cave drawings

2011-2012

Like most Brooklynites, I spend far too much time underground. While dwelling on the subway platforms, especially during my off-hours with only a few other people around, I have noticed that these caves are saturated with the imagery and impressions of modern America.

Where billboards once shaped opinions, there is a new apostasy. Ripped or torn former advertisements and crude graffiti create a visceral visual landscape to which I am drawn. Like an anthropologist, I am starting to discover the complex, socio-economic and personal narratives that these “cave drawings” illustrate; the many meanings we can find or imagine in the scratches, shredding and tears made without compunction in the writing and rewriting on the walls. The abstraction found in the layering of these images finds a different form of beauty than the once supercilious nature of the original advertisements. And the further away from midtown Manhattan we ride, the more quickly new ads are defaced or scathed, and the more prevalent the residue of this urban decay.