, they would face some sort of prosecution.
“PAC”, a street artist, stumbled upon this abandoned subway station that had not been completely built. He said he used to spend hours there admiring the architecture and enjoying the “solitude of being underground”. He later met “Workhouse”, who focuses his art on abandoned spaces, and somehow the two came up with the idea to turn this subway station into a giant work of art. The parters feared the illegality of their actions but, as Workhouse said, “There is a certain type of person that the urban art movement has bred that enjoys the adventure as much as the art. Where else do you see a creative person risking themselves legally, financially, physically and creatively?”.
Over time, the two artists found other street artists to contribute to their giant project. They felt that working in private and not aiming for an audience really allowed them to express themselves and recapture the good feelings they had about creating art, rather than worry about the marketplace. While this was all extremely risky, it makes sense to me. These artists were doing this for their own pleasure, not aiming to get public approval. If I were in their shoes, I would be scared of the punishments that would await me if I did get caught; but at the same time, I can understand how the risk can give a thrill.
The article is pretty long but I think it’s worth reading. I liked the story behind this whole project of creating the underground art gallery. I have no idea how this reporter learned about it and got to interview the creators, but I enjoyed learning about it, and if there was some non-dangerous, non-illegal way of getting down there to see this “exhibit” I think it would be interesting to see.
For some reason, I’m having difficulty getting the photos to cooperate with me and go in the post, so here’s a link to a slide show of some underground work, and some of the artists working on it 🙂 PICTURES
This whole idea sounds really cool to me, especially being a person who loves urban art. Even though this is not graffiti, for some reason, it reminded me of it. Although, it may be considered as a very high level of graffiti. I also would love to be able to see this in person, it definitely would be a sight to see.
I have to say I am a bit uneasy about the security risk. If these slackers could find their way into this spot to paint for four hours at a time, this represents a troubling vulnerability in the subway system.
Beyond that, it made me think of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Society for Private Musical Performances.” This was a society in Vienna from 1919 – 1921. They gave over 100 concerts of new and difficult music, in carefully rehearsed performances. Critics were not allowed to attend, there was no discussion, and no applause was permitted. The music was shared among interested professionals in much the same way as the art in this project (OK, until the point where the pictures are in the NY times, anyway). I don’t think Arnold Schoenberg is the exact model of “urban artist” these young painters had in mind…