It’s easy to miss how subversive Tom Otterness’s cute bronze figures in the NYC subway really are. They’ve been crying out about wealth inequity since 2001 with direct references to 19th-century political cartoonist Thomas Nast’s imagery. This project is part of the MTA’s Arts for Transit program.
The video is made by NYC-ARTS whose most recent tumblr post is a great video of Bill Brand’s underground zoetropic masterpiece, Masstransiscope, whose installation we supported back in 1980. We posted about it here on Tumblr a few months ago.
“I loved to be able to pitch to such a hardcore New York audience down in the subway. It meant I could pull out some of my blackest humor and I’d have some takers.” - Artist Tom Otterness on ‘Life Underground’ in 14th Street/Eighth Avenue station http://youtu.be/eOJGsh76Bks
