The Satin Subway Grate Rubbings

Lizzie Scott

On view: May 8 - June 6, 2004
Opening Reception: May 8, 5–8pm

This two-part project, a series of outdoors performance events and an exhibition, take an eccentric look at the aesthetic and psychological aspects of subway gratings. On the sidewalks in the four boroughs where the subway runs, the artist Lizzie Scott has rubbed the imprints of subway grates over the last six months. With a large crayon she rubs these imprints directly onto white satin fabric, and with this simple transformation of the three dimensional into the two dimensional, she creates a map of an existing space.

Abject and underfoot the grates are barely noticed; imprinted on luxurious white satin that Scott embellishes with buttons, ribbons and other trim borrowed from clothing, these pictures of the grates are transformed into a new kind of object whose function is excessive, and whose decorations are essential. These beautiful, abstract objects are both paintings of the grates and cozies for covering them.

On Saturday, May 1st at 3pm Lizzie Scott will make a rubbing outside the Eastern Parkway / Brooklyn Museum subway station. These rubbings were the subject of a New York Times “Tunnel Vision” column last October.

Lizzie Scott graduated from CalArts in 1998 and has exhibited in galleries and alternative spaces in both the US and Europe. In 2002 she was awarded a MacDowell Colony residency and is presently a participant in the Open House: Working in Brooklyn exhibition at the Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum.

The Greenwall Foundation and the MacDowell Colony generously support

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, the Greenwich Collection, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, and Humanities NY.