By Catherine Kirkpatrick For art and urban scenery, Manhattan’s Chelsea district may be the destination of choice for visitors to New York, but with little more than a metro card and an adventurous spirit, unique visual experiences can be found all over town. One of my favorite train lines is the No. 7. Boarding at Times Square or Grand Central Station in the Queens direction, you will get a sweeping view of Manhattan as the train rises from the ground at Hunters Point, a view made even more spectacular by the drab, low-lying landscape of Long Island City. But one building stands out. Debarking from the train at Court Square and crossing Jackson Avenue, you will find yourself in front of a block long structure officially known as the 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center, unofficially as the “graffiti building.” Back in the 1970s and 80s, when almost every train, grate and wall in New York was covered with bright, sprawling illustration and personal “tags,” graffiti was seen as a visual expression of the city’s lawlessness and general decline. It was a symptom, not art. But slowly the will to improve the city hardened and coalesced into policy, and in 1984, the New York […]
