marc frydman

Have you seen underground artwork that appears like an animated movie when your train passes it?  I think the concept is amazing, even if they are using it for advertising in some cases, I don’t mind.  It’s clever, entertaining, and most of all, it’s art.  There are a few that I know of, one lives between WTC and Exchange Place.  I believe that another is halfway from 14th to 23rd street on the PATH train. This type of zoetrope art was created around 180 AD in China, though one of the first local pieces was done by the artist Bill Brand in 1980 when he created Masstransiscope at the Myrtle Avenue subway station.  Here is a recent video of it.

“The art you spotted makes graffiti seem old-fashioned.  Called Masstransiscope, it’s a 330-foot-long painting inside of a box outfitted with thin slits and special lighting, so the artwork looks like an animated movie when it’s seen from passing trains.”