Janet Zweig P
Title: If You Lived Here You'd be Home
Medium: Mosaic Tiles
Location: The Maplewood Station of the St. Louis Light Rail
As "We drive into the future using only our rear view mirror." - Marshall McLuhan, 1967
In Maplewood, there is nostalgia for the past alongside new development. People are looking forward and looking back - both impulses are compatible there. The artwork consists of two 28-foot long words on either side of the overpass: one forward, one backward. The letterforms were constructed from materials taken from two Maplewood houses demolished in 2006. On the south side " MAPLEWOOD " is backwards, using the original house materials. On the other side " MAPLEWOOD " is written forwards: the materials from the demolished houses were renovated for the future. People driving into Maplewood see the forward word. They can read the word on the other side in their rear-view mirrors, as if seeing an illusionistic image of Maplewood 's past.
Janet Zweig is an artist who makes public art, sculpture, and visual books. Her sculpture and books have been exhibited widely in such places as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Exit Art, PS1 Museum, the Walker Art Center, and Cooper Union. Her most recently installed public works include a 1200' frieze at the Prince Street subway station for New York's Arts for Transit, two sculptures for a bridge in St. Louis, and a system-wide interactive project for the Light Rail train stations in Minneapolis which incorporates the work of over a hundred Minnesotans. She has installed public artworks at the University of Minnesota, in Santa Fe for New Mexico Arts, and in the Bronx for New York 's Percent for Art. She is currently working on public projects for Seattle, Santa Monica, Milwaukee, Queens, NY, and Huntington, L.I. She has won numerous awards including the Rome Prize Fellowship and two NEA fellowships, as well as residencies at PS1 Museum and the MacDowell Colony. She has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design since 1982 and at Yale University from 1991 to 2000. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Janet Zweig |
