Railroad Eraser was a site-specific installation painted onto existing structural elements along the decommissioned Montauk Cutoff in Long Island City, Queens.
This temporary installation reminds us all of the Highline — before it was the Highline — but encourages us to appreciate the unique urban character hidden within our decommissioned landscapes, as places to encourage accidental discovery and share nuanced glimpses into our history — as an alternative to large-scale erasure and redevelopment.
“Railroad Eraser is a gesture to demonstrate the ability of art to (re)connect us with lesser appreciated landscapes…and to continue to encourage curiosity and celebrate discovery throughout our city. There is spirit which is being lost in our city and Railroad Eraser challenges any aspirations for the future that require us to circumvent the past or present…and questions any motivations to normalize our experiences in a city that prides itself on the opposite”
Railroad Eraser is part of an ongoing series of installations to encourage unrestricted interaction with art (and our city) that is not rooted in superficial nostalgia. The installation challenges the ongoing erasure of our city’s developmental past and deliberately applies the color of absence (white) to provide clean contrast to the aesthetic of decommissioned infrastructure.
For more information see project press in Untapped New York.
