Men at Work

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Title: Men at Work NYC
Photo Credit: Maya Barkai
Lead Artist(s):

Description:

Men At Work was unveiled on 9/11 around the construction site of World Trade Center Tower 4, and is the second installation in NYC from the Walking Men Worldwide Initiative™. The project, which depicts nearly 150 iconic figures from street signs in cities around the world, was installed along 1,000 feet of construction parapets, stretching along the southern edge of the World Trade Center construction site. In its unique location, Men At Work has become a creative tribute to the men and women that have worked diligently over the past decade to rebuild the World Trade Center. Walking Men Worldwide™ is a collection of pedestrian icons, a photographic journey that spans around the globe. The project explores various representations of the universally rendered ‘man’, and attempts to examine its inherent conundrum; why is it that while we consider these icons to be typologically identical, they appear to add such a unique character to our urban identity? These two-dimensional ‘men’, omitted of all idiosyncratic detail, repeatedly reveal themselves in multiple forms on traffic lights and street signs on every corner, as this photographic collage unveils a rich and fascinating world within the confines of a coherent, multi-lingual graphic vocabulary. The project attempts to depict international ‘working men’ figures from street signs in cities around the world, and offers a new look into their cultural presence.

PROJECT LOCATION

Vacant Lot/Buidling
Around the construction site of World Trade Center Tower 4 (Vesey-Liberty-Church-West Streets)
150 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10048
United States

click the map to enlarge
PROJECT TEAM

Alliance for Downtown New York
Silverstein Properties
Silverstein Properties
Alon Hadas Consulting, Alliance for Downtown NY Re:Construction Program
Alon Hadas, Whitney Barrat, Architect
PROJECT DETAILS

Permanent
$35,000
Private
Collage, Photography, Signage
Paper
High-res digital print on matt vinyl
2012
2013
VIDEOS

Embedded thumbnail for 2013 Public Art Network Year in Review:  Men at Work