Midtown
Rust
We all look at maps to find out
where we’re headed—today, they’re just digital maps on phones with
high-definition technology. In a place like New York City, even the simplistic
grid pattern becomes overwhelming at times. Looking at the grid on a piece of
paper is a waste of time when a pulsing blue dot can lead someone straight to a
coffee shop a few blocks away. Have we lost the charm of a map? Have we lost
the importance of memory?
Barbara Macfarlane painted Midtown Rust in 2014 with a map in mind.
The work is temporarily housed in The Children’s Museum of the Arts in the West
Village of Manhattan. The piece is one of two in this series (the other being Pink Midtown, also made in 2014). The
piece is simple: a thirty-two-block chunk right out of the grid in midtown. The
blocks are not detailed, just swipes of mostly grey paint with a block here and
there, colored by varying shades of a deep orangey-red. The piece is striking
in simplicity and precision even though the blocks do not perfectly emulate the
clean-cut rectangles that section off the streets of New York. This is one of
Macfarlane’s characteristic techniques: she completes the broad strokes and
bold lines of each piece entirely in one sitting. Typically the art resembles
an urban area or a bird’s eye view of a river that runs through a city as in
Paris, France.
Most artists begin their painting with a
sketch to map out the piece. Macfarlane started this project by making her own
paper. This process involves taking various scraps of paper, soaking them, and beating
the mixture. Then adding starch and draining the water forms a new piece of
paper by laying the pulp out flat and letting it dry. The foundation of the
painting was then laid for the rest of the work to develop. Next, Macfarlane
strung together her haphazardly handwritten street labels to resemble the grid.
A map with few details offers little help
to a wanderer, but opens up the opportunity for a journey. While sitting in
front of the painting, I was transported to each of the locations noted. Maybe
the section of Midtown takes on a specific meaning for me since I lived there
for a time, but I could place at least a few details on most of the streets. I
knew where the Herald Towers stood tall over 34th Street, so small
in the shadow of the Empire State Building on the opposite corner of the block.
Walk just North on Sixth Avenue and you will pass storefronts teeming with
costume jewelry and kitschy “New York” souvenirs. Eventually you reach Bryant
Park around 40th Street. If you’re lucky it will be close to
Christmas and the Ice Skating rink will serenade you with holiday music and
shops ready to sell a cup of fresh hot chocolate.
Not one of those details shows up on the
handcrafted paper or in the dollops of slate grey or rust. They sit like
placeholders with little importance other than the fact that the streets come
from one of the most popular cities in the world. Though the map is accurate
and complete, the piece offers the viewer an open space to walk around. Maybe
someone could discover something on a street that they have never seen before.
Someone might even try to make a map from memory. Midtown Rust invites the reader to walk down Broadway from 52nd
Street to 20th Street just to see what you will find.
