Animal art in the subway

Image: Model of a fish at the Whitehall R Station

Check out our newest Flickr photoset: a collection of animal art at subway stations. 

The model of a fish at the Whitehall R Station - shown above - is part of Passages by Frank Giorgini installed in 2000.

For the restoration of the Whitehall Street subway station, Frank Giorgioni designed elements in ceramic, stone and metal to blend with the historic fabric of the station, such as the original bands of mosaic tile work. The cityscape begin at the entrance of the station with a view of the city today and then travel backward through time, through the age of steamships, a montage of New Amsterdam, the arrival of the first settlers, and finally the era before European settlement, with Native American canoes and a marshland of flora and fauna. In another area, schools of fish are seen, in both two- and three-dimensional form, accompanying a mosaic of sea and sky. Railings in the area are in the form of cattails, capping Giorgioni's homage to the past.