In and From and Through
In and From and Through explores the capacities for art as an active lens for viewing and understanding spaces and their contexts. Using materials that allude to the history of 200 Fifth Avenue as a site, the installation cuts through the fabric of time by excavating portals from an expressive sequence of layered materials.
The foregrounding metallic curtain hearkens to the glamorous times of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The burlap behind it represents the farmhouse sited here in the 1830s, acknowledging the land preceding the city’s development.
The vitrines are painted in a deceivingly innocuous color, which is in fact a deliberate homage to Manhattan Schist, the underlying bedrock that is structurally crucial to the many tall buildings in Manhattan. In a final irony, these material pairings altogether evoke the playfulness of the building’s prior identity as the Toy Building.
The ultimate background of the installation is a mirror, presenting a vision of reality that puts the building’s current story on view through the viewer themselves: their presence, and their continuous, living now.
Standard Arts offered this platform to SUBJECT BUREAUX to engage with the environment, a collaborative effort that led to ‘In and From and Through’. Via investigation of the site, this installation endeavours to make the past tangible. The project subtly grants insight into an historical and spatial context that’s otherwise relatively invisible, in the heart of a city profusely rich with stories of its built environment – if only we were to surface and see them.
In and From and Through was commissioned by Standard Arts and brought to the public by L&L Holding Company. The Installation is on view every day until March 2023.
Installation Text by Emily Rae Pellerin.
In and From and Through explores the capacities for art as an active lens for viewing and understanding spaces and their contexts. Using materials that allude to the history of 200 Fifth Avenue as a site, the installation cuts through the fabric of time by excavating portals from an expressive sequence of layered materials.
The foregrounding metallic curtain hearkens to the glamorous times of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The burlap behind it represents the farmhouse sited here in the 1830s, acknowledging the land preceding the city’s development.
The vitrines are painted in a deceivingly innocuous color, which is in fact a deliberate homage to Manhattan Schist, the underlying bedrock that is structurally crucial to the many tall buildings in Manhattan. In a final irony, these material pairings altogether evoke the playfulness of the building’s prior identity as the Toy Building.
The ultimate background of the installation is a mirror, presenting a vision of reality that puts the building’s current story on view through the viewer themselves: their presence, and their continuous, living now.
Standard Arts offered this platform to SUBJECT BUREAUX to engage with the environment, a collaborative effort that led to ‘In and From and Through’. Via investigation of the site, this installation endeavours to make the past tangible. The project subtly grants insight into an historical and spatial context that’s otherwise relatively invisible, in the heart of a city profusely rich with stories of its built environment – if only we were to surface and see them.
In and From and Through was commissioned by Standard Arts and brought to the public by L&L Holding Company. The Installation is on view every day until March 2023.
Installation Text by Emily Rae Pellerin.