Subway Map Floating on a New York Sidewalk Part 2 [The Work Itself]

[This is my own photo]

Last week, I gave a brief history of the artist of Subway Map Floating on a New York Sidewalk, Francoise Schien. I also mentioned that I would begin to talk about the work itself the week after. Today, I deliver my promise by starting to dig into the details of Francoise Schien's Subway Map Floating on a New York Sidewalk.


The piece measures 87 feet wide by 12 feet long. According to Art Nerd New York, in 1985 "the entire block was dug up to install this piece" (Art Nerd New York). I doubt that the entire city block in SoHo had to be torn up to install this piece, but most likely just a large part of Greene St.

The dots next to the lines are actually LED lights which come on at night, and are supposed to represent subway stations in Manhattan. (Art Nerd New York). The steel bars that are supposed to represent the subway lines themselves are half an inch wide. The map is thought to be from the period between the mid-70s and mid-80s, because some subway lines are represented that the MTA decided to retire at a later point in time. Notable is the presence of the JFK Express line that was retired in 1990, and the (RJ) train which was the predecessor of today's (R) train. [The (RJ) was an extension of today's (R) along the Nassau Street Line (J/Z) to Chambers Street] (Forgotten New York). The LED lights seem to show signs of being color coded at one point.

The project cost an estimated $30,000 to produce in the 80s, which is equivalent to about $65000 in today's money. (Inflation Calculator) All this money seemed to be worth it though, as the work won the City Art Commission award for the best work of art that year. It is assumed that the Sculptor's Guild, located in the SoHo Building which towers over the area of sidewalk in which the work is installed, had installed the piece, but no concise evidence exists of the group who had actually installed the work. (Forgotten New York)

The other boroughs are strangely missing from the "map", so the work only shows the subways in Manhattan,sadly leaving my home borough, Queens, and my home station, Flushing Main Street [at the end of the (7) line], out. Combined with the fact that it shows the subways as of the 70s and 80s (the graffiti era!), along with no route markers shown, unfortunately makes this work ineffective as an actual subway map. Still, the work gives viewers an abstract, minimalist representation of the Manhattan subway network as a whole.

Works Cited

Friedman, Morgan. "The Inflation Calculator." The Inflation Calculator. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.

"NYC’s MOST UNUSUAL SUBWAY MAP." Weblog post. Forgotten New York. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.

Zimmer, Lori. "Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk | Art Nerd New York." Art Nerd New York RSS. N.p., 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 July 2014.