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Writer and artist Enzo Scavone has found a great way to spend his time waiting for his train: discovering found art in the oddities that litter the tracks and stations of the NYC subway. Subway Stories, his website, is “a curious collection of things found going to, being on, or coming from the subway in New York city.” Scavone then uses each piece as a writing prompt, strictly keeping himself to exactly 160 characters for each story.
“Duck and Monkey” via Subway Stories
These range from internal monologues for the object, fictional dialogues by the former owner, short narratives about the object or how it found its current resting place, to flash poems spurred by the photograph.
“Old Brooklyn” via Subway Stories
Some of the most intriguing stories are actually those about people. Interspersed with a discarded toy or vandalized sign are videos depicting the various characters that ride the trains with us daily, which give a very human element to the found art throughout the collection. In that way, it strikes a similar chord as Zoonzin Lee’s Little Lost project.
“Hyperbole” via Subway Stories
Scavone’s project asks the observer to reevaluate not only what they see in NYC subways, but also the people within them and what objects they value. It is not a new idea for art to ask how material things define human beings, but Scavone goes further, asking us to define those strangers in the subway as people with objects that illustrate their hopes, anxieties, fears and needs.
“Michelob Ultra Ad” via Subway Stories
You can submit your own subway findings to newyosubsto@gmail.com.
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