Elevated

2017 63rd Street (Q) New York City Transit

Jean Shin used archival photographs of the Second and Third Avenue elevated train to create compositions in ceramic tile, glass mosaic, and laminated glass. The imagery is manipulated and re-configured with each station level having its own focus, palette, and material. As one enters and descends the Third Avenue escalator, the view is filled with ceramic tile depicting construction beams and the cranes that dismantled the El in the 1940s. At the mezzanine, a mosaic reveals the sky where the train had previously been present, and people from that era of neighborhood transformation. The platform level features semi-transparent and reflective glass depicting vintage scenes of the neighborhood, enabling contemporary viewers to see themselves in the cityscape of the past.