The Decider - August 2008

[Disclaimer: The following is an archive of content that was originally on another website. Originally posted August 30, 2008 - This is an excerpt of a feature in anticipation of Art On Track 2009. - to visit the original post click here. Please be aware that some press/posts do expire.]

Transit: Moving pictures

"Art on Track" exhibit brings art to mass transit

Patrick

by Steve Gillies August 30, 2008

It’s common to wait and wait for a train in the Loop, only to find that when it finally arrives, it’s the wrong train. But it’s not every day that the wrong train is actually an art exhibit.

On Saturday, Aug. 30, artist groups Salvo and Lethal Poetry will convert an eight-car Orange Line train into the Art On Track exhibit, a mobile art gallery, circling the Loop from 6-10 p.m. from its starting point at the Wabash/Adams stop. The Flat Iron Project (an artists group) will curate two cars, while the Quennect 4 Gallery, the Peter Jones Gallery, the Colibri Studio and the Silver Room will each curate a train car. Two cars of work by independent artists will also be displayed. The organizers are applying for a Guinness World Records award for the first and largest mobile art gallery, in terms of square footage and number of miles traveled.

But what does this art say about the human condition and the CTA? Will people get the metaphor of using public transportation to bring art out into the public? What separates the art on display from the art carved into the train windows or the graffiti on the walls and chairs? And if there’s a mechanical failure, will the works of art make the wait any smoother? Art provokes such meaningful questions.

[see the original screen shot archive below]

www.lethalpoetry.com