For the following two weeks, one among New York Metropolis’s most recognizable landmarks shall be reworked into the biggest public artwork set up the town has seen in many years. Operating by October 19, Expensive New York reimagines Grand Central terminal—and the subway station beneath—as a sweeping “visible love letter” to the folks of New York.
“The final thesis is that every one of New York is the place the world comes collectively in a single place,” Brandon Stanton, the creator of the set up and the photographer behind People of New York, instructed ARTnews final week. “And there’s one thing nearly sacred about that—it’s like a microcosm, a proof of idea that humanity can get alongside even when shoved into the smallest areas.”
For the primary time in residing reminiscence, each inch of Grand Central’s promoting has been changed with artwork. Greater than 150 digital screens—sometimes reserved for industrial adverts and transit bulletins—now show hundreds of portraits and tales from People of New York’s huge archive. The set up marks the primary time the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has unified its digital shows throughout each the terminal and its subway concourse.
“This stunning artwork set up transforms the terminal right into a photographic show of New Yorkers telling their tales from all walks of life,” Mary John, MTA director of business ventures, stated in a press release. “It serves as a strong reminder of our shared humanity.”
Stanton stated his hope for the undertaking was to encourage folks to cease and really feel one thing. “I simply need to create as many of those little intersections and interventions within the lives of the folks streaming by right here,” he stated. “I can’t change anybody’s life, but when even one individual pauses and feels one thing—connection, solitude, a thought they’ve by no means had earlier than—that’s my creative objective.”
For 2 weeks, Brandon Stanton’s Expensive New York will take over Grand Central.
Taurat Hossain
On the coronary heart of Expensive New York is the collaboration between Stanton and a group of main designers and artists. Serving as artistic director of expertise, David Korins—identified for his units for Hamilton, Expensive Evan Hansen, and Immersive Van Gogh—designed an expertise meant to merge storytelling and spectacle at an unprecedented civic scale.
“We’ve deliberately captured each single sq. inch of commercial—plus a lot, rather more floor space—to not bombard folks, however to engulf them,” Korins instructed ARTnews. “We wish this to scrub over you want a meditation. For some, it’ll be a mirror; for others, a portal into deep empathy.”
Korins stated the undertaking got here collectively as a type of artistic free fall. As soon as Stanton had secured the MTA partnership, the 2 started sketching how guests may transfer by Grand Central—how the pictures, tales, and music would unfold as an expertise somewhat than a static show. From the concourse to Vanderbilt Corridor, they refined the show for emotion and stream, in what Korins described as “constructing the airplane on the best way down.”
The Essential Concourse anchors the set up, with 50-foot projections surrounding commuters and guests in a panorama of New York tales. The area options greater than 100 hours of music programmed in partnership with the Juilliard Faculty, with stay performances by college students, alumni, and school throughout classical, jazz, and historic applications. The piano within the heart of the terminal, donated by Steinway & Sons, will stay accessible all through the exhibition’s run.
Juilliard pupil Joshua Mhoon, who’s finding out for a Masters in music, places on a piano efficiency within the Grand Concourse as a part of Expensive New York.
Taurat Hossain
Three days earlier than the undertaking launch, Stanton walked me by Grand Central’s important concourse. It was an expertise in itself. As he described Expensive New York, it was straightforward to see the way it may change a straphanger’s common commute, if just for a second. Whereas we spoke, newlyweds have been being photographed only a few ft from the data sales space. The groom dipped his bride low, stared into her eyes, the prepare of her marriage ceremony robe glowing on the concourse’s terrazzo ground. A bunch of nuns pointed towards the data board. A person in a blue-and-orange dashiki with a shiny leather-based briefcase walked by talking into his earbuds. From above, the concourse will need to have appeared like an ocean thick with life. However the set up isn’t simply within the concourse—it’s all of Grand Central.
Downstairs, the subway station affords an equally bold set up designed by Andrea Trabucco-Campos, accomplice at Pentagram and artistic director of design for Expensive New York. His group labored professional bono to conceive what the MTA describes as essentially the most in depth use of bodily subway area in its historical past.
“Designing a public gallery in a spot the place 4 subway traces converge—with no actual entry or exit level—was not like something we’d carried out earlier than,” stated Trabucco-Campos. “You may’t construct a single, linear story down there. The area calls for one thing dynamic—one thing you may step into at any second and nonetheless perceive.”
Trabucco-Campos and his group at Pentagram constructed sections of the subway in 3D to grasp its scale and visible stream. They approached it like a civic experiment—mapping the corridors, photographing the “column jungle,” and making a typographic system impressed by the station’s early mosaics. The objective, he stated, was to let the pictures and tales communicate first, with the design performing as a body somewhat than a model. Each determination, from the sequencing of portraits to the rhythm of sort, was meant to protect the immediacy of People of New York whereas reworking it right into a shared, bodily expertise.
“It’s an immersive artwork set up by folks, about folks, that includes folks, and consumed by folks,” Stanton stated. “The unifying thread by all of it’s that we’re right here to heart and platform others.”
An set up shot of Expensive New York in Grand Central terminal’s Vanderbilt Corridor.
Taurat Hossain
In Vanderbilt Corridor, Expensive New York expands right into a group showcase, that includes work by rising artists alongside items from greater than 600 New York Metropolis public faculty college students. Chosen by an open name, the scholar works mirror the identical spirit of inclusivity and civic delight that outline Stanton’s undertaking.
“We’re proud to supply all of our younger artists with the area to shine and share their views by pictures and visible storytelling,” New York Metropolis Public Faculties Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos stated in a press release. “I’m glad to see our college students’ artwork celebrated by this partnership.”
Past its scale, Expensive New York additionally reimagines what public artwork will be. It’s each a cultural assertion and a philanthropic act: Stanton is donating all proceeds from his companion ebook, Expensive New York, past set up prices, to New York Metropolis charities.
In scope and ambition, Expensive New York remembers The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 transformation of Central Park—however the place The Gates turned nature right into a canvas, Stanton has made a monument out of day by day life. Each initiatives share a perception that artwork belongs to everybody, however Stanton’s model feels distinctly of this second: a citywide self-portrait rendered in pixels as a substitute of material, drawn from the faces and tales that outline the place itself.
“If it’s stunning, it gained’t be a failure,” Stanton stated. “It doesn’t matter what occurs, it is going to have been value it.”
