![]() ![]() Because the trains entered on tracks below ground level, the architects did not follow any of the more common architectural forms for a railway station. The ornate station was designed by McKim, Mead, and White and would be considered a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the great architectural works of New York City. Included in this program was the construction of tunnels under the North River, which enabled Pennsylvania Railroad trains to enter Manhattan directly from New Jersey for the first time. The construction of Pennsylvania Station was one part of an extensive building program undertaken in 1903 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Also known as Penn Station, it was named for the Pennsylvania Railroad, its builder, and its original tenant. Pennsylvania Station, in New York City, was built during the Golden Age of railroading when its owners intended the terminal not only to serve the specific needs of the railroad but also to embellish the city as a monumental gateway. What shape will the new Penn Station take when it comes, if it comes? And will we love it as much as the old station, which the majority of us have never personally experienced? The results are unclear, but Al-Hadid’s new mosaics keep the dream alive.Pennsylvania Railroad in Chicago, Illinois by Jack Delano, 1943. The arches of old Penn Station reference our will to recreate history by contrast, Gradiva is an expression of our collective longing for the past, which remains as elusive and ill-defined as ever. Reviewed as a diptych, each mural clarifies the other’s intention. In her subway mosaic, Al-Hadid portrays the woman as a sweeping silhouette, a ghostly penumbra that leaves a bluish cloud of smoke behind here in what appears to be a petrified forest of white trees. Here and there, Gradiva is a symbol of undefined longing, a woman trapped between the annals of time, the real and the imagined. The Roman figure was last seen as a fiberglass and steel sculpture at Al-Hadid’s 2018 exhibition inside Madison Square Park. Over the last few years, Gradiva has become a reoccurring reference in the artist’s work, which often plays with concepts of perspective, time, and space. The artist has created etch-like markings on the mosaic with thinly sliced white tiles, that reinvent the famous image of the station’s concourse as a blueprint with perspectival depth and a hint of abstraction.ĭiana Al-Hadid, “The Arc of Gradiva” (2018) (© Diana Al-Hadid, NYCT 34th Street-Penn Station, commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design, photo by Peter Kaiser)Īll these details make for a surprisingly dense historical background for a public artwork plunked into the subway system, but it’s not exactly a surprise for those who know Al-Hadid’s oeuvre. It is a palimpsest upon the wall, a reminder of former glory and a bequest for a better future. The image of the bygone transit hub emerges form a hazy cloud of grey tiles like a memory fading back into view. There is an anticipation of change in Al-Hadid’s murals, particularly for the one depicting the old Penn Station. Developers have long-predicted that construction would start in 2020, and that might happen if the $2 trillion infrastructure deal spearheaded by President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) can pass the Republican-held Senate. The $1.6 billion budget for a new station was finalized in 2017, but construction plans have stalled as financing commitments for the larger $30 billion-plus Gateway Project have floundered. It’s a far cry from our current subterranean rat’s maze constructed in the 1960s. Diana Al-Hadid, “The Arches of Old Penn Station” (2018) (© Diana Al-Hadid, NYCT 34th Street-Penn Station, commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design, photo by Peter Kaiser)Īs New York prepares to demolish the current Penn Station - one of the world’s most-despised transit hubs - the artist’s murals will remind straphangers of a bygone America that once engineered its infrastructure for ease, aesthetics, and scale. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |