ASKed 100 NEW YORKERS
After moving to New York for a long time, I still haven't fallen in love with this city. Other than studying, I couldn't find a reason to stay in New York. It was full of people, but no face I was familiar with. It was extremely noisy, but no voice I could recognize. New York was irrelevant to me, the one who kept the same routine every day, all corners around.
I lived near the subway station. Most of the routes from one building to another could be underground if I wish. I had no choice but to get acquainted with the subway station — welcoming the burning-hot airstream, unstable mobile phone signals, and breathing carefully to avoid being disturbed by the strange smell that appears from time to time. Every time I got into the station, I prayed that I could find a seat on old benches. After all, there will never be enough trains during peak hours, and the train never comes on time when I'm in a hurry.
However, as the subway system with the largest number of stations in the world, the New York Subway carries an average of more than 5 million people a day on weekdays, with an annual passenger flow of 1.7 billion. How many stories have been happening here? May the calmest soul could be filled with emotions while waiting? So I asked 100 people in different New York subway stations. Who are they? What are they thinking while waiting for the train?
In this project, I designed the following sentence for passengers waiting for the subway to fill in: "I am a/an __________, I feel ____________." I also asked them to use one of the color pens I provided—red, orange, yellow, green, or blue—to draw a self-portrait. For sample diversity, I didn't only ask people who look "friendly" or "easy-going," I picked my aims randomly. But it also formed a certain resistance to complete the project. I remember one time, before asking a hobo, I felt that he might ask me to go away. Actually, before I got close to him, he yelled at me, "F ** k off!" Also, a few of the passengers doubted if I want to beg some money from them.
Finally, I questioned 100 people, and 75 of them completed the process.
EXPLORE THEIR ANSWERS ⬇️⬇️
I just wanted to learn about the city through this project firstly, but I get more than what I want, such as the moments that caused thinking and stories that lingered in my head.
First story:
At least 50 of 75 people use positive adjectives to describe their feelings, which is very different from what I expected. After all, I often have no good mood when waiting for the subway.
Second story:
In seventy-five people who completed the project, only one used the yellow pen to paint a self-portrait. I was perplexed. When I talked about my confusion with my professor, she immediately said that maybe it was because I am a "yellow". Anything about race is sensitive in the United States. Many of them would think that choosing yellow pen is disrespectful to me because I am an Asian with yellow skin. I was surprised because I never thought about this reason. Although people often use "white" and "black" to describe whites and blacks, almost no one ever uses "yellow" to describe yellows - they may use “Asians”. The term "yellow" has less sense of racism. The concept of "yellow race" is rarely used in both daily conversation and academia, and more and more people doubt its accuracy of naming and classification.
I use Google to search for "yellow race," the first page turned out like this: ➡️
In the book Becoming Yellow by Michael Keevak, an expert on European and East Asian studies, in which said that in the earliest Western narratives about China, whether it was from "The Travels of Marco Polo" or the missionaries had traveled to this realm, they all described the skin color of Chinese is white. Also, in ancient Chinese and Japanese paintings, there are no examples of using yellow pigments to represent the skin. Until the end of the nineteenth century, western racial research was introduced to East Asia, their skin "became" yellow.
Some people now believe that this is a conspiracy that uses skin color to distinguish white people from “colored people". Perhaps the color of the skin was only an inaccurate academic classify at first, but now it has become an issue of race that causes tremendous social problems.
Third story:
There was a man told me that he was a navy. His wife was a Korean, but she died in the September 11 attacks. Since then, he has believed in both Buddha and Jesus. He just bought a book, A Child's Book of Prayer in Art, from a second-hand bookstore. I felt too sad to say a word. Then he gave me that book.
Forth story:
A young woman wrote, "I am a woman, I feel powerful" on the paper. I like this sentence. It reminds me of the feminist movement in the United States and many countries in recent years. Then I think about many feminist artworks, along with the works that related to social change. It seems that a lot of artists are now playing the dual role - to be an artist and social activist at the same time. But do they have enough knowledge about the social sciences to judge it?
I once wrote in my artist statement: "My work has nothing to do with self-acceptance, gender identity, social problems, political issues, present environment, human rights, historical process, etc." It is not because I don't care about them, but because I feel any topics above need a long time to learn and truly understand; a few artworks cannot express their complex. These works, of which display stays on the very superficial level, don't have any contribution in the depth of thought to today's human problems, and some of them even don't have any exploration in artistic expression. But it could still be called "contemporary." Ironically, the big word "contemporary" is actually a "small word" that should be defined by every different region and situation. When people talk about contemporary art, we think of feminism, LGBTQ, diversity, etc., which are considered to be contemporary topics. But in some areas, these words are too far to reach. Their "contemporary" may still be reproductive worship, witchcraft, war, famine, and survival. It's hard to deny that the concept of contemporary art is only limited to our familiar environment and works, which has happened to become the target that media and market chase.
Fifth story:
A man told me he was a father of two high school boys, and he was under great pressure. He wrote: “I’m a dad, I feel drunk.”
Sixth story:
Although it has nothing to do with this project, three people complained about Trump while they were writing their feelings.
When I was sorting photos, I suddenly realized that maybe people were not telling their real feelings, but making stories. However, this is New York: people could have good stories.Thanks for sharing stories. Thank them all.
