For Want of a Nail

2000 81st Street–Museum of Natural History (B, C) New York City Transit

In, “For Want of a Nail,” the team of artists used a variety of materials to suggest the range and diversity of artifacts at the American Museum of Natural History, directly above the subway station. Glass mosaic, glass tile, ceramic tile, granite, and bronze relief are combined in ways that highlight the 10 key disciplines at the Museum. The mosaics represent extinct and living animals, the former in grey and the latter in color. The work assembles images from outer space to the earth's core and from the first organisms to emerge to mammals of today. The artwork was a collaboration between MTA Arts & Design and the museum. “For Want of a Nail,” the title of an old proverb, asks the viewer to consider the way everything is connected.